Rutger De Graaf
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Rutger De Graaf Email & Phone Number

Co-Founder and Managing Director, Blue21 Group at Blue21
Location: Delft, South Holland, Netherlands 16 work roles 2 schools
1 work email found @deltasync.nl LinkedIn matched
✓ Verified July 2026 4 data sources Profile completeness 100%

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Role
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Blue21 Group
Location
Delft, South Holland, Netherlands
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Who is Rutger De Graaf? Overview

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Quick answer

Rutger De Graaf is listed as Co-Founder and Managing Director, Blue21 Group at Blue21, a with 10 employees, based in Delft, South Holland, Netherlands. AeroLeads shows a work email signal at deltasync.nl and a matched LinkedIn profile for Rutger De Graaf.

Rutger De Graaf previously worked as Co-Founder and Director at Blue21 and Co-founder & WP-Leader for Action Research at Floating Future Research Project. Rutger De Graaf holds Phd (Cum Laude), Urban Water Management from Delft University Of Technology.

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rdegraaf@deltasync.nl
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Profile bio

About Rutger De Graaf

Rutger de Graaf-van Dinther is a visionary entrepreneur and researcher specializing in water management and floating urbanization. With a background in civil engineering and a passion for sustainable urban development, Rutger has been at the forefront of innovative solutions for building on water, addressing the challenges of climate resilience and urban growth.As co-founder and director of Blue21 (2015–present), Rutger spearheads global advancements in floating infrastructure, following his earlier entrepreneurial success with DeltaSync (2007) and Indymo (2015–present). His projects include the Floating Pavilion Rotterdam (2010), cited by the IPCC as a transformative climate adaptation model, and the Bluelands Floating Platform prototype (2023) at TU Delft’s Green Village.Rutger’s research credentials are equally impressive, with an MSc (2005) and PhD (2009) in Civil Engineering from Delft University of Technology, both completed cum laude. He served as Applied Research Professor on adaptive urban development at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (2011–2021) and co-initiated the Floating Future Research Project, securing €5.3M from the Dutch Research Council (2023).Beyond academia and entrepreneurship, Rutger co-founded the Blue Revolution Foundation (2013) to promote interdisciplinary research on floating solutions and the Thinktank on Floating Urban Development (2017) to address governance challenges.A prolific author and speaker, Rutger has delivered keynotes and invited lectures on five continents, contributed to over 30 publications, and featured in global media outlets like The New York Times, BBC, and Financial Times. His work continues to shape the future of sustainable urbanization worldwide.

Listed skills include Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Water Management, Climate Change, and 22 others.

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Rutger De Graaf's current company

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Blue21
Blue21
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Blue21 Group
Delft, ZH, NL
Website
Employees
10
AeroLeads page
16 roles · 12 years

Rutger De Graaf work experience

A career timeline built from the work history available for this profile.

Co-Founder And Managing Director, Blue21 Group

Delft, Zh, Nl

Co-Founder And Director

Current

Rotterdam Area, Netherlands

Blue21 is a global knowledge leader for the design, technology and realization of climate resilient floating projects. Based in Delft, the Netherlands, Blue21 has the mission to realize floating cities with a positive social and ecological impact on the planet. Floating city technology addresses many urgent global challenges such as climate change, urbanization, and land scarcity. In the company, a unique collaboration has been established between architects, urban designers, water managers… Show more Blue21 is a global knowledge leader for the design, technology and realization of climate resilient floating projects. Based in Delft, the Netherlands, Blue21 has the mission to realize floating cities with a positive social and ecological impact on the planet. Floating city technology addresses many urgent global challenges such as climate change, urbanization, and land scarcity. In the company, a unique collaboration has been established between architects, urban designers, water managers, civil engineers, and maritime engineers. A strong link to governance, legal and social expertise is made through participating in the Thinktank Governance of Floating Cities. Blue21 has an international client base including the USA, China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and various countries from Europe. The founder’s team of Blue21 has been involved in the design, engineering, and realization of iconic floating projects such as the Floating Pavilion in Rotterdam, the Floating Ecohomes in Harnaschpolder, Delft and more recently, the INNOZOWA floating solar project. Show less

