Prof SE Darby, Dr J Leyland
No more applications being accepted
Competition Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)
About the Project
Vegetation is a ubiquitous feature of river and estuarine environments. Vegetation is also known to significantly affect flow dynamics and therefore the transfer of sediments and associated nutrients and contaminants: the flow resistance introduced by the presence of individual vegetative elements or assemblages leads to changes in flow velocity structure and flow depth that, in turn, modulate sediment transport. Yet, attempts to quantify these processes remain elusive due to difficulties in accurately estimating the altered flow field. This project will exploit recent advances in our ability to (i) characterize the structure of complex vegetated surfaces (e.g., using terrestrial laser scanning) and (ii) quantify the impacts of boundary roughness on 3D flow fields (e.g., using Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations) in order to better understand the impacts of vegetation across a range of common geophysical flow contexts. Given the growing interest in using ‘soft’ engineering interventions in the management of vulnerable environments, this research has considerable potential to shape future environmental management policy. This studentship would therefore suit candidates who are looking to develop an academic research career, as well as those who aspire to work in consultancy or governmental environmental management organizations post completion.
The research will address four key areas (each would form a substantive thesis chapter):
1) One of the major challenges in quantifying boundary roughness, particularly for natural systems with complete or partial vegetative cover, is the inherent topographic complexity of the boundary. Novel high-resolution survey techniques established at Southampton (Leyland and Darby, 2015; Nield et al. 2013) will be employed to evaluate boundary roughness across a range of representative river and estuarine field sites;
2) Subsequently, these high-resolution data will be incorporated into 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation software to enable the effects of the boundary roughness on the flow field to be evaluated (with validation from flow velocity profiles collected from the same field sites);
3) The resulting data sets will be synthesised to provide a novel physically-based relationship between vegetative structure and resulting flow resistance;
4) Use of the developed relationship for aiding soft engineering approaches to coastal and river management will be explored using specific case studies.
Further details about our research group, Earth Surface Dynamics, are available on our web pages:
http://www.soton.ac.uk/geography/research/groups/earth_surface.page?
Candidates must have or expect to gain a first or strong upper second class degree, in an appropriate discipline, not necessarily Geography. Details on how to apply are available from Julie Drewitt, email [Email Address Removed]. Informal enquiries may be made to Steve Darby (email [Email Address Removed]). For the latest information on postgraduate opportunities within Geography and Environment, please visit our website at http://www.southampton.ac.uk/geography/postgraduate/research_degrees/studentships.page?
Funding Notes
This is one of a range of topics currently being advertised. Funding will go to the project(s) with the best applicant(s). The studentship is funded at RCUK level, currently £14,296 per annum, with an RTSG of £750, together with home rate tuition fees. The studentship is for three years. The studentship will fully support British and EU nationals only. International students can apply but they must be able to meet the difference between home/EU and International tuition fees themselves.