Water systems around the world are confronted with increasing variability. In many places the frequency and intensity of extreme events, droughts and floods, are increasing and will probably continue to increase with projected climate change. Water managers who need to balance water demand and availability and who need to protect society's assets to potentially damaging water surpluses, would benefit greatly from information systems that provide early warning of future hydro-meteorological anomalies.

Continuing advances in medium range meteorological forecasting and more recent advances in seasonal predictions can provide probabilistic information on near future precipitation and temperatures with useful skill for increasingly larger fractions of the world and with longer lead times. Memory effects in the water systems itself improve and extend such forecast skills even more for runoff and river discharge, soil moisture and groundwater or e.g. reservoir inflow. The post doc position offered will work on further improvement of seasonal hydrological forecast systems in relation to agricultural water management.

The Water Systems and Global Change group (www.wur.nl/wsg )of Wageningen University & Research (WSG) has built up a considerable track record in studying interactions between hydrology, land cover and land use, and climate variability and change. We do this in the context of developing climate services that help water managers to deal with 'too little or too much' water. The post doc will contribute to this research line in the context of the CLIMAX project, which aims to develop seasonal hydrological and crop forecasts, especially for (south-eastern) South America.

As a Post-Doc you will work on the following research topics

• Implement, validate and calibrate large scale hydrological (and crop) models for South America, in particular VIC and LPJmL.
• Setup a workflow for seasonal hydrological (and crop) forecasting producing hindcast and actual forecasts of the same.
• Analyse spatio-temporal patterns of predictive skill, and investigate the sources of such skill through appropriate EPS type model experiments.

The work will consist of relevant literature research, setting up and analysing model simulations in a HPC environment, and publish your results in peer reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and participate with stakeholders and developers in translating seasonal forecasts into communication services. You will be member of a larger team of researcher in this field within and outside of WSG, and have particular strong interactions with the CLIMAX consortium, consisting of various partners in Europe, Brazil and Argentina, and their stakeholders.

The ideal candidate preferably has:

• A PhD in hydrological, earth or environmental sciences with a strong back ground in earth system dynamics, in particular hydrology- land use-climate interactions,
• Experience with large scale hydrological (and crop) modelling, experience with VIC and/or LPJmL is an advantage,
• Experience with probabilistic verification techniques for seasonal forecasts; experience with analysis (script development), modelling and management of big datasets in an HPC environment,
• Excellent writing and oral communication skills in English and strong ambition to publish future work,
• A team player who can work independently and who also communicates well with colleagues, and has the potential to (co-)supervise (under)graduate students in their research,
• Affinity with stakeholder interaction and cooperation with other scientific disciplines.
• Familiarity with the Latin American context of this work is an advantage

We offer a full-time position (38 hours), for 2,5 years (30,1 months) or equivalently longer when in part-time, starting as soon as possible. You will be appointed to the CAO of the Dutch Universities. Gross salary per month max. € 4084,- (schaal 10) for a fulltime appointment, depending on qualifications of the candidate.

Wageningen University & Research

Wageningen University & Research
The Water Systems and Global Change Group (WSG) is one of the chair groups in the Environmental Science Group of Wageningen University & Research. WSG aims to create new knowledge to contribute to sustainable water systems in a changing global environment, in order to contribute the provisioning of sufficient, clean and climate-proof water for society and nature. The Water Systems and Global Change group aims to improve the understanding of anthropogenically driven changes in water cycles in relation to interactions between climate-, water-, energy- and agricultural systems. WSG performs integrated assessments of water systems, in which we integrate knowledge on water systems and global change. To this end, we use a variety of models and observations. We combine modelling analyses with participatory approaches. Our water assessments focus on (1) the effect of changing global drivers on water systems, (2) adaptation and (3) mitigation strategies, comprising of novel approaches such as adaptive water management and ecosystem-based adaptation and (4) climate-water services. We thus take an integrated approach across the water, food and energy systems, at multiple spatial and temporal scales.
Information about Wageningen Environmental Sciences can be found at www.wageningenur.nl