Researcher (m/f) one impact of climate change on the mountain water cycle Eurac

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David K

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Mar 24, 2023, 2:08:12 PM3/24/23

to Hydrologic Science

Dear all,

I advertise this very interesting position in the research group I am working:

Researcher (m/f) in the field of hydrological modelling and earth observation for assessing the impact of climate change on the mountain water cycle

Eurac research, Bozen/Bolzano

Institute for Alpine Environment

Researcher (m/f) in the field of hydrological modelling and earth observation for assessing the impact of climate change on the mountain water cycle
The EURAC Center for Climate Change and Transformation (CCT) is an interdisciplinary platform created in Eurac Research to bring together the expertise and experience of all EURAC institutes that are working on climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.
One of our main interests is to understand and model the impacts of climate change on glaciers, snow, hydrology, soil, and vegetation as well as its effect on the intensification of hazards.
The successful candidate will support EURAC Institutes for Alpine Environment and Earth Observations in the framework of EURAC-CCT by performing research activities on assessing the impact of climate change on the mountain water cycle and on drought risk intensification.
The position is fully funded within the framework of the Italian PNRR Project RETURN. RETURN (multi-Risk sciEnce for resilienT commUnities undeR a changiNg climate) is a 3-year project funded by the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) on the topic of risk. The selected candidate will work under the activities of the project spoke " VS1 Water".
The project focuses specifically on: improving the identification in space and time of key physical and societal drivers of changing risk processes; improving risk predictability from short to long time scales; showing the value of the ensuing seamless prediction tools for effective water-related risk management. The activities will be mainly in “VS1- WP3” – Drought risk under environmental and climatic changes. The spoke will develop a validated proof of concept for a Digital Twin to provide a more holistic risk management approach.

Tasks:

It is expected that the candidate will:

Support the implementation of research activities within the Spoke WS1 “Water”. The activities comprise the following topics: using and developing hydrological models to describe the different components of the water cycle; energy balance modeling of evapotranspiration based on earth observation data from the Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3; analyzing timeseries of climate and hydrological data; using techniques such as data fusion and AI for integrating different type of data; calibrating and running distributed hydrological models, mainly focusing on the Alpine region
Participation in internal and external project meetings, presentation of results to project partners and in national and international conferences
Writing of project reports and scientific publications

Requirements:

Essential

Applicants must hold a doctoral degree (PhD) or a master’s degree (or equivalent) in a relevant field (e.g., Hydrology, Engineering, Physics, Geosciences, etc.) to apply
Knowledge of hydrological and climate processes
Programming skills: demonstrated experience in at least one programming language such as Python or R
Good understanding and experience with geospatial data (raster & vector)
Experience with earth observation software tools (e.g., gdal, SNAP)
Data analysis and visualization skills for spatial and temporal data 
Ability in team working, good communication, motivation to learn and flexibility
Certified B2 level of English and Italian knowledge
Relocating to Bolzano or nearby cities

Desired

Capability to use HPC clusters
Basic knowledge of machine learning methods
Knowledge of GIS Systems (GRASS software suite, QuantumGIS, ArcGIS, etc.)
Experience working with a Linux environment and command-line (shell)
Experience with processing satellite data for environmental monitoring

We offer:

2-year contract, extendable to 3
An interesting, highly responsible job in a young international and interdisciplinary team
State-of-the-art technical facilities (soft- and hardware, communication tools)
Professional development opportunities
Flexible working hours
Benefits (e.g., family-friendly benefits, etc.)
Access to EURAC’s numerous scientific and cultural facilities and events
An attractive working place in a vivid city in the heart of the Alps with endless opportunities for skiing, hiking, climbing