Dr. Koen Verbist is a Programme Specialist working at the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP) at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, where he is responsible for the supporting research programmes on Hydrological Systems, Climate Change and Adaptation, as well as supporting the implementation of the International Sediment Initiative (ISI) and the G-WADI Flagship Programme on water resources management in arid and semi-arid regions.

He has a background in soil erosion, sediment modelling and land restoration and obtained his PhD in 2011 at Ghent University, Belgium, on the improvement of water harvesting systems in drylands of Chile. He has co-authored several UNESCO publications on these topics, and has over 25 scientific papers in international journals, several related to soil erosion and land management.

He can be contacted via k.verbist@unesco.org and is active on Linked-in and Research Gate.