CASE PhD Scholarships
Awarded each academic year in:-
Water Research: Transport of Particulates and Sediments in Rivers
Civil & Mechanical Division, School of Engineering
Scholar Stipend £13,000 pa

Funded by EPSRC and supported by the professional environmental consultancy ECUS Ltd (www.ecusltd.co.uk). This PhD studentship provides an opportunity to combine industrial experience and a research project leading to a PhD. We seek applications from well-qualified candidates to "improve our understanding of the transport of particulates and sediments in freshwater". Based on our current research on contaminated highway-runoff in receiving waters during the last five years, this project should extend the knowledge of transportation and sedimentation of contaminated particulates and thus allow us to better define the ecological impacts of such phenomena. The studentship is available from January 2008 (some flexibility), and is open to UK and EU (fees-only) applicants. The studentship covers all tuition fees and provides a standard (tax-free) EPSRC stipend of approximately £13,000 p.a. for 3.5 years.

Many contaminants in highway runoff are associated with particulate material, the dispersal, accumulation and re-distribution of which depend on the hydraulics of both the highway drainage system and the receiving watercourse. The impact that these contaminated sediments have on the biota of receiving waters depends on how contaminants are partitioned in the environment, how bioavailable they are, and to what extent they bioaccumulate in organisms.

In this project it is intended to investigate the spatial and temporal variations of the runoff-borne sediment and predict its distribution and behaviour in receiving watercourses.

This project will explore the processes which control the dispersion, accumulation and re-distribution of the particulate sediments via a combination of numerical modelling, laboratory flume experiments and (potentially) field monitoring. It is envisaged that the project will generate recommendations for modelling runoff-borne sediments in receiving waters. These findings will also be useful for understanding potential pressures on ecological quality and for designing appropriate programmes of measures for ecological remediation under the new EU Water Framework Directive. The project will yield an improved understanding of the role of bed sediments as transient storage (the temporary detainment of solutes) within flowing water bodies, which affects the transport of pollutants as they travel downstream in river systems.

The Warwick Water research group and the Warwick Fluid Dynamics research group together offer a unique combination of expertise in both modelling and experimental methodologies. We therefore require a highly motivated PhD student with undergraduate/MSc qualifications in civil engineering, physical geography or earth and environmental science subject areas. The studentship is available to candidates with the equivalent of a first class or upper second class degree. The successful applicant would be primarily based in the School of Engineering at The University of Warwick, although approximately 1 month per year will be spent at ECUS Ltd., Sheffield.

Informal enquiries and applications should be directed to Dr. Klaus Richter
Email: k.richter@warwick.ac.uk, Tel +44 (0) 24 765 23123
Web: go.warwick.ac.uk/warwickwater