Curriculum Vitae

Floris Calkoen, PhD

Coastal Science | Coastal Monitoring | Earth Observation | Cloud-native Geospatial | Climate Risk

I'm a coastal scientist (PhD) with a broad background in geology, philosophy, data science, and marine sciences, specializing in coastal monitoring using cloud-native technologies, usually with a focus on climate risk. Over the years I have learned how to apply new technologies at scale, for example by using AI to map the world's coast from petabytes of satellite imagery. I co-developed the web portal for CoCliCo, an EU Horizon 2020 project on coastal climate services, and currently run Rocksanne, a coastal project of my own in southwest Portugal. I like to think about how to connect field observations with big, diverse geospatial data, and how to turn data into products that inform policymakers. I try to work on things I believe in; at the moment I'm especially interested in coastal monitoring, because I think observations will only become more important for coastal management and climate adaptation. I sometimes advise on geospatial information systems. I value working with people, and have lived and worked on several continents.

Professional Experience

Founder | Rocksanne | Jun 2026 – Present

Experiment with coastal monitoring and compare the results with observations in the field.
Organize guided coastal geology tours along the Costa Vicentina, Portugal.
Write about the region’s geology and build the website and web apps that go with it.

PhD Researcher | Deltares & Delft University of Technology | 2021–2026

Developed a scalable, cloud-native framework to analyze petabytes of satellite imagery, and used it with deep learning to map the world’s coast.
Assessed the worldwide impacts of future coastal erosion under different scenarios of sea-level rise, looking beyond erosion as a natural process to where it becomes a risk to society.
Co-developed the cloud data infrastructure for the EU Horizon 2020 CoCliCo project on coastal climate services that serves data products to users from practitioners to policymakers.

Internship | Deltares | Apr–Dec 2020

Studied different methods for forecasting shoreline change from satellite-derived shorelines, with the final results written up in a scientific paper.

International Research Stays

U.S. Geological Survey, Santa Cruz (USA) | Visiting researcher | Dec 2023 – Jan 2024: global coastal classification using satellite imagery and deep learning.
Water Research Laboratory, UNSW Sydney (Australia) | Visiting researcher | Dec 2022 – Jan 2023: methods for mapping shorelines from satellite imagery.
Instituto Dom Luiz, University of Lisbon (Portugal) | Internship | Feb–Aug 2019: decades of coastal change along the Portuguese coast from satellite data, shared in an interactive web map.

Competencies & Skills

Professional Skills

Entrepreneurship: Running Rocksanne, a small business: guided walks, writing, the website, and the administration.
Research: A PhD in Coastal Science, studying coastal erosion not only as a natural process but also assessing its potential future impacts now that sea levels are rising.
Early adopter: Especially interested in combining the latest technologies with observations in the field.
Communication: Conference talks and convening an AGU session; teaching at TU Delft, including the CoastalCodebook, and supervising MSc students.
Collaboration: Several years of work with partners across Europe in the EU Horizon 2020 CoCliCo project.

Technical Skills

Coastal monitoring: Shoreline mapping, coastal erosion analysis, and coastal classification from satellite data (Landsat, Sentinel, ICESat-2).
Geospatial data: Python (Xarray, Dask, Pandas, DuckDB), Open Data Cube, Pangeo, Google Earth Engine, Microsoft Planetary Computer; cloud-optimized formats (Parquet, COG, Zarr) and STAC.
Cloud & development: AWS, Azure, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, basic web development.
Machine learning: From traditional machine learning (Scikit-learn) to deep learning for image classification (PyTorch, Lightning), including experiment tracking (Wandb).
Fieldwork: Several multi-week geological fieldwork campaigns in Spain.

Education

PhD in Coastal Science | Delft University of Technology & Deltares | 2021–2026
MSc in Information Studies (Data Science) | University of Amsterdam | 2019–2020
MSc in Marine Environment and Resources (Erasmus Mundus) | University of the Basque Country, University of Bordeaux, University of Southampton, University of Lisbon | 2017–2019
BA in Philosophy | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | 2015–2017
BSc in Earth Sciences (Geology) | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | 2012–2016

Dissertation

Calkoen, F. R. (2026). Living by the Coast with Accelerating Sea-Level Rise. Doctoral Thesis, Delft University of Technology. Promotors: S.G.J. Aarninkhof, R.W.M.R.J.B. Ranasinghe, A.P. Luijendijk. https://doi.org/10.4233/uuid:2b81ed48-3ac7-435b-acbb-30e625c0c586

Peer-Reviewed Publications

First Author

Calkoen, F. R., Luijendijk, A. P., Hanson, S., et al. (2025). Mapping the world’s coast: a global 100-m coastal typology derived from satellite data using deep learning. Earth System Science Data Discussions [in review]. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-388
Calkoen, F. R., Luijendijk, A. P., Vos, K., et al. (2025). Enabling coastal analytics at planetary scale. Environmental Modelling & Software, 183, 106257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2024.106257
Calkoen, F. R., Luijendijk, A. P., Rivero, C. R., et al. (2021). Traditional vs. Machine-Learning Methods for Forecasting Sandy Shoreline Evolution Using Historic Satellite-Derived Shorelines. Remote Sensing, 13(5), 934. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13050934

