Habitat dependence of tipping points in upland soils and implications for natural flood management

About the Project

Project Overview:

Flooding and drought are intensifying under climate change. Natural Flood Management can reduce flood risk by restoring natural hydrological processes. This project addresses a key real-world challenge: how to optimise land and soil management in uplands using computer modelling to enhance infiltration, reduce runoff, and build resilience to extreme weather.

Project Description:

Soil structure is central to this hydrological partitioning, yet it is sensitive to extremes and management. Layered organo-mineral soils, covering ~20% of the UK, may respond to extremes with alternative stable states (Robinson et al. 2016), affecting local-scale flood risk and unknown consequences for intermediate scales. Management of these soils, especially mixing, may alter hydrological partitioning that the modelling will explore.

This project will develop new dynamic models to investigate how upland soils respond to management and drought and how these changes influence infiltration–runoff dynamics. The findings will directly inform the design and targeting of natural flood management interventions, supporting sustainable land management that works with natural processes to deliver multiple environmental and societal benefits.

The core methodology for this work is multiscale mathematical modelling that is closely integrated with experimental observations/data to enable new system function predictions in the changing climate. This will be achieved by combining analytical model reduction methods (asymptotic expansions) with numerical modelling methodologies and predictive machine learning (ML) and agentic AI processes to enable fast and accurate model prediction/usage that would be compatible to be integrated into web-based surveillance tools.

We are looking for:

• Familiarity with mathematical modelling of transport processes using computational and analytic approaches.

This project will be located at: University of Southampton

Entry Requirements:

Applicants must already have, or expect to shortly graduate with, an undergraduate degree or Master’s degree (at least a UK 2:1 honours degree) in a relevant subject.

Please note: Due to funding limitations, this opportunity is only available for applicants that qualify for home fees/ UK nationals

How to apply:

All applications should be submitted by 11:59pm on Sunday 24th May 2026.

*We are hosting a webinar with Q&A for prospective applicants on 26th November at 2:00pm (GMT) please register HERE.*

Applications should include:

• CV/ résumé giving details of your academic record, any relevant work history and stating your research interests.
• Name two current academic referees together with their institutional email addresses in the Reference section of the application form.
• Your academic transcript and degree certificate (translated if not in English) - if you have completed both a BSc & an MSc, we require both.
• Include a short statement of your research interests in flooding, motivation for applying to FLOOD-CDT and rationale for your choice of project(s), in the Personal Statement section of the application form.

Please ensure that you provide all required documentation and information so that your application can be reviewed and processed.

Please upload all documents in PDF format. You are encouraged to contact potential supervisors by email to discuss project-specific aspects of the proposed prior to submitting your application.

Please enter the project title and lead supervisor’s name in Section 2 to state which project you would like to apply for.

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For further information on our application guidance, as well as personal statement and interview guidance, please see our website.

Funding Notes

The Centre for Doctoral Training for Resilient Flood Futures (FLOOD-CDT) funds PhD researchers for 3.5 years, full- or part-time. A FLOOD-CDT studentship includes a tax-free stipend at the UKRI standard rate (£21,805 for the academic year 2026/27). Funding covers home tuition fees. Additionally, FLOOD-CDT provides a Research Training Support Grant of £8000 across the lifetime of the PhD, to be used on small project costs, conference attendance and individual training needs.