PhD Studentship: Quantifying compounding and cascading physical climate risk to UK infrastructure
University of Exeter, United Kingdom
- Institution
- University of Exeter
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Position type
- PhD
- Subject area
- Environment & Earth Sciences
- Salary
- GBP 21805.00 YEAR
- Location
- Exeter, England, United Kingdom
- Funding
- Fully funded position
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About this position
Climate change is intensifying hazards, such as flooding, heat, drought, storms, that threaten the resilience of UK infrastructure. Most existing risk assessments treat these hazards in isolation and for single asset classes, missing two critical realities: hazards compound (e.g. heat and drought together) and cascade across interdependent systems (e.g. flooding disrupts power, which disrupts water treatment and transport).
This project will develop a UK infrastructure risk assessment that starts with rigorous hazard damage modelling for a single infrastructure sector, then extends this to quantify compounding and cascading risk pathways across interconnected infrastructure systems, and finally translates physical risk into economic loss estimates relevant to investors, insurers and policymakers. The student will use probabilistic UK climate projections (UKCP18) and infrastructure network data to develop this analysis from the ground up.
The project offers training in climate science, infrastructure risk engineering, network analysis and economic risk quantification, and the opportunity to engage with real-world users of climate risk assessments in finance, insurance and government.
Funded by: EPSRC Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Apply directly to University of Exeter
Emerging Scholars Council is not the employer and does not recruit for this position. It is advertised by University of Exeter, and your application goes to them. We help students prepare and strengthen their applications.
Go to the official application page →