Jaco de Smit

Jaco de Smit is a physical geographer and ecologist with a specialization in biophysical interaction and morphology of coastal ecosystems.

In 2016 he graduated as a physical geographer in the direction of hydrodynamics and sediment transport of river- and coastal systems at Utrecht University. He did his PhD-research at the NIOZ in Yerseke. His PhD-project was aimed at 1) quantifying of the effects of vegetation and benthos on sediment stability, and 2) the extrapolation thereof to be able to predict ecosystem stability. For this research he used a combination of innovative experiments using field flumes and the analysis and extrapolation of large hydrodynamic datasets such as waves, currents and tides. After his PhD Jaco stayed at the NIOZ as a Postdoc studying dislodgement risk of commercial mussel beds in the Wadden Sea.
In 2022 Jaco joined the Building with Nature group as researcher-lecturer, and since 2023 he is coordinator. He works on a large variety of research projects, for example ecological field studies on seaweeds, measuring and modelling currents and waves, GIS research on bird foraging suitability, and research on the implementation of Building with Nature measures.