Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo

Applications are invited for a 2-year Postdoctoral fellowship in pan-European drought
studies at the Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo.

The position is available within the new EU FP-7 Collaborative Project DROUGHT-R&SPI (Drought Research and Policy interfacing). The objective of the project is to reduce Europe's vulnerability and risk to drought by innovative in-depth studies that combine drought investigations at the pan-European scale with case study areas in water stressed regions (river basin and national scale) for both past and future climate. Drought studies will be performed at different scales to advance our understanding of drought as a natural hazard, its environmental and socio-economic impacts and vulnerabilities, risks and policy responses.

The position will primarily engage in work at the pan-European scale and more specifically perform a quantitative analysis of historical large-scale droughts. It will further contribute to the identification of sensitive regions in Europe based on the physical exposure to drought and projected future climate changes. This includes working with large-scale hydrological and climatological data and methodologies for spatial and temporal analysis of major drought events. In addition, the role of large-scale climate drivers in controlling drought development will be investigated and indicators and methodologies to support early warning of drought (monitoring and forecasting) indentified. The candidate will cooperate closely with international partners within DROUGHT-R&SPI, and contribute to the objectives and deliverables of Work package 1 Drought as a natural hazard.

The Postdoc researcher will further be involved in maintaining and updating the European Drought Centre (EDC) website (http://www.geo.uio.no/edc/), which is linked to the project, including the development of a database of historical drought events and their main impacts.

Required qualifications:

The candidate should have a general background in large-scale hydrology or hydroclimatology and a good process understanding of the main components of the hydrological cycle and its interface with the atmosphere. Experience in drought research and pan-European studies are beneficial. Applications are encouraged from dedicated candidates with strong quantitative skills and technical expertise in computer software and programming. More specifically, the candidate should have the ability to work with large data sets and own programming codes, combining data and observations with modeling (statistical or physically based) tools.

Application deadline: January 31, 2012
Reference number: 2011/13960
Home page: http://www.geo.uio.no
Contact: Professor Lena Tallaksen
Telephone: +47 22857214

More information and application at: https://uio.easycruit.com/vacancy/application/623360/64289?iso=gb