Forest fires, when spreading uncontrollably, can be detrimental, causing significant damage to the environment, disrupting and even endangering human lives. Due to climate change, we have already been experiencing an unprecedented number of devastating wildfire events globally. In addition to the climatic factors, increasing human activities (e.g. farming and creating residential settlements) in close proximity to forests poses further risks to the onset of wildfires. Embedded within the research area of climate and climate change, this project tackles the issue of wildfire through the Anthropocene and Environmental Informatics angles.
There are two parts to this project. The first part aims to reveal the space-time variability of wildfire risk at both global and subnational scale. At the global level, analyses will be carried out across countries to understand the country-level risk and how that risk evolves over time. At the subnational scale, interests lie in identifying local wildfire hotspots and monitoring the local temporal risk patterns. This project will develop a novel Bayesian multilevel, multivariate space-time framework that (a) incorporates the multiple nested geographical levels (e.g., areas within countries which are nested within continents) at which wildfire data are georeferenced and (b) quantifies wildfire risk through multiple dimensions, e.g. number of fire events, burned area and durationn. Models of this type are discussed in Haining and Li (2020; ISBN-10:1482237423).
Building upon the first part, the second part investigates how the global, national and subnational space-time patterns are influenced by climatic, topographic and human-activity factors. Of particular interest is to assess how long-term (annual or decadal) changes in these factors affect the change in wildfire risk. This allows us to anticipate future risk patterns under different climate change scenarios and/or different scenarios of how humans interact with forests. At the subnational, shorter-term scale, we will focus on questions such as what factors are affecting risks in a specific locality and how many wildfire events will occur in the next month. These questions are directly relevant to inform policies for local wildfire management. With the increasing availability of data on individual wildfire events (e.g., the Global Wildfire Information System), space-time point pattern models will also be employed to understand micro-scale wildfire properties, e.g., how wildfire spreads under different causes (e.g., naturally occurring vs human caused) and different meteorological and topographic conditions.
Academic Enquiries
This project is supervised by Dr. Guangquan Li. For informal queries, please contact [Email Address Removed]. For all other enquiries relating to eligibility or application process please use the email form below to contact Admissions.
Funding Information
The studentship is available to Home students and includes a full stipend at UKRI rates (for 2023/24 full-time study this is £18,622 per year) and full tuition fees. Studentships are also available for applicants who wish to study on a part-time basis over 5 years (0.6 FTE, stipend £11,173 per year and full tuition fees) in combination with work or personal responsibilities).
Eligibility Requirements:
- Academic excellence of the proposed student i.e. 2:1 (or equivalent GPA from non-UK universities [preference for 1st class honours]); or a Masters (preference for Merit or above); or APEL evidence of substantial practitioner achievement.
- Appropriate IELTS score, if required.
- Applicants cannot apply for this funding if they are already a PhD holder or if currently engaged in Doctoral study at Northumbria or elsewhere.
Please note: to be classed as a Home student, candidates must meet the following criteria:
- Be a UK National (meeting residency requirements), or
- have settled status, or
- have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements), or
- have indefinite leave to remain or enter.
- If a candidate does not meet the criteria above, they would be classed as an International student. Applicants will need to be in the UK and fully enrolled before stipend payments can commence.
How to Apply
For further details of how to apply, entry requirements and the application form, see
https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/research/postgraduate-research-degrees/how-to-apply/
For applications to be considered for interview, please include a research proposal of approximately 1,000 words and the advert reference (e.g. RDF23/…).
Deadline for applications: 6 November 2023
Start date of course: 8 January 2024
Northumbria University is committed to creating an inclusive culture where we take pride in, and value, the diversity of our doctoral students. We encourage and welcome applications from all members of the community. The University holds a bronze Athena Swan award in recognition of our commitment to advancing gender equality, we are a Disability Confident Employer, a member of the Race Equality Charter and are participating in the Stonewall Diversity Champion Programme. We also hold the HR Excellence in Research award for implementing the concordat supporting the career Development of Researchers.
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