Apologies for cross postings -
Please bring the opportunity below to the attention of any potential
candidates. Many thanks,
Richard
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PhD Studentship: MODELLING THE FINE-SCALE SPATIAL-TEMPORAL
STRUCTURE OF RAINFALL FOR HYDROLOGICAL APPLICATION
Department of Statistical Science, University College London
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London
A 3 year NERC/EPSRC funded studentship under the Environmental Mathematics
and Statistics initiative is available, for a project to analyse the
spatial and temporal structure of rainfall processes and evaluate the
implications for hydrological applications, including flooding. The award
covers fees and a maintenance stipend of 18,000 pounds per annum (free of
tax) in 2004/5. The project involves collaboration with UK and New Zealand
experimental radar groups and builds on a long-standing interdisciplinary
research collaboration between statisticians at University College London
and hydrologists at Imperial College, led by the supervisors (Dr RE
Chandler and Prof V Isham at UCL, Prof HS Wheater and Dr CJ Onof at Imperial).
Eligibility: Full studentships are available to UK applicants. Other EU
applicants may apply for a "fees-only" award. Non-EU residents are not
available for funding.
Deadline for applications: Friday 3 December 2004
This project will suit those who have a keen interest in applied stochastic
modelling in an environmental context. Applicants should have a strong
background in mathematical and statistical modelling; a Master's degree in
a relevant subject would be an advantage. Informal enquiries may be made to
the supervisors by email at [log in to unmask] or
[log in to unmask] Applications should be sent to both these
addresses, to include a CV and the names and email addresses of two referees.
Project description:
Rainfall is a basic input to hydrological models used for flood, water
resources and water quality management. The variability of rainfall in
space and time is of particular importance for flood design and flood
forecasting, and new flood design tools require continuous simulation of
rainfall fields. Despite recent developments in the national radar network,
data routinely available in the UK provide limited information on the
fine-scale structure of rainfall, in either space or time. This is a
particular concern for urban flooding, where flood response is rapid, and
sensitive to localised intense rainfall.
Although high-resolution observational rainfall data are still almost
non-existent in the UK, international developments are providing such data
elsewhere. These data demonstrate important, previously unobserved spatial
and temporal properties of rainfall fields, with significant implications
for hydrological processes and also for the calibration of conventional
rainfall radars.
This proposal will make use of the UK Chilbolton research radar facility,
in conjunction with research data from New Zealand, to provide
high-resolution rainfall data in space and time. The aims of the proposal
are to
a. analyse the fine-scale spatial and temporal
structure of the rainfall processes;
b. evaluate the implications of this structure
for hydrological processes, in particular urban
flooding;
c. develop space-time rainfall models and disaggregation
schemes to represent this structure as appropriate
for hydrological applications;
d. evaluate the implications of this structure for
the interpretation and calibration of conventional
radar rainfall data.
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Richard E. Chandler
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Room 135, Dept of Statistical Science, University College London,
1-19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 6BT, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 1880 Fax: +44 (0)20 7383 4703
Internet: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Stats (department)
http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~ucakarc (personal)
email: [log in to unmask]
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