Dr T Erfani
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
A fully funded PhD position is available to work on an EPSRC-funded project on water quality markets in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at University College London. The project involves developing a simulator through mathematical modelling and optimisation approaches that studies how farming and industrial pollution affect water quality and consequently impact the future food production. We will be looking at how an economical driven approach that allows water quality trade can influence the farmers’ behaviours in managing their resources in order to allow intensification. The successful candidate will benefit from a multidisciplinary team of researchers at UCL Water management group, and Centre for Urban Sustainability and Resilience.
The global growth of crop production has been achieved mainly through the intensive use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers transferred later to water bodies. We aim to design an effective response for future food production by building an optimisation-driven model aiming to simulate water quality trade at the local-regional level and applying it to one or more regions in the UK. Valuation of nutrient, economically and environmentally to different industries and sectors will be performed. The applicant will use the existing farm modelling and advance it with the developed model in studying water quality trade impact on farmers behaviour and nutritional production under different climate conditions, and as a consequence, provide credible evidences to address the implication of a market oriented agricultural expansion on water abstraction, environmental and human health.
The project will include interacting with other PhD students and stakeholders in model use and interpretation. Concurrent opportunities to contribute to other relevant research projects within a dynamic research group may be possible
Essential Criteria
- The applicant will have a degree in Environmental science, operational research, engineering, Chemistry, and/or economics or a closely related quantitative field.
- The applicant will have experience in operational research modelling and analysis of water/agriculture crop/soil and/or resource systems.
- The applicant must have experience formulating optimisation models and solving them using existing algorithms.
- The application will have training in economics, on subjects such as microeconomics, econometrics, game theory,and valuation.
- Experience programming in any of the following languages or computing systems: GAMS, AIMMS, or Python.
- The applicant must be a clear and effective oral and written technical communicator.
Desirable Criteria
- Knowledge of Soil or Plant Science, Agricultural Science, Crop Science and/or a related Environmental Science will be considered a plus.
Funding Notes
Only open to applications from UK students or EU students who have been resident in the UK for 3 years. Please see: https://epsrc.ukri.org/skills/students/help/eligibility/
References
Applicants should send a covering letter and CV to Dr. Tohid Erfani t.erfani@ucl.ac.uk. The successful applicant will then have to apply online to UCL by submitting the PhD application form, available from https://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate/research-degrees/civil-environmental-geomatic-engineering-mphil-phd and clicking on the Apply now button. Please name Dr Tohid Erfani as the proposed supervisor.