Energy and Climate Change, Water and Environment

Deltaic environments have been exploited by humans for centuries for agriculture, fisheries, transport, settlement and industry. This has led to growing interventions to manage and manipulate water levels both for agriculture, water supply and navigation as well as to reduce hazards such as flooding. As a result growing networks of canals, dikes and polders have emerged and been developed with the delta societies. As we enter the 21st Century these systems continue to evolve with concerns about subsidence and sea-level rise being paramount.

In this PhD you will examine the development of these engineered systems and the feasibility of maintaining then as effective adaptation systems to 2050, 2100 and beyond. You will draw on examples in four deltas -- the Ganges-Brahmaputra, the Mahanadi, the Nile and the Volta, and other deltas as required. In this research you will develop hypothesises about the sustainability of these engineered systems including innovative approaches such as controlled flooding and sedimentation. You will also consider how these systems might be effectively characterised and simulated in coupled integrated models of deltas and coastal zones in general. The thesis will be conducted within the multi-disciplinary DECCMA project and will involve collaboration with other PhDs at Southampton as well as within an international network

If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Professor Robert Nicholls, Energy and Climate Change research group, Email: r.j.nicholls<στο>soton.ac.uk , Tel: +44 (0) 2380 59 4139