The Department of Physical Geography at Utrecht University (UU) and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) are seeking a PhD candidate to work on enhancing estuarine flood resilience by tidal foreshore-management technologies.
Estuaries worldwide are characterised by tidal foreshores consisting of salt marshes fronted by unvegetated tidal flats. Unfortunately, these tidal foreshore ecosystems are endangered worldwide by erosion due to reduced sediment supply, increased wave exposure and/or by drowning due to sea level rise. In the Eastern Scheldt, located in the southwest of the Netherlands, the construction of the Delta Works has caused strongly accelerated erosion and drowning of the tidal foreshores, making it a model-system for learning how to preserve flood safety and nature quality in estuaries worldwide.
This project is part of the Future FRM-Tech programme, in which we study future flood risk management technology for the Dutch rivers, estuaries and coasts. In this PhD project, you will combine field experiments and flume studies to investigate 1) how to use mud instead of sand as building material and 2) how to develop nature-friendly approaches to minimize erosion of both tidal flats and marsh edges. Through collaboration with other researchers and stakeholders within the Future FRM-Tech programme, you will design a strategy to enable a more sustainable management of the estuarine landscape of the Eastern Scheldt.
For more information, also on how to apply, please see the UU website.
Please feel free to share this vacancy. For questions, please get in touch with Timothy Price (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or Tjeerd Bouma (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
The deadline for applying is 8 January 2024.
