Christian Siderius

Christian Siderius was a Research Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute. He studies people’s adaptation strategies to climate variability and uncertainty, applying economic concepts like flexibility and diversification. He works with Declan Conway on the El Nina project, studying the impact of this years’ El Nina on SMEs in Central and Southern Africa, and on the UMFULA project which focuses on decision making under uncertainty in the same region. Christian also manages a Kuwait Programme Research Grant project on ‘Understanding the Changing Water-Energy-Food Nexus in Kuwait and the Gulf Region’ .
Background
Christian holds a Masters degree in hydrology from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and a PhD degree in environmental economics from the same university. His doctoral thesis focuses on flexibility in land and water use for coping with rainfall variability.
Over the past 10 years, Christian worked for various large climate and water related research projects, focusing mainly on East Africa and South Asia.
Next to the Grantham institute he remains connected to Alterra, one of the main research institutes of Wageningen UR.
Research interests
- Adaptation
- Decision making under uncertainty
- Water resources allocation
- Hydro-economic modelling
- Food security
- Coping with climate variability
Research
Research - 2021
Abstract Uncertainty in long-term projections of future climate can be substantial and presents a major challenge to climate change adaptation... Read more

Research - 2020
We quantify the heavily oil-dominated WEF nexus in three Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia) across... Read more

Many river basins in the Global South are undergoing rapid development with major implications for the interdependent water‐energy‐food‐environmental (WEFE) “nexus”... Read more

Research - 2019
Economic challenges as a result of the recent fluctuations in oil prices have exposed unprecedented risks to Kuwait and the... Read more

Achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in the context of a rapidly changing climate and demographics is one... Read more

The faster melting of glaciers in the Himalayas in recent years will affect the crop production and livelihoods of around 129 million farmers who depend on meltwater from these glaciers, according to this paper published in Nature Sustainability. Read more

This paper presents an assessment of exposure to outdoor heat in the South Asian cities Delhi, Dhaka, and Faisalabad. Read more

Research - 2018
The El Niño event in 2015/2016 was one of the strongest since at least 1950. Through surveys and interviews with... Read more

Rapid advances in global hydrological model (GHM) resolution, model features, and in situ and remotely sensed datasets are driving progress... Read more

In a warming world an increasing number of people are being exposed to heat, making a comfortable thermal environment an... Read more

The 2015/2016 El Niño was one of the three most severe on record. El Niño is commonly linked to droughts... Read more

Research - 2016
Biemans, H., Siderius, C., Mishra, A., and Ahmad, B. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 1971-1982, doi:10.5194/hess-20-1971-2016, 2016. Read more

Siderius, C., Van Walsum, P.E.V., Roest, C.W.J., Smit, A.A.M.F.R., Hellegers, P.J.G.J., Kabat, P. and Van Ierland, E.C. (2016) The role... Read more

Christian Siderius, Hester Biemans, Paul E. V. van Walsum, Ekko C. van Ierland, Pavel Kabat and Petra J. G. J.... Read more

Policy
Policy - 2019
Climate change will lead to increases in the occurrence of chronic heat exposure over longer durations and there is an urgent need to focus on managing the risks this poses, as well as the immediate risks from shorter-lived heat events. This policy brief looks at the problem with a focus on developing and emerging economies, and provides recommendations for action by government, utilities, property developers and investors, development support and finance organisations. Read more

This brief introduces the concept of climate information and reasons for its use in major decisions about water, energy and agriculture, including new infrastructure investments. Read more

Policy - 2017
This brief provides an overview of future climate change in Malawi, using results from the latest available climate model simulations.... Read more

Events
News
News - 2020
There are two dimensions to understanding the WEF nexus: quantifying the physical links between each element, and unravelling the management and governance structures involved. Declan Conway and Christian Siderius explain, drawing on their work in the Arabian Gulf and Tanzania. Read more

News - 2019
Understanding the connections between water use, and energy and food production can help us address some of challenges posed by climate change. Read more

News - 2016
A new Grantham Research Institute project is exploring the impact of El Niño and La Niña events on small-and medium-sized enterprises in Africa. Read more