Aug 2015 - Present

Co-Founder & Wp-Leader For Action Research

Current

Delft, Zuid-Holland, Nederland

Participatory Action Research (PAR) (WP 4) is the unique central ‘integration engine’ of Floating Future where the scientific disciplines Governance (WP 1), Technology (WP 2) and Ecology (WP 3) and the societal stakeholders come together to co-create innovative knowledge with the researchers. PAR is a method not only to advance scientific knowledge with societal stakeholders, but also to achieve practical objectives such as improving practice. In Floating Future this is done by participating in… Show more Participatory Action Research (PAR) (WP 4) is the unique central ‘integration engine’ of Floating Future where the scientific disciplines Governance (WP 1), Technology (WP 2) and Ecology (WP 3) and the societal stakeholders come together to co-create innovative knowledge with the researchers. PAR is a method not only to advance scientific knowledge with societal stakeholders, but also to achieve practical objectives such as improving practice. In Floating Future this is done by participating in concrete case studies around the three study focus areas of the research: Inland, Coastal port city and Offshore. One of the Action Research methods that is applied in Floating Future is Climate Café, a unique and proven method for collaborative learning and co-creation at exciting case study field locations. Other WP 4 co-creation instruments include governance thinktank meetings, interactive design workshops, VR simulations and investors’ roundtables. Show less

Jan 2024 - Present

Co-Founder And Chairman

Current

Delft, South Holland, Netherlands

The objectives of Stichting Blue Revolution Foundation (https://bluerevolution.org) are:- Creating a global awareness of the urgency and possibility of using the water surface for food supply and urbanization.- Developing and commissioning a research agenda for the realization of floating projects and floating cities.- Promoting research for the development of floating cities.https://bluerevolution.org/

May 2021 - Present

Co-Founder Thinktank Governance Of Floating Cities

Current

Delft, South Holland, Netherlands

The Thinktank Governance of Floating Cities is the main activity of Stichting Blue Revolution Foundation and consists of an interdisciplinary group of leading experts. The group meets regularly. The main objective of the Thinktank is to build insights related to the necessary governance and societal implementation mechanisms to realize floating cities. The contribution of the Thinktank mainly consist of a reflection on the social, legal and administrative feasibility of floating developments… Show more The Thinktank Governance of Floating Cities is the main activity of Stichting Blue Revolution Foundation and consists of an interdisciplinary group of leading experts. The group meets regularly. The main objective of the Thinktank is to build insights related to the necessary governance and societal implementation mechanisms to realize floating cities. The contribution of the Thinktank mainly consist of a reflection on the social, legal and administrative feasibility of floating developments, the assessment of the social relevance of research questions of floating projects and the exploration of the potential of large-scale social and scientific breakthroughs. Show less

Aug 2017 - Present

Co-Initiator Of The Floating Future National Research Initiative

Floating Future is a research project initiated together with the Maritime Research Institute the Netherlands (MARIN) in collaboration with more than 40 universities, research institutes, government agencies, companies and NGOs. The project has received funding in the fourth round of the Dutch Research Agenda programme Research along Routes by Consortia (NWA-ORC) by the Dutch National Research Council NWO in 2023. The main objective of the Floating Future project is: “Understanding how… Show more Floating Future is a research project initiated together with the Maritime Research Institute the Netherlands (MARIN) in collaboration with more than 40 universities, research institutes, government agencies, companies and NGOs. The project has received funding in the fourth round of the Dutch Research Agenda programme Research along Routes by Consortia (NWA-ORC) by the Dutch National Research Council NWO in 2023. The main objective of the Floating Future project is: “Understanding how upscaling of floating structures could offer a viable and climate-proof solution for space limitations in the Dutch Delta: an interdisciplinary study to enable the upscaling of floating structures for societal, industrial and ecological win-wins.” Floating developments can be designed to be resilient to sea level rise and can be flexibly relocated. Unique is that we will achieve the project objective with interdisciplinary research linked to industry and societal partners. The work will be divided in three clusters addressing governance, technology, ecology, which relate to interdisciplinary questions. Researchers will collaborate with experienced societal partners to tackle the challenges. Next to scientific output, this will deliver an integrated vision, policy guidelines, design guidelines, project proposals and an inventory of the required resources and milestones to implement the Floating Future in the Dutch delta. Consequently, this project will deliver key insights in the required governance, financial and economic capabilities to realize climate proof floating islands with a positive ecological impact. Show less

Jan 2020 - May 2024

Co-Chair And Key-Note Speaker Wcfs2020-Ptw

Delft, South Holland, Netherlands

The 2nd World Conference on Floating Solutions: Paving the Waves (PtW) brought together leading international experts from the industry, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and researchers from across the world to share knowledge on floating solutions. With great honor, PtW hosted the World Conference on Floating Solutions 2020 first organized by The Society of Floating Solutions Singapore, and the presentations of the final results from the EU-Horizon2020 funded research project, Space@Sea.

