Fully funded: Quantifying the benefits of Natural Flood Management approaches in Groundwater catchments

Flooding represents the single highest risk to life and livelihood of any natural hazard in the UK. Recent high magnitude flooding across the UK has prompted a fundamental change in national flood risk management policy towards catchment based solutions using natural processes to “slow the flow” to downstream reaches. Natural Flood Management approaches not only deliver flood risk benefits but have the added advantage of benefitting aquatic ecology and delivering additional ecosystem services. There is currently a push to deliver NFM schemes across the UK, and yet the scientific evidence for their effectiveness is quite limited (Dadson et al 2017), and in fact non-existent in groundwater dominated river catchments. Thus there is a clear and urgent need to better understand the potential benefits (or not) of NFM in groundwater river catchments.

More fundamentally, NFM raises scientific questions around the development of nature-based solutions that by their nature will change over time as more naturalised morphology and vegetation evolves and as hydroclimate responds to global climate change. This PhD topic, funded by the UK Environment Agency, will provide an opportunity for candidates to work with stakeholders engaged in NFM work in the groundwater rivers Test and Itchen. Approaches will include detailed field monitoring of hydromorphological processes using state-of-the-art hydraulic, topographic and ecological data acquisition technology (e.g. Terrestrial Laser Scanning, AUV’s), and spatially distributed hydrological and hydraulic modelling to simulate NFM effectiveness across a range of scales.

The research will aim to develop (i) improved understanding of the mechanisms by which NFM treatments deliver multiple benefits (ii); develop suitable spatial modelling approaches to enable stakeholders to plan the delivery of effective NFM measures and iii) test the effectiveness of NFM approaches under future hydroclimates.

Candidates must have or expect to gain a first or strong upper second class degree, in an appropriate discipline, not necessarily Geography. Candidates will also need to have a strong numerical hydrology and / or environmental science or engineering background, and ideally have some experience of working in fluvial environments. The successful candidate will join a team of researchers working on a range of scales of hydraulic and hydrological processes within the Earth Surface Dynamics Research Group, and will join a thriving community of 60+ Research PhD’s working in the Department of Geography & Environment.

Deadline for Applications 30 June 2017. Interview date: 14 July 2017. Start date – 28 September 2017, although there is some flexibility around this date. Details on how to apply are available from Julie Drewitt, email [Email Address Removed].. For informal queries please contact Professor David Sear ([Email Address Removed]); Dr Julian Leyland ([Email Address Removed]); or Professor Justin Sheffield ([Email Address Removed])