Petra Döll is a German hydrologist whose work focuses on modeling global water resources. She is a professor of hydrology and researcher at the Institute of Physical Geography, Goethe University Frankfurt.
Early life and education
Petra Döll was born and raised in Hof, Bavaria, Germany, later moving to Erlangen for university. She applied for a Fulbright exchange program between the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg and the University of Colorado Boulder (US) for her fourth year. There, Döll connected her background in geology to groundwater and hydrology. Döll earned a Masters of Science from University of Colorado Boulder. Döll was interested in sustainability and found that her new studies in hydrology gave her the ability to think about geology and water with a social-ecological perspective. After earning her first diploma in geology from University of Erlangen–Nuremberg and her Masters of Science in geology in Colorado, she continued her work at the Technical University of Berlin, modeling moisture movement under the influence of temperature gradients as it pertains to the desiccation of mineral liners beneath landfills to earn her PhD. Several years later, Döll began her research on global and regional modeling of water availability and use at the University of Kassel. Döll earned her habilitation degree from the University of Kassel in Environmental Systems Analysis.
Career and research
Döll is currently a professor of hydrology and researcher at the Institute of Physical Geography, Goethe University Frankfurt. She has authored or coauthored 93 peer-reviewed articles and has been cited at least 8,574 times, putting her in the top 1% of most highly cited researchers of 2018 as of May 2019 according to Clarivate Analytics. She has two research focuses: global hydrological modeling and smaller scale research on transdisciplinary and participatory research methods.
Global hydrological modeling
Döll is recognized for her work on the global freshwater model, WaterGAP. This model focuses on quantifying human impacts on the global freshwater system, including impacts of climate change, human water use and man-made reservoirs, and assessing water stress. Döll and her team have collaborated with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN to compile global data sets relevant for hydrology pertaining to drainage directions, lakes and wetlands, irrigated areas, and irrigated and rainfed crops. Döll models impacts that climate change and human activity may have on the availability of the world's freshwater supply in the near and far future.
Transdisciplinary and participatory research methods
In support of the sustainable management of social-ecological systems, mainly water management, Döll spearheads the research and implementation of transdisciplinary and participatory research methods. She believes that sustainable solutions to complex problems can only be achieved by equitable stakeholder participation, and that suitable methods for integrating stakeholder knowledge and values need to be developed.
Other contributions
Since 2001, Döll has contributed to reports for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change both as a lead author and contributing author on chapters about freshwater resources and their management. Döll was a contributing author to the freshwater resources chapter of the Third Assessment Report: Climate Change 2001. She was the lead author of freshwater resources chapter of the Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007. In 2008 she was lead author of the IPCC's Technical Paper on Climate and Water. Additionally, Döll was the lead author of another chapter about the water cycle as well as the Summary for Policymakers for the Fifth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2014. She was later a contributing author of a chapter on the water cycle in the Sixth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2021.
Aside from her work with the IPCC, Döll has been a member of the Senate Commission "Earth System Research" of the German Research Foundation since 2016.
Awards and honors
In 2019, Döll was awarded the Henry Darcy Medal of the European Geophysical Union for her work in global freshwater system modeling, raising awareness about threats to freshwater security, and advocating for and researching participatory water management.
She has also received the following awards:
eLearning Award of Goethe University (2006) Water International Best Paper 2004 Award (2005) Fritz Scheffer Award of Deutsche Bodenkundliche Gesellschaft (for Ph.D. thesis) (1996)
