Will Catchment Scale Afforestation for Mitigating Flooding Significantly Reduce Water Resource Availability and Productive Farmland? scholarship daily news in www.rightman.ir

Value, Duration and Start Date of the Award

The Doctoral Training Award is for £20,000 per annum. This award covers fees and a contribution to an annual stipend (living expenses). scholarship daily news in www.rightman.ir

Three year PhD

Start date: 14 September 2014

Sponsor

Science Agriculture and Engineering Faculty Doctoral Training Awards

Project Description

The 2013-14 winter floods in the UK have led to calls to afforest the uplands to reduce future flooding. However, the role of forests in flood reduction remains controversial. Further, the proportion of a catchment that would need to be forested to have a significant impact on downstream flooding, and the amount of farmland that would be correspondingly lost, have yet to be defined. Water resources could equally be reduced by the additional forest evapotranspiration. scholarship daily news in www.rightman.ir

The study will examine the hypothesis that catchment afforestation programmes can significantly reduce downstream flood hazard without significantly reducing water resource availability or productive farmland. Both headwater catchment plantation (affecting flood frequency and magnitude) and riparian plantation (to attenuate flood wave movement in the floodplain will be considered). scholarship daily news in www.rightman.ir

Study objectives include: the impact that upstream afforestation can have downstream at the full catchment scale; the proportion of a catchment and the parts of a catchment that need to be afforested to have a significant downstream impact; and the extrapolation of the results to a potential full UK programme. scholarship daily news in www.rightman.ir

The effects of afforesting headwater catchments will be investigated using Newcastle University’s leading physically-based catchment modelling system SHETRAN. The relevant field evidence will come from an existing paired grassland/forest catchment experiment in the Irthing catchment (Cumbria) headwaters while the full catchment will form the basis for simulations investigating the scale and spatial distribution issues. The impact of riparian forest will be modelled using a powerful new hydrodynamic modelling framework, developed at Newcastle University, which fully exploits modern graphics and central processing units. The relevant field evidence will come from existing experimental studies in Northumberland into the use of instream large wood debris structures and riparian plantation to attenuate flood wave movement. scholarship daily news in www.rightman.ir

The study is highly relevant to the social issue of flooding while also providing an opportunity to examine in detail the scientific controversy over the impact of forests on floods within the context of a potential large-scale application. scholarship daily news in www.rightman.ir

Name of the Supervisors

Dr James C. Bathurst, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Dr Paul F. Quinn, School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Person Specification and Eligibility Criteria

You must have a first-class or upper-second-class Honours degree (or international equivalent) or an MSc with at least a high merit pass (65+). Relevant degrees include environmental science, geography, engineering and mathematics. Applicants should be willing to carry out field work in remote areas of northern England in all weathers; for this it would be helpful to have an appropriate driving license. They should be numerate, have an aptitude for computer modelling and be fluent in English, including writing. scholarship daily news in www.rightman.ir

This award is available to UK/EU and International candidates. If English is not your first language, you must have IELTS 7 with at least 6.5 in the written component. scholarship daily news in www.rightman.ir

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