The Working Group Coupled Human Landscape System: Risk & Resilience at the Department of Geography, University Innsbruck (Austria) is seeking candidates for a PhD POSITION (F*M) Interactions of hazard processes and technical structures in mountain catchments (part-time, 20h per week, with an increase to 30 h after acceptance of PhD agreement; for a period of four years. Starting date is to be arranged.)
Application deadline postponed to 06.08.2023!
Your tasks:
• Conduct independent research for your PhD project in the field of interactions of hazard processes and technical structures in torrents and/or mountain rivers for risk reduction under the regional conditions of global change;
• Elaborate fundamentals of historic and present hazard and risk management strategies and to identify sustainable development pathways for risk management;
• Assess potential effects of structural failure of existing technical structures and protection concepts (e.g. Piton and Recking 2015);
• Contribute to the enhancement of a conceptual model for analysing coupled human-landscape systems in mountain areas (based on Hossain et al. 2020) identifying crucial couplings and interactions on different spatial and temporal scales (Ramirez et al. 2022).
• Contribute to the enhancement of technical structures and protection concepts;
Responsibilities:
• Conduct independent research and teaching incl. to contribute to supervision of bachelor and master students;
• Scientific publications;
• Participate in training and continuing education;
• Administrative tasks.
Your profile:
• Master degree in the fields of e.g. geography, geo-informatics, earth sciences, environmental engineering or similar;
• Basic knowledge about physics, fluvial geomorphology, sediment transport, and mountain hazards as well as hazard assessment and risk management. Basic understanding of traditional technical structures and their specific functions is an asset;
• Familiarity or experience with numerical modelling, field measurements or mapping;
• Proficiency in scripting languages (e.g. Python, R, Matlab, …);
• Strategic and systemic thinking and to develop advanced methods and models for hazard and risk assessment;
• Very good English language skills both in oral and written communication are required;
• Enthusiasm for independent work in an interdisciplinary research team;
• Ability to work independently on complex problems;
• Enthusiasm for scientific work.
Please download the PDF for more details.