Johannes Cornelis “Co” Verdaas keynote speaker
- Flooding and Weather Extremes
- Maintaining Supplies of Fresh Water
- Solving Traffic Problems
- Urban Planning
- Urban Transport and Planning
Co Verdaas is a Dutch politician of the Labour Party. He served as State Secretary for the Ministry of Economic Affairs, dealing with agriculture, nature, food quality, tourism and postal affairs in the Cabinet Rutte II.
Johannes Cornelis "Co" Verdaas was appointed government commissioner for the National Delta Programme in December 2023. As an independent government commissioner, he monitors the progress of the National Delta Programme in which government authorities and knowledge institutes work with stakeholder organisations and business to protect the Netherlands in the long term from flooding and weather extremes, and to maintain adequate supplies of fresh water.
Co Verdaas has worked at the interface of spatial development, science and governance for more than 25 years. His employers have included the University of Wageningen, the municipal authority of Zwolle and the SWZ housing corporation.
He is also part-time Professor of Area Development at Delft University of Technology.
Verdaas studied planology at Radboud University in Nijmegen, where he completed his doctorate "Plans won’t be planned", a study of the functioning of the planning system in the Netherlands.He developed the so-called Ladder of Verdaas, a system for solving traffic problems.
Besides, he is singer and guitarist in the rock band John-Boy & The Waltons.