Jan 2020 - Oct 2020

Editor Journal Of Water And Climate Change

Journal of Water and Climate Change publishes refereed research and practitioner papers on all aspects of water science, technology, management and innovation in response to climate change

Nov 2010 - Oct 2015

Co-Founder

Current

Rotterdam Area, Netherlands

INDYMO water quality and ecological monitoring with underwater drones. INDYMO is a high tech start-up that uses state-of-the art technologies to monitor water quality and ecology in an innovative and dynamic way. By providing improved knowledge of water systems, INDYMO is set to contribute for a positive impact in the management of water resources. INDYMO's dynamic monitoring concept has been successfuly tested in a research project where the impacts of floating urbanization on water quality… Show more INDYMO water quality and ecological monitoring with underwater drones. INDYMO is a high tech start-up that uses state-of-the art technologies to monitor water quality and ecology in an innovative and dynamic way. By providing improved knowledge of water systems, INDYMO is set to contribute for a positive impact in the management of water resources. INDYMO's dynamic monitoring concept has been successfuly tested in a research project where the impacts of floating urbanization on water quality and ecology were studied. New pilots with new applications are will be developed in the upcoming months. www.indymo.nl Show less

Feb 2015 - Present

Managing Director And Partner

Delft Area, Netherlands

DeltaSync Floating Urban Developments: Research, Design, Technology integration, Planning, Business Cases, Strategy, ImplementationDeltaSync is a leading specialist in the field of sustainable floating urbanization and flood proof urban development. We provide consulting and design services and we develop innovative solutions for delta areas. Our motivation:1. To solve humanity’s most urgent problems2. The world needs pioneers3. To enable a sustainable… Show more DeltaSync Floating Urban Developments: Research, Design, Technology integration, Planning, Business Cases, Strategy, ImplementationDeltaSync is a leading specialist in the field of sustainable floating urbanization and flood proof urban development. We provide consulting and design services and we develop innovative solutions for delta areas. Our motivation:1. To solve humanity’s most urgent problems2. The world needs pioneers3. To enable a sustainable lifeOur approach:1. Interdisciplinary work2. Cooperation3. Long term vision, short term actionOur main value drivers are:- Specialized floating urbanization knowledge,expertise and >7 years experience - Ability to bridge the socio-technical divide to get innovations realized in practice- Effective balance between research and action- Broad business, government and research network - Ability to integrate large numbers of technologies into working future cities conceptsOur mission is to realize the first positive impact floating city in the world. Show less

Sep 2007 - Mar 2022

Applied Research Professor In Water Innovation

Rotterdam

At the Research Centre Sustainable Port City, I am working on interdisciplinary applied research projects in the field of water innovation. Current research topics include: developing and appying aquatic drones and other innovative monitoring techniques for research on water quality, climate adaptation measures, ecology and civil engineering infrastructure.

Sep 2015 - Aug 2021

Applied Research Professor Adaptive Urban Development

Rotterdam Area, Netherlands

At the Research Centre for Sustainable Solutions RDM, I am responsible for developing and executing applied interdisciplinary research projects in the field of adaptive urban development to contribute to the transition of Rotterdam to an attractive, sustainable and resilient watercity.

Sep 2011 - Sep 2015

Phd Student

My PhD research was focused on developing new concepts for urban water systems to reduce the vulnerability of cities to floods and droughts. The project also included the required societal change process to realize more sustainable urban water systems in practice.

Oct 2005 - Nov 2009

Research Student

Saga University, Japan

Study on alternative measures for flood control in the Jobaru river basin, Japan

Apr 2005 - Jul 2005
Team & coworkers

Colleagues at Blue21

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2 education records

Rutger De Graaf education

Msc (Cum Laude), Civil Engineering

Activities and Societies: Delftsche Studenten Bond (member: 1998-2006, president 2001-2002), Rio project (Motiv 2003: organisation.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about Rutger De Graaf

Quick answers generated from the profile data available on this page.

What company does Rutger De Graaf work for?

Rutger De Graaf works for Blue21.

What is Rutger De Graaf's role at Blue21?

Rutger De Graaf is listed as Co-Founder and Managing Director, Blue21 Group at Blue21.

What is Rutger De Graaf's email address?

AeroLeads has found 1 work email signal at @deltasync.nl for Rutger De Graaf at Blue21.

Where is Rutger De Graaf based?

Rutger De Graaf is based in Delft, South Holland, Netherlands while working with Blue21.

What companies has Rutger De Graaf worked for?

Rutger De Graaf has worked for Blue21, Floating Future Research Project, Blue Revolution Foundation, International Water Association, and Iwa Publishing.

Who are Rutger De Graaf's colleagues at Blue21?

Rutger De Graaf's colleagues at Blue21 include Jan Van Kessel, Bart Roeffen, and Rui Gomes.

How can I contact Rutger De Graaf?

You can use AeroLeads to view verified contact signals for Rutger De Graaf at Blue21, including work email, phone, and LinkedIn data when available.

What schools did Rutger De Graaf attend?

Rutger De Graaf holds Phd (Cum Laude), Urban Water Management from Delft University Of Technology.

What skills is Rutger De Graaf known for?

Rutger De Graaf is listed with skills including Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Water Management, Climate Change, Civil Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Water, and Environmental Awareness.

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