Two PhD positions in environmental modelling available at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. Deadline 19 June 2017
PhD Studentship: A Global Model of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Land Use Change and Cover Supervisor: Professor Joseph Alcamo Project Description There is an important connection between land use and climate protection in that about one tenth to one-fifth of all global greenhouse gas emissions are related to land use or land use change. Moreover, a substantial volume of carbon dioxide is also taken up by land use processes. Hence, it is important to understand how widespread and ongoing changes in land cover are influencing the fluxes of greenhouse gases. While several models have been developed that link global land use and greenhouse gases, an open and important research question is the uncertainty of these models. The objective of this PhD project will be to implement a greenhouse gas emissions sub-model in an existing continental-scale land use model (LandSHIFT) and to investigate the uncertainties of the model. Identifying the main sources of uncertainties will accelerate the improvement of this class of models and make them more useful for identifying strategies for reducing emissions. The project will include the following main components: 1. Survey of existing models for the main categories of land-related greenhouse gas emissions, and selection of appropriate models for linkage with LandSHIFT. 2. Design, implementation, and testing of a greenhouse gas emissions submodel for LandSHIFT. Application to a test scenario. 3. Usage of global sensitivity analysis techniques to quantify the uncertainties of different categories of land-related greenhouse gas emissions. To accomplish these tasks the PhD student will work closely with the his/her Supervisor and the LandSHIFT modelling team at the University of Kassel in Germany Please contact Prof. Joseph Alcamo for further details: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BBJ278/phd-studentship-a-global-model-of-greenhouse-gas-emissions-from-land-use-change-and-cover/ PhD Studentship: A Global Model of New Contaminants in River Systems Supervisor: Professor Joseph Alcamo Project Description Continental-scale modelling of water quality is a new branch of science which aims to provide a continental-scale overview of cause-and-effect changes in water quality in river ecosystems. It is used to identify hot spot areas of rapid changes in river quality and how these changes are linked to global issues such as food security, the conservation of biodiversity, and climate change. Although continental-scale models cover "conventional pollutants" such as biochemical oxygen demand and fecal coliform bacteria, they do not, up to now, simulate "new contaminants", in particular pharmaceutical residues and other substances that fit under the category of "endocrine disrupting compounds" (EDCs). The presence in river water of pharmaceutical residues, including antibiotics, is of concern because it can contribute to the build-up of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the aquatic environment. In addition, pharmaceutical residues and other chemicals can disrupt the endocrine systems of people that intentionally or unintentionally ingest river water, either as drinking water supply, or for bathing, washing clothes, and other household purposes. The main objectives of this PhD project are to extend a continental-scale water quality model, "WorldQual" to include key pharmaceutical chemical residues, and to use the extended model to estimate the current levels of these residues in world river systems. The project will involve three main steps: 1. Developing and implementing a methodology for computing the wastewater loadings of key pharmaceutical residues on a country and grid-cell basis. 2. Implementing changes in WorldQual to simulate the river concentrations of pharmaceutical residues. 3. Validating the new model of river pharmaceutical residues. To accomplish these tasks the PhD student will work closely with the his/her Supervisor and the WorldQual modelling team at the University of Kassel in Germany. Please contact Prof. Joseph Alcamo for further details: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BBJ279/phd-studentship-a-global-model-of-new-contaminants-in-river-systems/
