Supervisors: Liz Bagshaw (UoB), Paul Sayers (Sayers and Partners), Rodolfo Bezerra Nobrega (UoB), Lucy Jefferson (Devon County Council), Holly Pearson (West Country Rivers Trust)
Contact email: Liz.Bagshaw@bristol.ac.uk
Location: Bristol
Project Rational: The effectiveness of natural flood management solutions (NFM) in small, complex catchments is challenging to evaluate without intensive assessment, which requires significant resources. This project will explore how citizen science methods (photographs, spot sampling) and in situ sensors can be most effectively applied to understand the impact of NFM in two catchments: the Ken Stream, Devon, and Watlington, South Oxfordshire.
Ken stream is a tributary of the River Culm, in the River Exe catchment. Following village surface flooding and sediment deposition in September 2023, a number of nature-based solutions have been implemented throughout the catchment. Chalgrove Brook is a chalk stream in the Thames catchment, where NFM solutions to protect the village of Watlington are undergoing design and implementation. A high-resolution sensor telemetered sensor network in the Ken (provided by project partners WRT and Devon County Council) and active citizen science networks across both catchments provides an unprecedented opportunity to understand how small catchments respond to environmental triggers, before and after the implementation of NFM. The project will co-develop a framework to determine how in situ sensors and citizen science reporting can be best used to evaluate NFM and provide data for model parameterization.
Methodology: The student will liaise with citizen science groups in both catchments to co-develop monitoring protocols, following the methodology of the River Wye Collaborative Monitoring Project (led by Bagshaw). They will work closely with local partners to understand how their data can be used to parameterize models of the impact of NFM, including a high resolution flow model already implemented in Watlington. A high resolution network of seven water level and electrical conductivity sensors installed in the Ken in 2021 will be supplemented by three additional sensors for turbidity (already funded by Devon County Council) and a downstream chemical sonde in the Culm (already funded by WRT). The student will collect sediment samples for quantification within the laboratories at the University of Bristol quantify sediment transport, and also trial low cost water quality sensors and determine their efficacy against commercially available alternatives.
The student will explore how these data sources can be best combined and interrogated to evaluate the effects of NFM, and construct a framework for using citizen science, mapping and models to understand how interventions can be optimized to improve catchment flood risk.
Background Reading:
Ward, S. 2021 Connecting the Culm Environmental Evidence Review, Interreg 2 Seas, Available at: https://connectingtheculm.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/CtC-Evidence-Re...
FLOOD-CDT
This PhD is being advertised as part of the Centre for Doctoral Training for Resilient Flood Futures (FLOOD-CDT). Further details about FLOOD-CDT can be seen here https://flood-cdt.ac.uk. Please note, that your application will be assessed upon: (1) Motivation and Career Aspirations; (2) Potential & Intellectual Excellence; (3) Suitability for specific project and (4) Fit to FLOOD-CDT. So please familiarise yourselves with FLOOD-CDT before applying. During the application process candidates will need to upload:
• a 1 page statement of your research interests in flooding and FLOOD-CDT and your rationale for your choice of project;
• a curriculum vitae giving details of your academic record and stating your research interests;
• name two current academic referees together with an institutional email addresses; on submission of your online application your referees will be automatically emailed requesting they send a reference to us directly by email;
• academic transcripts and degree certificates (translated if not in English) - if you have completed both a BSc & an MSc, we require both; and
• a IELTS/TOEFL certificate, if applicable.
Please upload all documents in PDF format. You are encouraged to contact potential supervisors by email to discuss project-specific aspects of the proposed prior to submitting your application. If you have any general questions please contact floodcdt@soton.ac.uk.
Apply
Apply for this PhD here: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/geography/courses/postgraduate/physphd.html
