Oliver Hensengerth

Dr Oliver Hensengerth

Associate Professor

Department: Geography and Environmental Sciences

Oliver’s research rests on two pillars: firstly, the rise of China in global development, with a focus on Chinese investment in water infrastructure; and secondly water governance, including transboundary water cooperation, water-energy-food nexus, floods and droughts, and hydropower. Conceptually, he is interested in questions of environmental justice, relationships between water and identity, multilevel governance, and governance across scales. Oliver teaches across programmes in International Relations, Geography and and Global Development and supervises PhD students in the above research areas. Oliver is a member of the Northumbria Centre for Global Development (www.northumbria.ac.uk/cid).

Campus Address

Lipman 312
City Campus
Newcastle
NE1 8ST

Email Oliver

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Oliver works at the intersection of international relations and international development. Having been trained as a political scientist, Oliver’s work is interdisciplinary. He has been collaborating closely with colleagues from engineering, physical and human geography, or sociology in projects funded by the British Academy, GCRF, Newton Fund, and others. He has published extensively in international high impact journals in the areas of environmental and water governance.

Oliver's research rests on two pillars: firstly, the rise of China in global development, with a focus on Chinese investment in water infrastructure such as hydropower in countries of the global South; and secondly water governance, including transboundary water cooperation, water-energy-food nexus, floods and droughts, and hydropower. Conceptually, he is interested in questions of environmental justice, relationships between water and identity, multilevel governance, and governance across scales.

Oliver is currently lead investigator in the ISPF-British Council project Adapting Crisis Responses to Salt-Droughts in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam (partner: Can Tho University, 2024-2026); and a co-investigator in the ISPF-BBSRC project Working towards Adaptive and Versatile Environmental Sustainability in mollusc aquaculture (WAVES), led by Southampton University (2025-2028).

Recently expired projects include the Innovate UK project FITS Power Plant - Cambodian Island Community, led by Achelous Energy (2024-2025), the GCRF Research Hub Living Deltas, led by Newcastle University (2019-2024); British Council COP26 Trilateral Research Initiative Integrated Strategies for Water Resources Risk Management in the ASEAN Region under Climate Uncertainty: A Needs Assessment, led by Southampton University (2021-2022); and Newton-NERC Viet Nam: Slow Onset Hazard Interactions with Enhanced Drought and Flood Extremes in an At-Risk Mega Delta, led by Southampton University (2019-2021).

Key Publications

Sectors and Scales in Transboundary Water Governance: A Case Study of the Mekong Region, Hensengerth, O. 20 Mar 2025, World Scientific Handbook of Transboundary Water Management, Singapore, World Scientific
Building resilience in South and Southeast Asian mega-deltas, Walton, R., Salgado, J., Bisht, T., Large, A., Henderson, A., Renaud, F., Hensengerth, O., Van, P., Cremin, E., Murshed, S., Chowdhury, A., Le, H., O'Connor, J., Vu, A., Banerjee, S. 1 Jan 2024, Resilience and Riverine Landscapes, Amsterdam, Elsevier
How to promote sustainability? The challenge of strategic spatial planning in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, Hensengerth, O., Lam, T., Tri , V., Hutton, C., Darby, S. 2 Jan 2024, In: Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning
Inclusive governance of hydropower on shared rivers? Toward an international legal geography of the Lower Mekong basin, Hensengerth, O. 29 Feb 2024, In: Frontiers in Climate
Checklist for Assessing the international law applicable to transboundary hydropower, Adjei, B., Daza Vargas, A., Devlaeminck, D., Hensengerth, O., Kasimbazi, E., Lingjie, K., McIntyre, O., Rieu-Clarke, A., Spĳkers, O., Wouters, P. 2023
Effect of planning policies on land use dynamics and livelihood opportunities under global environmental change: Evidence from the Mekong Delta, Berchoux, T., Hutton, C., Hensengerth, O., Voepel , H., Tri, V., Vu, P., Hung, N., Parsons, D., Darby, S. 1 Aug 2023, In: Land Use Policy
Listening to Experiences of Environmental Change in Rural Vietnam: An Intergenerational Approach, Beckwith, L., Warrington, S., Nguyen, H., Nguyen, T., Greru, C., Smith, G., Minh, T., Nguyen, L., Hensengerth, O., Woolner, P., Baillie Smith, M. 1 Oct 2023, In: Progress in Development Studies
Managing distance when teaching, learning and doing oral history: A case study from Vietnam, Warrington, S., Beckwith, L., Nguyen, H., Smith, G., Minh, T., Greru, C., Nguyen, T., Hensengerth, O., Woolner, P., Baillie Smith, M. 19 Sep 2023, Handbook of Teaching and Learning Social Research Methods, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar
Youth participation in environmental action in Vietnam: learning citizenship in liminal spaces, Beckwith, L., Baillie Smith, M., Hensengerth, O., Nguyen, H., Greru, C., Warrington, S., Nguyen, T., Smith, G., Minh, T., Nguyen, L., Woolner, P. 1 Jun 2023, In: The Geographical Journal
Asia-Pacific ClimateScapes: Exploring opportunities, challenges and trade-offs toward just transitions for decarbonisation, Howson, P., Astuti, R., Hensengerth, O., Kindon, S. 22 Jun 2022

PGR Supervision

Benita Siloko Human security, Livelihoods and Environmental Degradation in the Niger Delta region, Nigeria. Start Date: 01/10/2019
Angelica Ribichini A Critical Intersectional Analysis of Youth Vulnerability and Adaptive Capacity in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta Start Date: 18/01/2021