项目介绍

2024年12月23日

Function

Are you a curiosity driven and highly motivated researcher with a fascination for systems analysis of current nutrient and water flows? Would you like understand how nutrient and water flows will change through future developments, for example, climate change or increased circularity? Do you like to explore the potential for increased use efficiency of nutrients and water as well as new and existing recycling or recovery pathways? Then you could be the ideal PhD candidate to join our team!

Why this PhD position?
This project strives towards finding solutions and/or innovations for optimizing the resource cycles of nutrients and water in the province of Zeeland. This implies preventing unwanted leaks from the cycles and promoting its intentional use by recovery and re-use. The main pathways of the nutrients and water are known. However, the magnitude of anthropogenic and natural macro-nutrient flows is not known and the same thus holds for a nutrient budget (what goes in and out and what is released to the (marine) environment), as well as a detailed water balance. In addition, potential perturbations in the water and nutrient flows due to climate change have not been evaluated. All are crucial to assess the major opportunities for circularity.

What will you do?
Using Material Flow Analysis, the current pathways and quantity for water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus inputs, internal recycling and outputs will be mapped. Existing data could be supplemented with newly generated data on e.g. water quality of agricultural run-off. The outputs to soil, air and water (i.e., the sinks) will be compared to critical outputs based on local environmental thresholds, and to critical losses and input. System dynamics will incorporate the influence of seasonality and possible changes in land use or crop choice. Taking this inventory as a basis, future scenarios of freshwater supply and demand can be evaluated to assess the future needs of fresh water in the region. For the nutrients, an inventory, followed by an evaluation, will be made of possible technologies or recovery cases.

You will work here
You will be involved in an exciting new institute (1 year old) focussed on the issues in the Zeeland delta and with a wider goal to address these in other deltas. Your contribution in research and education will be part of one of three projects that are linked and will be shaping the research agenda for the future. The research is performed at the Delta Climate Center in Vlissingen, but occasionally also at the Environmental Technology (ETE) department in Wageningen.

The main three themes of the Delta Climate Center are food security, water security and availability and circularity in which all six partners of the DCC are involved: Scalda, Hogeschool Zeeland, University College Roosevelt, NIOZ, Utrecht University and Wageningen University and research. You will become member of the ‘Biorecovery’ subgroup of ETE, which is led by prof. Annemiek ter Heijne. You will be supervised by dr. Paula van den Brink, dr. Hans Cappon and dr. Renata van der Weijden.

Function Requirements

• you have – or will soon obtain – an MSc degree in environmental engineering, environmental technology, urban environmental management, environmental system analyses or a related field from an internationally recognized two-year master program taught in English;
• you have experience with or are interested in Material Flow Analysis;
• you understand the importance of and have interest in circularity, water reuse or resource recovery;
• you can think in and work with a multidisciplinary approach;
• you like working as a team besides individual work;
• you are proactive in your work, involved actively in your working environment and capable of independently addressing and solving research problems.

For this position some proficiency of the Dutch language is desired. Your command of the English language is expected to be at C1 level. Sometimes it is necessary to submit an internationally recognized Certificate of Proficiency in the English Language. More information can be found here.

Contactinformation

For more information about this position, please contact Renata van der Weijden, Professor, by e-mail: renata.vanderweijden@wur.nl.

For more information about the procedure, please contact Rutger Voorrips, corporate recruiter, by e-mail: rutger.voorrips@wur.nl.