Understanding the feedback between drought and society is of pivotal importance for achieving a resilient future and avoid possible lock-ins and maladaptation. While different models have been proposed to represent the human influence on natural water systems, models that formalize the feedback between adaptation actions and water resources (quantity and quality) during drought at different temporal scales are still limited. The Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) of VU Amsterdam has wide expertise on researching systemic interactions between physical and social systems, and has a growing portfolio of research projects and teaching in this field. For this postdoc position, you will join the Department of Water and Climate Risk and closely collaborate with the Department of Environmental Economics.
In this Postdoc position you will develop a system dynamic modelling framework to unravel the interplays and feedbacks between society and drought. In particular, you will investigate how socio-economic conditions and adaptation actions responding to climate services (for instance, sub-seasonal to seasonal drought forecasts) can influence the water system on longer (decadal and climate) time scales. This will allow to unravel how adaptation actions based on climate and water (level and salinity) information can lead to different planning decisions and consequently different drought-resilience pathways.
This position is funded through the European projects ICISK (
https://icisk.eu/), which aim to co-produce the next-generation Climate Services that meet the climate information needs of citizens, decision makers and stakeholders at the spatial and temporal scale relevant to them. The work will be carried out at IVM. You will work in close collaboration with the consortium members of ICISK. Our institute values diversity, we therefore especially encourage applications from women and other groups traditionally under-represented in the discipline.
Your duties - apply system dynamic models on a ICISK case study for quantifying the interplays between drought and society
- investigate the influence of different socio-economic conditions and climate services on the implementation of different short-term adaptation actions and consequent effect on the water system on longer time scales
- collaborate with other researchers within the ICISK project for the collection and analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data needed for the system dynamic model
- contribute to the deliverables of the ICISK project
- contribute to our teaching programmes with thesis supervision, course support, and lecturing. These will be agreed on with the successful candidate