PhD Studentship: How will sea-level rise and extreme events affect our natural cultural heritage?

Energy & Climate Change Group

Location: Highfield Campus

Closing Date:  Monday 13 February 2017

Reference: 826817AT

Project Reference: CMEES-ECC-140

What natural coastal heritage is at risk from sea-level rise, and how can we manage changing risks?

Cultural heritage is a major local and national asset, providing added cultural, tourist and economic value to their environs. But, sea levels are rising, so what will happen to our heritage in coastal zones?

Sea-levels have been slowly rising for hundreds of years affecting our natural coastal heritage. This rate is expected to accelerate with climate change, potentially threatening our heritage and surrounding environs in more rapid or new ways. This PhD questions how coastal heritage sites will be threatened by future sea-level rise and other adverse risk by analysing past events, the engineering challenges to protect the site and the wider economic area, and what could be done to remediate risk, both in the UK and on a global scale.

Given the broad nature of this topic, the PhD research could take a number of different routes, including an analysis of heritage sites at risk on a global scale, local response and engineering measures, oceanographic threats or environmental valuation.

We would like to recruit in an excellent, multi-disciplinary student who possesses at least a 2:1 in engineering, oceanography, earth science, geography, environmental science or heritage background, and preferably with a Master’s degree. As a multi-disciplinary PhD, the student would be expected to learn a different discipline outside of their field and participate in further training. The fully-funded studentship (fees and stipend by Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Scholarship scheme) is open to UK/EU students only.

For more information, an informal discussion or if you intend to apply, please contact Dr Sally Brown. Closing date: 13th February. Interviews in March 2017.

If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, or if you intend to apply, please contact Dr Sally Brown, Faculty of Engineering and the Environment Email: sb20@soton.ac.uk, Tel: +44 (0) 2380 59 4796.

Further details:

• Job Description and Person Specification