Koster, Kay

I am geoscientist specialized in the study of human-induced land subsidence in the Netherlands, affiliated to the Dutch research institute TNO, which comprises our national geological survey. In this role, I typically operate on the intersection between academics, industry, and government. My main specialism is human-induced subsidence in shallow soft soils, primarily peat-rich areas within the coastal plain of the Netherlands. However, I am highly interested new frontiers of land subsidence, and therefore involved in developing new methodologies, identifying new sources of subsidence, and studying the effects of subsidence on the built environment. This is exemplified by current research projects, which comprises a.o. disentangling of shallow soft soil related subsidence from deep subsidence by hydrocarbon extraction, studying the effects of shallow heat storage on subsidence in urban areas, linking subsidence to building damage, and deploying geophysics to quantify subsidence processes induced by drought. Furthermore, I operate as a business-to-business consultant regarding subsidence prone infrastructural works of major Dutch gas pipeline- and railway companies. I obtained my B.Sc. (2010) and M.Sc. (2012) in Earth Sciences from VU University Amsterdam. I received my Ph.D. (2017) in Physical Geography from Utrecht University, in collaboration with TNO.