Co-author

Luijendijk, A., Kras, E., Galvez, R., Calkoen, F. R., et al. (2026). Developing a cloud-based service offering actionable coastal climate risk and adaptation data across Europe. Climate Services. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cliser.2026.100678
Hanson, S. E., Nicholls, R. J., Calkoen, F. R., et al. (2026). A geospatial database of coastal characteristics for erosion assessment of Europe’s coastal floodplains. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-26-1685-2026
Thiéblemont, R., le Cozannet, G., Rohmer, J., Calkoen, F. R., et al. (2024). Sea-level rise induced change in exposure of low-lying coastal land. Anthropocene Coasts, 7(1), 8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44218-024-00041-1
Hulskamp, R., Luijendijk, A. P., van Maren, B., Calkoen, F. R., et al. (2023). Global distribution and dynamics of muddy coasts. Nature Communications, 14(1), 8259. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43819-6
Vos, K., Splinter, K. D., Palomar-Vázquez, J., Calkoen, F. R., et al. (2023). Benchmarking satellite-derived shoreline mapping algorithms. Communications Earth & Environment, 4(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-01001-2

Datasets

Calkoen, F. R., et al. (2025). Future Shoreline Projections. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16928881
Calkoen, F. R., et al. (2025). The Global Coastal Transect Repository (GCTR): An Analysis-Ready, Cloud-Native Data Repository for Coastal Analytics. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16928269
Calkoen, F. R., et al. (2025). Mapping the World’s Coast: A Global 100 m Coastal Typology Derived from Satellite Data Using Deep Learning. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15607678
Calkoen, F. R., et al. (2025). CoastBench: A Global Training Dataset for Coastal Classification Using Satellite Imagery and Elevation Data. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15800285
Calkoen, F. R., et al. (2025). Sentinel-2 L2A Annual Composite (2023). Deltares. https://github.com/TUDelft-CITG/coastpy
Calkoen, F. R., et al. (2025). Global Coastal Grid. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16925825
Calkoen, F. R., et al. (2025). ShorelineMonitor: Satellite-Derived Shorelines (1984-2024). Deltares.
Calkoen, F. R., et al. (2025). ShorelineMonitor: Satellite-Derived Shoreline Series. Deltares.
Calkoen, F. R., et al. (2024). Global Coastal Transect System (GCTS). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14056925

Software

Calkoen, F. R. (2024). CoastPy: A Python library for scalable coastal analytics. GitHub Repository. https://github.com/TUDelft-CITG/coastpy
Calkoen, F. R., Bosboom, J., Pearson, S., et al. (2023). Coastal Dynamics Open Codebook. GitHub Repository. https://github.com/FlorisCalkoen/CoastalCodebook
Contributor (2021-2025). CoCliCo Data Repository. GitHub Repository. https://github.com/openearth/coclicodata

Talks, Workshops & Proceedings

Talk: Living by the Coast with Accelerating Sea-level Rise | PhD Defence, Delft | Apr. 2026
Talk: Living by the Coast as Sea-Level Rise Is Accelerating | Advances in Predictions of Sandy Interventions, Delft | Oct. 2025
Talk: Future European Shoreline Retreat in the 21st Century | CoCliCo H2020 Final Event, Brussels | Jun. 2025
Talk: Enabling Coastal Analytics at Planetary Scale | NCK Themadag Remote Sensing, Leiden | Nov. 2024
Workshop: Introduction to Cloud-Native Earth Observation | Planetary Computer Workshop, Delft | Mar. 2024
Talk: Cloud-Native Coastal Monitoring Using Earth-Observing Satellite Data | GeoParquet Community Day, San Francisco, USA | Jan. 2024
Talk: Mapping the Coast from Space: What Can We Learn from Pixels? | AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco | Dec. 2023
Convener: Coastal Change Monitoring with Earth-Observing Satellites | AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco | Dec. 2023
Talk: Coastal Monitoring at Continental Scale | Coastal Imaging Research Network (CIRN) Workshop, North Carolina | May. 2023
Talk: A Novel Data Ecosystem for Coastal Analyses | EGU General Assembly, Vienna | Apr. 2023
Talk: The Need for Cloud-Native Coastal Data Repositories | Hydraulic Engineering Colloquium, Delft | Apr. 2023
Talk: Mapping Coastal Typology Using Deep Neural Networks | International Conference on Coastal Engineering | Dec. 2022
Talk: Data-Driven Coastal Change Modeling at Continental Scale | Deep Learning Symposium, VU Amsterdam | Oct. 2022
Talk: CoCliCo Workbench Demonstration | CoCliCo H2020 General Assembly, Orléans | Oct. 2022
Workshop: Mapping Building Footprints Using Modern Cloud Technology | CoCliCo H2020 General Assembly, Orléans | Oct. 2022
Talk: Guiding Principles for Data Management and Stewardship | CoCliCo H2020 General Assembly, Webinar | Jun. 2022
Talk: Multi-Decadal Evolution of Continental Portuguese Beaches | Coastal Imaging Research Network, Toulouse | Jun. 2019

Teaching Experience

Teaching Assistant, Coastal Systems | Delft University of Technology | 2021–2024

Developed the CoastalCodebook (Jupyter Book), supporting the Coastal Dynamics Open Textbook.
Assisted in practical sessions, guiding MSc students during exercises, supported exam preparation and grading.
Supervised MSc students.

Grants & Awards

TU Delft Education Innovation Projects Grant (2024)
TU Delft Open Education Stimulation Fund Grant (2023)
Prof. Collins Award for Best EMMER MSc Thesis Presentation (2019)
Erasmus+ Traineeship Grant (2019)
Erasmus Mundus / MER Consortium Scholarship (2018 & 2019)
VSBfonds Scholarship (2017)

Languages

Dutch: Native
English: Fluent
Spanish: Good working knowledge
Portuguese: Basic
French: Basic

References are available upon request.