Groundwater and landscape erosion due to climate change

As our climate is changing the impact of water, or the lack of it, on how we develop and use the landscape is becoming increasingly uncertain. Mountain belts can be thought of as water towers, securing steady flow of irrigation, drinking and industrial water to adjacent population centres. There is therefore a need to understand the risks for future water security, as well as risks associated with flooding. One key problem, which this PhD will focus on, is the connectivity between surface water and groundwater. The latest observations would suggest as much as 40% of precipitation enters the rivers via the subsurface, however groundwater is routinely ignored within models of landscape change (landscape evolution models or LEMs).
The aim of this PhD project is to develop the methods to model groundwater and integrate it within landscape evolution models. This project is a collaboration between IFP Energies Nouvelles and GFZ Potsdam, Germany. Building on observations from ambient seismic noise in the central Himalayas, Nepal, we will develop a reduced complexity model of groundwater flow. The successful student will spend a minimum of six months at GFZ to explore the seismic dataset. The subsequent focus will be on developing a novel model of groundwater flow, and this will be supported by two research teams in geoscience and in computational modelling at IFP Energies Nouvelles.
We seek someone who is willing to learn how to program, learn hydrology and geophysics, and even some seismology. This PhD is within the emerging area of sustainable geoscience, and will provide the opportunity to develop skills in numerical modelling, software development as well as an understanding of the treatment of seismic observations. The hope is to develop new tools to help in the sustainable use of natural resources and to help communities to adapt to future change

Keywords: Climate change, Landscape Evolution Modelling, Groundwater, Seismology

• Academic supervisor    Dr, NOETINGER Benoît, IFPEN
• Doctoral School    Géosciences Ressources Naturelles et Environnement (ED 398), http://ed398.sorbonne-universite.fr/fr/index.html
• IFPEN supervisor    Dr, ARMITAGE John, IFPEN, john-joseph.armitage@ifpen.fr, Orchid: 0000-0003-2806-8181
• PhD location    IFP Energies nouvelles, Rueil-Malmaison, France
• Duration and start date    3 years, starting in fourth quarter 2021
• Employer    IFPEN
• Academic requirements    University Master degree Earth science, hydrology, applied mathematics or similar
• Language requirements    Fluency in English, willingness to learn French
• Other requirements    A working knowledge of programming in Python, C++ or equivalent would be a bonus.