Eurizon.eu

Organization: University of Vienna

Location: Vienna, Austria

Field: Earth science

Requirements:

Recently obtained M.Sc. diploma in the field of geography, engineering geology, environmental science, geomorphology, natural hazards and risks. Good English (additional French language knowledge may be benefic). Strong background in geomorphology-geology, remote sensing. GIS, modeling. Work in transdisciplinary teams as well as experience with statistical analysis may be an advantage. It is expected, that the successful candidate will participate in all meetings and workshops organized by the CHANGES research consortium – related additional funding will be available. The candidate must also be willing to disseminate the results within the project during the meetings, but also and in particular through presentations at conferences and contributions to scientific journals. Frequent interaction with other researchers in the CHANGES network and an attitude for scientific inter-disciplinary research are important.

Abstract:

A Ph.D. position, financed by the European Community, is available within the European Marie Curie Initial Training Network “CHANGES”. The CHANGES network (Changing Hydro-meteorological Risks – as Analyzed by a New Generation of European Scientists) will develop an advanced understanding of how global changes (related to environmental and climate change as well as socio-economical change) will affect the temporal and spatial patterns of hydro-meteorological hazards and associated risks in Europe; how these changes can be assessed, modeled, and incorporated in sustainable risk management strategies, focusing on spatial planning, emergency preparedness and risk communication

Description:

Background: The research will focus on developing different-scaled uncertainty estimations for vulnerability analysis for objects exposed to hydro-meteorological hazards. These hazards include landslides incl. shallow and deep-seated movements, debris flows and rock falls, snow avalanches, floods, and soil erosion. The investigated elements and risk are in particular infrastructure incl. lifelines, build-up regions of various types and land use pattern. The vulnerability will hereby differentiated between site-specific estimations (e.g. for one house, or a defined length of a road) and spatial assessments (e.g. average vulnerability for a spatial unit). For each kind of vulnerability, the uncertainty will be calculated and expressed in terms of mathematical expressions, but also in different visualization tools within maps.

Objectives:
Of particular focus will be the following topics:
• Review of existing approaches
• Data gathering (incl. field work, application of remote sensing, review of stats data, etc.) for the hazard patterns (e.g. available hazard inventories, DEM, geology, regolith, vegetation, hydrology, etc.) and socio-economic characteristics (e.g. infrastructure incl. lifelines, Build-up regions incl. economic assets, land use, population data, etc.)
• Data analysis applying different methods for vulnerability estimation and uncertainty calculation
• Visualization techniques for dissemination the uncertainty related to vulnerability analysis
The applied methods will include:
• Literature review
• Exploring different data from various sources
• Implementation of spatio-temporal databases
• Data manipulation within a GIS environment
• Basic statistical data exploration
The position implies research only, with no teaching obligations.
The methodology will be tested in 4 study areas in France, Italy, Romania and Poland.

Location: The candidate will be based for 36 months months at the University of Vienna (Austria). Within this period, the candidate will join for 5 months each the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) and the company Risques & Developpement (France) for project-stated knowledge transfer activities.

Supervision: The research and the PhD will be supervised by Prof. Thomas Glade (Uni-Vienna, A) with the support of Prof. Michel Jaboyedoff (UNIL, Lausanne, CH) and Dr. Eric Leroi (R&D, Aubagne, F). The Ph.D. thesis will be submitted in English
 
The contract duration is of 36 months. The salary is in accordance with the EU FP7 Marie Curie ITN regulations and will consist of salary, mobility allowance, travel allowance, career exploratory allowance and contribution to participation expenses.
 
The applicants should send their CV, letter of interest/motivation (max. 1 page) and a letter of recommendation (…known scholar…) to: Prof. Thomas Glade (thomas.glade@univie.ac.at). The applicant’s selection will be performed on a competitive basis.
 

Deadline: 01-04-2011

Contacts:

Link: http://geomorph.univie.ac.at/

Email: thomas.glade@univie.ac.at

Phone number: 01 - 4277 48650

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