PhD Mette Wagenvoort

From 2020-2025 I was the daily supervisor of Mette Wagenvoort.

A blue background with three circular patterns displaying a suun, sea, wind, and particles

Together with Kerry Malone and Martijn van Ee I was the daily supervisor of Mette Wagenvoort between 2020 and 2025. Her project was called Optimal planning of dispersed operations in urban coastal environments (archive.org link).

This was a joint project with TNO and The Netherlands Defence Academy.

Mette successfully defended her thesis on Thursday the 19th of June 2025. She did great! Mette is currently working as a research at the Netherlands Institute for Transport Policy Analysis

Abstract of the Project

In this research we will focus on scheduling military operations in littoral environments. We will consider two phases of littoral operations, the ship-to-shore phase and the operation on land. In the ship-to-shore phase, resources have to be transported from amphibious warfare ships to land using smaller ships and connectors. In the operation on land tasks have to be executed. A new type of land operations which has not be quantitatively analysed are dispersed land operations. In dispersed land operations tasks are performed in smaller units while ensuring that units are close enough to neighbouring units such that units can help each other if necessary. A good planning for such operations can help in executing the tasks of the operation effciently as well as limit the risk of the operation.

In this research we aim to cover both aspects of the operation, the ship-to-shore phase and the (dispersed) operation on land. Some research has been done on optimising the ship-to-shore phase, however we will consider constraints that are not covered in these methods. Dispersed land operations has, to the authors’ knowledge, not been studied quantitatively yet. Studying this problem is of interest to give insight in the feasibility of using this type of land operations.

Research Output