The project “The long-term relationship between sea-level change and sedimentation in the North Sea” (funding: NIOZ-UU 2020.33) involves computer modelling of sea-level and the bending of the crust under changing weights of ice, water and sediments. This is called glacioisostasy, hydroisostasy and sedimentation-isostasy respectively.  Numeric modeling of glacio- and hydroisostasy is quite established. How to properly include sedimentation, however, and how much that affects established understanding of sea-level rise, is to be researched and discovered. The PhD student will do this by developing data-assimilation techniques taking in geological mapping products of the Netherlands and building out NIOZ-UU’s geophysical modelling suite.

See: https://www.nioz.nl/en/research/uu-nioz-projects/sea-level-relationships

• dr. Kim Cohen

• Dr. Paolo Stocchi (NIOZ)

Delta areas, as unique ecosystems, are among the most densely populated areas in the world. Deltas are under increasing human and natural pressure. Future global change, with intensifying human activity, increasing weather extremes, changing river flow regimes and accelerated sea-level rise, will put deltas and their societies at increasing risk.

We therefore need deltas that are resilient to natural hazards, make sustainable use of natural resources, have healthy environmental conditions, and are able to cope with future climate change and sea-level rise. It is now the moment for science and society to find sustainable pathways into such future. This requires addressing the wide variety of processes - physical, chemical, biological, institutional and socio-economic – that interact in deltas in an integrated approach.

In the hub Water, Climate and Future Deltas researchers from varying disciplines at Utrecht University cooperate with external partners to design and evaluate pathways to sustainable delta development. The hub will provide policy makers and delta managers with the essential scientific basis for informed decision-making on pathways towards sustainable deltas.

https://www.uu.nl/en/research/sustainability/research/water-climate-future-deltas

• prof. dr. Martin Wassen
• prof. dr. Esther Stouthamer
• prof. mr. dr. Frank Groothuijse
• prof. mr. Marleen van Rijswick
• dr. ir. M.M. (Mariet) Hefting
• prof. dr. Detlef van Vuuren
• prof. dr. Hans Middelkoop
• dr. Murray Scown
• dr. H. (Haomiao) Du

• Dr. Marjolijn Haasnoot - Deltares
• Dr. Gilles Erkens - Deltares
• Drs. Henk van Hardeveld - HDSR