Ph.D. position in hydrology

Ph.D. position in hydrology

Subject : “Application of functional connectivity indicators for improving subgrid
surface flow hydrogram estimation in distributed hydrological modelling”

The Agricultural Engineering research group of the Earth and Life Institute is
offering a PhD fellowship for a period of up to 4 years to work on the refinement of
surface flow modelling at the subgrid scale of distributed hydrological models.

Research project summary
Subgrid modelling of surface hydrological flow in physically-based,
spatially-distributed models is currently based on the use of effective parameters
which cannot properly capture the subgrid connectivity of surface runoff.  A
promising connectivity function – the Relative Surface Contribution function (RSC)
(Antoine et al., 2009) - has been recently developed and tested at the 1 m² scale,
which improves the modelling of subgrid runoff generation.  This project seeks to
pursue the integration of the subgrid connectivity function in spatially-distributed
hydrological models and to test the scale-dependency of the RSC function and its
time-rate of change for contrasted initial conditions.  This will involve a
combination of field/lab and numerical experiments.

The Institution
The candidate will be hosted in the Agricultural Engineering research group of the
Earth an Life Institute (ELI) of the Université catholique de Louvain in
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.  The Environmental sciences section of ELI offers a
dynamic, multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary research environment dealing with
various topics related to agriculture and the environment.  The research activities
of the Agricultural Engineering research group focus on water resources, soil-plant
interactions and soil conservation.  Additional information concerning the
Environmental sciences section of the Earth and Life institute can be found at
http://www.uclouvain.be/ , and regarding UCL at http://www.uclouvain.be/ .  
Collaboration with research groups in The Netherlands and France is expected.

Applications
The successful candidate should be a national from a European country and hold a
M.Sc. degree in hydrology, earth or environmental sciences (or related disciplines).
Experience with modelling and a good mathematical background will be an advantage.
The candidate will be attributed a renewable fellowship (€2,300 – 2,570 per month
depending on prior degree) for an initial duration of 15 months.  In addition,
he/she will benefit from social security coverage.

Candidates should send by October 15, 2010 – preferably by email - a letter of
intent, the name and address of 2 referees, a curriculum vitae and a copy of the
grades obtained for the masters degree to:

Profs. C. Bielders and M. Javaux
ELI / GERU
Université catholique de Louvain
Croix du Sud 2, boite 2
B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgique
charles.bielders@uclouvain.be