Diana Nenz (Dipl.-Ing., Dist.). is a graduate of the Institute of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at the TU Berlin. She joined the Centre in 2014 to pursue her PhD research on the topic „The influence of risk perceptions in decision-making on resilient water infrastructure“. Currently, she is working for the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) in Berlin.
She is a member of Fitzwilliam College.
Email: dn319@cam.ac.uk
She has been working on international development projects on water resources management and development in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, EU, and Asia. Her focus has been on regional and local cooperation processes advising on policy and strategy development. An important part of her work has been supporting decision-making processes in multi-stakeholder situations by designing and implementing dialogue processes, developing targeted knowledge products, and specific training programmes. She has been working with the think tank adelphi, the German cooperation for international development (GIZ) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
In her PhD she analyses the perception of underlying risks in decision making on joint infrastructure projects and how this influences opportunities for resilience. During her work she became increasingly aware of the implementation challenges and barriers to achieve resilient water resources planning and management, but also recognised the complex decision-making setting stakeholders are confronted with. Yet, the cultural setting of a process has a significant influence. She looks at the differences between stakeholders’ perception of risks and interpretation of ‘opportunity spaces’ in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary settings.
Diana Nenz completed an Engineering degree on the subject of international environmental planning at the TU Berlin. She also studied international environment policy at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and international water policy for transboundary water resources at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. She complemented her main studies through technical further training in geo-information technology with a focus on mapping and surveying.
Diana has been awarded a research grant be the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and travel funds from her College.
