Fully Funded PhD Studentship: Investigation of the Impacts of Natural Habitat on Coastal Erosion and Flooding

Applications are invited for a fully funded PhD studentship in Coastal Engineering.

Project Description:

It is known that coastal ecosystems play a significant role in coastal erosion and flood control as ecosystems, such as salt marshes, act as natural barriers for wave propagation and storm surge. However, links and interactions between coastal morphodynamics and ecosystem processes are poorly understood. This project will investigate linkages between coastal sediment transport and salt marsh ecology through computational modelling of sediment-ecology interface. The project will also investigate impacts of future climate change on the natural coastal defence mechanism of salt marsh ecosystems. The project will primarily utilise state of the art computational models in coastal engineering such as Delft3D and XBeach. However, improvements to the existing models may be necessary.

Aims and Objectives:

The primary aim of the project is to investigate the impact of salt marsh ecosystems on coastal erosion and flood control. The project will have four specific objectives:

to identify key processes in the morphology-ecology interface in salt marsh ecosystems that govern coastal defence mechanism
to establish computational models to simulate the morphology-ecology interface of salt marshes
to investigate how salt marsh ecosystems provide morphodynamic protection against coastal erosion and flooding
to investigate climate change impacts on salt marsh ecosystems and hence on coastal morphology

First supervisor:
Dr. Harshinie Karunarathna (http://www.swansea.ac.uk/staff/engineering/h.u.karunarathna/)

Other supervisors:
Prof. Dominic Reeve (College of Engineering; http://www.swansea.ac.uk/staff/engineering/d.e.reeve/) and Dr. John Griffin (College of Science; http://www.swansea.ac.uk/staff/science/biosciences/j.n.griffin/)

Facilities:
The student will be provided with a high-spec PC for computational modelling, will have access to the Coastal Engineering Experimental Facility of Swansea University, will have access to field data provided by the NERC funded CoastWeb project, will be a member of the world leading Energy and Environment Research Group (http://www.swansea.ac.uk/engineering/marine-energy/) of the College of Engineering, and be able to work among a large community of PhD students and post-doctoral researchers.

The successful candidate is expected to start their studentship in October 2016.

Eligibility

Candidates should have a BSc degree at 2.1 level or above, or an MEng degree in Coastal Engineering, Civil Engineering, Physical Oceanography, Physics, Mathematics or Marine Science/Engineering.

Experience and knowledge of computational modelling, Fortran programming, Matlab and technical writing is essential. Applicants must have good communication skills in English.

Due to funding restrictions, this studentship is open to UK/EU candidates only.