Jobs:Job-00570
Apply before: 14 January 2022
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Posting:
Position: PhD Position
Apply before: 14 January 2022
Apply online:
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River morphodynamics directly influences the habitat of the Nepal tigers. This research quantifies how and will help improving river management to protect the natural habitat of the Nepal tigers.
Job description
This PhD project is part of the large research program Save the tiger, Save the grasslands, Save the water, which is financed by the National Science Agenda program of the Dutch Research Council NWO (https://savethetiger.nl/). It is a collaboration between 25 partners ranging from Dutch and Nepali universities, NGO’s and companies working in the field of hydrology, ecology, nature conservation and stakeholder participation and communication. The overall objective is to understand and model the spatio-temporal dynamics of the grasslands as crucial landscape elements for the tiger habitat in Nepalese and Indian nature reserves at the foot of the Himalayas. The central research questions are: What are the natural dynamics of grasslands in floodplains; How do they get disturbed by large interventions in the water system and climate change both locally and upstream; How can conservation of the grasslands be combined with water resources allocation for economic activities; How can co-creative interaction between stakeholders be realized to attain effective policies and landscape stewardship. There will be 6 PhD projects and 1 post-doc project at four Dutch universities. Furthermore many MSc students from different background will perform research within the project.
We are looking for an enthusiastic PhD candidate interested in river morphodynamics of the Karnali river in western Nepal. The water and sediment from this river feeds the grasslands in the floodplains where the endangered tigers live. The natural river channel migration in the region has been largely changed by various human induced disturbances such as the construction of levees, channelization associated with hydropower, water offtake for irrigation, and gravel and sand mining in the river floodplain. Climate change exacerbates these pressures through, for instance, reduced average precipitation and changes in snow and glacier melt.
Your role is to quantify the changes in river channel characteristics using a combination of field monitoring, remote sensing and numerical modelling. Your results will be used by other PhD researchers working on the effects of climate and land use change on Himalayan hydrology, ecohydrology, the groundwater system and the long-term interaction between water, vegetation, humans and megafauna (deer, tigers). You will be supported and supervised by a team of experienced and enthusiastic scientists in the field of river morphodynamics and hydrology from Delft University of Technology and collaborate with the entire project team of Nepalese and Dutch researchers.
Deadline for applications: 14 January 2022
Further information: More detailed information can be found at: https://www.tudelft.nl/over-tu-delft/werken-bij-tu-delft/vacatures/details/?nPostingId=2048&nPostingTargetId=4930&id=QEZFK026203F3VBQBLO6G68W9&LG=UK&mask=external .
All the best, Astrid
Astrid Blom
Associate Professor - River Engineering
Head of Section Rivers, Ports, Waterways and Dredging Engineering
TU Delft
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences (CiTG)
Department of Hydraulic Engineering
Section Rivers, Ports, Waterways and Dredging Engineering
