PhD position in Integrated Assessment of Drought Resilience and Alternative Futures in the Context of Climate Change
PhD position in Integrated Assessment of Drought Resilience and Alternative Futures in the Context of Climate Change
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Job description
The challenge
Freshwater is crucial to sustain life, development, and the environment and lies at the heart of multiple Sustainable Development Goals. All around the world, however, water systems are increasingly under pressure. This is also the case in the border region between the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony, Germany and the provinces of Overijssel, Drenthe and Gelderland, the Netherlands. In this region, an intricate mix of climate change (precipitation patterns), local geography, water systems characteristics, and socio-economic developments exacerbates drought risks. A key challenge for the region, therefore, is how to become more drought resilient – now and in the future. But what constitutes drought resilience in a complex transboundary context? And how can it be achieved? What effect do different pilot measures have to increase the entire region’s drought resilience? Are there tradeoffs between increasing drought resilience and other societal challenges? These and other questions are central in this PhD position.
The position
This PhD position aims to assess and improve drought resilience in abovementioned cross-border region. Together with stakeholders, you will co-develop an indicator framework to assess drought resilience, building on resilience and collaboration literature, as well as on prior knowledge developed by students and colleagues in our department working on related questions. You will use this framework to assess to what extent pilot measures currently implemented in the region are contributing to drought resilience. Next, you critically evaluate the pilot measures with a focus on trade-offs and synergies with other key sectoral challenges, developments and ambitions (such as flood defense, water quality, biodiversity, agriculture). Following these assessments, you facilitate the co-creation of alternative futures for the region, how these can be achieved and what role the upscaling of pilot measures can play. Throughout the PhD trajectory, a strong collaboration with regional partners, policymakers and other stakeholders is expected, not only to acquire qualitative and quantitative information and data but also to co-create the assessment framework, alternative futures and pathways.
Freshwater is crucial to sustain life, development, and the environment and lies at the heart of multiple Sustainable Development Goals. All around the world, however, water systems are increasingly under pressure. This is also the case in the border region between the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony, Germany and the provinces of Overijssel, Drenthe and Gelderland, the Netherlands. In this region, an intricate mix of climate change (precipitation patterns), local geography, water systems characteristics, and socio-economic developments exacerbates drought risks. A key challenge for the region, therefore, is how to become more drought resilient – now and in the future. But what constitutes drought resilience in a complex transboundary context? And how can it be achieved? What effect do different pilot measures have to increase the entire region’s drought resilience? Are there tradeoffs between increasing drought resilience and other societal challenges? These and other questions are central in this PhD position.
The position
This PhD position aims to assess and improve drought resilience in abovementioned cross-border region. Together with stakeholders, you will co-develop an indicator framework to assess drought resilience, building on resilience and collaboration literature, as well as on prior knowledge developed by students and colleagues in our department working on related questions. You will use this framework to assess to what extent pilot measures currently implemented in the region are contributing to drought resilience. Next, you critically evaluate the pilot measures with a focus on trade-offs and synergies with other key sectoral challenges, developments and ambitions (such as flood defense, water quality, biodiversity, agriculture). Following these assessments, you facilitate the co-creation of alternative futures for the region, how these can be achieved and what role the upscaling of pilot measures can play. Throughout the PhD trajectory, a strong collaboration with regional partners, policymakers and other stakeholders is expected, not only to acquire qualitative and quantitative information and data but also to co-create the assessment framework, alternative futures and pathways.
Specifications
- max. 40 hours per week
- €2770—€3539 per month
- Enschede View on Google Maps
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University of Twente (UT)
Requirements
- We are looking for an enthusiastic, professional, and highly motivated candidate;
- You hold a Master’s degree in a field relevant to the PhD topic, such as Civil Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Engineering, or any other interdisciplinary study connecting Environmental/Water Science, Social Sciences, and Engineering;
- You are a strong conceptual thinker with outstanding analytical skills;
- You have strong social skills and enjoy working with stakeholders;
- A background in one or more of the following topics is an advantage: integrated assessments for sustainability, resilience assessments, scenario analysis, mixed-methods approaches, complex systems analysis, quantitative modelling;
- You exhibit high levels of self-motivation while also being a team player;
- You enjoy working in a multidisciplinary research setting with an international research team to achieve both scientific excellence and policy relevance;
- You can prove your excellent command of the English language and strong (professional) communication skills;
- Proficiency in German and/or Dutch (or willingness to learn) is a clear advantage.
