Sean Vrielink

Sean Vrielink is a lecturer in disaster risk reduction, green infrastructure, and energy at the department of Civil Engineering and Management at the University of Twente, and a member of the Dutch national committee on climate adaptation for NEN norms. 

Sean received their B.Sc. degree from University College in Utrecht, and a subsequent M.Sc. degree in environmental sciences and Honors Program at Radboud University Nijmegen. Sean further received their Ph.D. degree in disaster management at the national Graduate Research Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo, Japan, focusing on vulnerable people and flood risk management policies.

Sean investigates how urban green infrastructure can increase resilience against natural hazards. Specifically, Sean quantifies the effects of urban green infrastructure regarding heat stress and how greening for coolness can create more livable cities. A long term comparative research setup is developed at the living innovation lab (field lab) at the UT to test the performance of different types of green roofs and green walls on reducing climate pressures (https://www.utwente.nl/en/utfieldlab/). 

About the talk: natural hazards and risks

We take a journey through time from the past, the now, and the future to get better insights on how disaster risk is calculated. This covers the biases of global disaster data, mortality ratios, understanding risks, and acceptable consequences of future scenarios.