Christian Klassert

Dr. Christian Klassert is an environmental research economist and co-speaker of the Working Group Social-Science Water Research at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig, Germany. He is chair of the Hydrological Sciences Subdivision on Water Policy, Management and Control of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) and co-chair of the Human Systems Modeling Working Group of the Multi-Sector Dynamics (MSD) community of practice.

Christian’s work combines coupled human-natural systems modeling, agent-based modeling, and econometrics to assess the water security impacts of unequal urban water access and agricultural droughts. He contributes to the development of large-scale hydro-economic models of water security in Jordan, food-water-energy nexus sustainability in the Indian Upper Bhima Basin, and agricultural drought adaptation in Germany.

Christian holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Leipzig University and a combined European Master in Law and Economics and LL.M. from the Universities of Hamburg, Ghent, and Haifa. In 2023, he attended Stanford University as a Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar. His results have been published in Nature Sustainability, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Earth's Future, and other journals. He acts as a reviewer for a range of journals, including Nature Water, One Earth, and Water Resources and Economics. Christian is a co-recipient of the UFZ Research Award 2022 for his inter- and transdisciplinary work assessing the risk of future water crises in the country of Jordan.