Conditions of employment
- A full-time 4-year PhD-position, starting as soon as possible.
- We provide excellent mentorship and a stimulating research environment with excellent facilities;
- You are offered a professional and personal development program within the Twente Graduate School;
- A starting salary of € 2.770 gross per month in the first year and a salary of € 3.539 in the fourth year gross per month;
- A holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary and a year-end bonus of 8.3%;
- A solid pension scheme;
- Minimum of 29 holidays per year in case of fulltime employment;
Department
The PhD research project is a collaboration between the chairs of Multidisciplinary Water Management (MWM) and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), both part of the Civil Engineering and Management department of the Faculty of Engineering Technology. You will be supervised by dr.ir. Joanne Vinke de Kruif (IPD), dr. Maarten Krol (MWM) and dr. Lara Wöhler (MWM).
In the Multidisciplinary Water Management (MWM) group, we understand that freshwater is essential to sustain life and economic development but it is also a vulnerable resource whose availability and quality varies around the globe. We need to understand the natural and socio-economic processes that affect water resources and develop solutions to water scarcity, flooding, and pollution while considering interactions with other aspects of sustainable development.
Our group studies the dynamics of water demand and availability as influenced by agricultural and industrial production, consumption and international trade as well as climate change, the energy transition, environmental policies, and offsetting strategies. The methods we use include water footprint and life cycle assessment, hydrological modelling, environmentally extended input-output analysis, integrated assessment, and policy evaluation.
We understand water related grand challenges as a shared responsibility in a wider environmental and socio-economic context. Hence, we engage different stakeholders and sectors to develop both science-based and actionable solutions. To support decision-making, we provide data, models, and tools and share our knowledge in academic teaching and science dissemination.
The Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) group envisions sustainable and resilient infrastructure through integrated project delivery. The group contributes to solutions at multiple levels; ranging from the sectoral level to on the ground actor interactions and project practices. Our research is interdisciplinary; guided by societal challenges we apply and combine insights from different disciplines and fields, including public administration, organizational sciences, environmental studies, construction management and transition studies. One of our research lines focuses on developing new approaches to managing multi-actor processes in civil engineering. We create innovations in policies such as public procurement, institutions and citizen participation, and improve our understanding of how these processes support or restrict innovation. We propose novel actor and sector configurations where policies and institutions associated with the status quo are strategically realigned. Another research line focuses on designing socio-technical scenario’s that characterize sustainable and resilient infrastructure systems and the construction sector, as well as integrative scenario’s that exploit the interconnected nature of the societal challenges.
In the Multidisciplinary Water Management (MWM) group, we understand that freshwater is essential to sustain life and economic development but it is also a vulnerable resource whose availability and quality varies around the globe. We need to understand the natural and socio-economic processes that affect water resources and develop solutions to water scarcity, flooding, and pollution while considering interactions with other aspects of sustainable development.
Our group studies the dynamics of water demand and availability as influenced by agricultural and industrial production, consumption and international trade as well as climate change, the energy transition, environmental policies, and offsetting strategies. The methods we use include water footprint and life cycle assessment, hydrological modelling, environmentally extended input-output analysis, integrated assessment, and policy evaluation.
We understand water related grand challenges as a shared responsibility in a wider environmental and socio-economic context. Hence, we engage different stakeholders and sectors to develop both science-based and actionable solutions. To support decision-making, we provide data, models, and tools and share our knowledge in academic teaching and science dissemination.
The Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) group envisions sustainable and resilient infrastructure through integrated project delivery. The group contributes to solutions at multiple levels; ranging from the sectoral level to on the ground actor interactions and project practices. Our research is interdisciplinary; guided by societal challenges we apply and combine insights from different disciplines and fields, including public administration, organizational sciences, environmental studies, construction management and transition studies. One of our research lines focuses on developing new approaches to managing multi-actor processes in civil engineering. We create innovations in policies such as public procurement, institutions and citizen participation, and improve our understanding of how these processes support or restrict innovation. We propose novel actor and sector configurations where policies and institutions associated with the status quo are strategically realigned. Another research line focuses on designing socio-technical scenario’s that characterize sustainable and resilient infrastructure systems and the construction sector, as well as integrative scenario’s that exploit the interconnected nature of the societal challenges.
