Barbara Willaarts
Senior Research Scholar
Water Security Research Group
Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program
Biography
Barbara Willaarts is a researcher in the Water Security Research Group of the IIASA Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program. Born in Spain and originally from The Netherlands, she has 16 years of research experience. Her research is driven by two main principles: one is collaborative and interdisciplinary research aiming to understand complex problems and find joint solutions to support the development of pathways to sustainability; and the other is impact-oriented research in- and beyond academia to enhance the social and policy relevance of science and her research in particular. Her work covers a broad range of topics relevant to water and food sustainability transitions. It also benefits from an international reach through geographical settings ranging from Europe to Latin America, and more recently, Africa and Asia.Her PhD work provided her with a solid understanding of quantitative approaches and integrated modeling. In her post-doc, she built on this applied scientific basis to bring this expertise into her work on governance research, a crucial step on the pathway to any transition to sustainability. As part of her interest in enhancing the social impact of science, she has also devoted substantial efforts to research approaches for stakeholder engagement to address complex sustainability challenges.
Outside of the lab, she dedicates her time to ensuring the availability of scientific knowledge to all relevant stakeholders, including policymakers to support informed decision-making, the next generation of scientists through teaching, and the public through engagement on social media.
Last update: 03 FEB 2022
Publications
Hinton, R., Fridman, D. , Smilovic, M. , Willaarts, B.A. , Chunga, B., Banda, L., Macleod, K., Troldborg, M., & Kalin, R. (2025). Stakeholder-informed approach improves national modelling of water resources for a Sub-Saharan African basin. Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies 60 e102574. 10.1016/j.ejrh.2025.102574.
Su, H., Foster, T., Hogeboom, R.J., Luna-Gonzalez, D.V., Mialyk, O., Willaarts, B. , Wang, Y., & Krol, M.S. (2025). Nutrient production, water consumption, and stresses of large-scale versus small-scale agriculture: A global comparative analysis based on a gridded crop model. Global Food Security 45 e100844. 10.1016/j.gfs.2025.100844.
Artuso, S., Burek, P. , Catania, C., García Márquez, J., Politti, E., Rotaru, S., Tramberend, S. , Willaarts, B. , & Kahil, T. (2025). From Vision to Action: Co-identifying a Safe Water Operating Space for the Danube basin. IIASA Report. Laxenburg, Austria: IIASA
Willaarts, B. , Campo, P., Magnuszewski, P., Odume, N., Clifford-Holmes, J., Palmer, T., Murata, C., Barreteau, O., Bonte, N., Guillermit, J., Dione, B., Diouf, S., & Lo, H.M. (2024). SDG pathfinding methodological framework: Participatory Approach to Localise the Sustainable Development Agenda. Belmont Forum Project Report “SDG Pathfinding: Co-creating pathways to sustainable development in Africa”. IIASA , Laxenburg, Austria.
Palazzo, A. , Kahil, T. , Willaarts, B. , Burek, P. , van Dijk, M. , Tang, T. , Magnuszewski, P., Havlík, P. , Langan, S. , & Wada, Y. (2024). Assessing sustainable development pathways for water, food, and energy security in a transboundary river basin. Environmental Development 51 e101030. 10.1016/j.envdev.2024.101030.