PhD: Urban-Ocean Nexus: Towards Developing Inclusive, Resilient Blue Economy

Position: PhD: The Urban-Ocean Nexus: Towards Developing Inclusive, Resilient Blue Economy
PhD:
The Urban-Ocean Nexus:
Towards Developing Inclusive, Resilient Blue Economy  Faculty:
Faculty of Geosciences Department:
Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning Hours per week: 36 to 40 Final date to receive applications: 28 February 2026
The Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning has its focus on the enhancement of long-term socio-economic developments of cities, how to cope with social inequalities, and how to accelerate sustainability transitions of cities and infrastructures. Research on these topics takes place within our research program “Urban Futures:
Transitions Towards Economic and Social Sustainability for Cities”.
In this programme, faculty members from different sub disciplines of human geography and spatial planning – urban and economic geographies, international development studies and spatial planning – work closely together on topics like governance of urban transitions, urban infrastructures, healthy urban living, urban inequalities and diversities, transnational mobilities, economic resilience and networks and flows in and between urban regions.
For our  NWO Cooperation Indonesia - Netherlands Merian Fund project “The Urban-Ocean Nexus:
Towards Developing Inclusive, Resilient, and Sustainable Blue Economy in Indonesia and the Netherlands”  at the International Development Studies (IDS) group, we are looking for a PhD candidate.
The project background
The blue economy is increasingly vital for maritime countries such as Indonesia and the Netherlands. The ocean supports diverse functions, including biodiversity conservation, carbon sink, energy production, fisheries, aquaculture, transportation, and tourism. Proponents emphasize the benefits of a diversified blue economy for achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Critics, however, contend that the blue economy leads to new territorial and resource conflicts, displacements of coastal communities, and degradation of ecosystems because of the increased infrastructure development.

Both arguments fail to recognize that maritime countries such as Indonesia and the Netherlands have been urbanizing, with blue economy development and urbanization processes intricately linked, co-shaping urban and blue frontiers in the coastal and offshore spaces.
As urbanization expands the seaward frontier of infrastructure development and blue economy development causes landward flows of materials and people, this project conceptualizesa novel, ‘urban-ocean’ nexus to assess the impacts of the urban and blue frontier development and to align marine spatial planning and urban planning in coastal and offshore areas. Specifically, the project applies this urban-ocean nexus to coastal and offshore areas of the Makassar Strait in Kalimantan in Indonesia and the North Sea off the Netherlands’ coast.

The overall objectives of the project include: (1) to map and assess seaward and landward impacts of urban and blue infrastructure development on coastal and marine environments and territories; (2) to develop and apply a practical model to address the impacts and establish synergies between marine spatial planning and urban planning; and (3) to create a platform of co-creation and exchange of knowledge and experiences betweenresearchers, students, and practitioners to design desirable urban and ocean governance arrangements.
Through an inter-and-transdisciplinary approach and based on a well-established Indonesian-Dutchresearch consortium, this project contributes to multiple SDGs while advancing the Indonesian Vision 2045 and Blue Economy Roadmaps of Indonesia and the Netherlands. Within this Urban-Ocean Nexus project, the PhD candidate will conduct in-depth comparative research on the urban-ocean relationships in Indonesia and the Netherlands, with a particular focus on the planetary health of various interconnected groups of people and natural and infrastructural landscapes in coastal and off-shore spaces.

The PhD candidate is also expected to engage in creative methods leading to visualization of human and environmental health hazards and everyday experiences.
The PhD research is embedded in the IDS group at Utrecht…