About the project
Coastal flooding is one of the most dangerous and costly natural hazards that humanity faces globally and yet it will become even more frequent and challenging to manage because of climate change and other factors. In densely populated estuarine settings, a storm surge barrier is often an attractive and economical solution for flood protection.
There are many surge barriers in operation today around the world protecting tens of million people and trillions of pounds of property and infrastructure. However, with accelerating rates of sea-level rise being observed and changes in storminess, surge barriers are starting to have to close more and more frequently, with critical implications for barrier management, maintenance, and operation. This has also negative ramifications for shipping and the health of the estuary behind barriers and the important ecosystems they support.
This project will focus on areas of Europe most vulnerable to coastal flooding: Venice, Netherlands and London.
The overall aims of this PhD are to:
- Improve forecast of flooding through Artificial Intelligence and develop early warning systems essential for storm barrier management and risk mitigation
- Assess the impact of sea level rise and changes in storminess on flooding in these areas, considering near and long-term implications for the storm surge barriers that protect them
Results will be used to guide future barrier management, maintenance, operation, and upgrade/replacement planning.
The study will have three main components.
First a broad scale assessment will be carried out determining how both mean and extreme sea-levels have changed in the past in Venice, London and Netherlands, using tide gauge records, satellite observations and model re-analysis.
Second, to use new AI approaches to improve forecast of storm surges in these areas, developing early warning systems. Knowledge obtained during the initial assessment will be essential to select training data for AI.
Finally, future changes in sea level and extremes will be assessed using a range of climate projections.
A statistical method will be developed (building on existing work being carried out at the University of Southampton) to estimate how many more times the barriers will have to close each year and when in the year, in the future.
Please contact the lead supervisor if you require further information about the project.
Potential supervisors
Lead supervisor
Dr Alessandro Silvano
NERC Independent Research Fellow
Supervisors
IH
Professor Ivan Haigh
Professor
Research interests
- I currently have 8 active research grants (4 as principle investigator (PI)) worth £4.8M.
- I am the PI on two international grants that started in 2019, both looking at compound flooding. Compound flooding (when the combination, or successive occurrence of, two or more hazard events leads to an extreme impact e.g., coastal and fluvial flooding), can greatly exacerbate the adverse consequences associated with flooding in coastal regions and yet it remains under-appreciated and poorly understood. In the £788k NERC- and NSF- (US National Science Foundation) funded CHANCE project, I am leading a team (working alongside researchers from the University of Central Florida), to deliver a new integrated approach to make a step-change in our understanding, and prediction of, the source mechanisms driving compound flood events in coastal areas around the North Atlantic basin. In the £575k NERC- and NAFOSTED- (Vietnam’s National Foundation for Science and Technology Development) funded project, I am leading a team that is working with colleagues in Vietnam to map and characterise present, and predict future, flood risk from coastal, fluvial, and surface sources and, uniquely, to assess the risk of compound flooding across the Mekong delta; one of the three most vulnerable deltas in the world. I am also the PI on a grant, which started in 2021. In this 41k project, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat), we are assessing past and future closures of the six storm surge barriers in the Netherlands.
- In 2021, I was awarded a 3-year (50% of my time) prestigious Knowledge Exchange Fellowship funded by NERC (UK’s Natural Environmental Research Council) and worth £154k. This fellowship builds strongly on my prior research and the overall goal is to provide guidance and tools that will help storm surge barrier operators better prepare for the impacts of climate change across every area of their operation now and into the future. Within the fellowship I am working primary with the UK Environment Agency (EA) and the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat). However, to ensure the work undertaken can benefit all the existing (and planned) surge barriers around the world, I am also working closely with I-STORM. I-STORM is an international knowledge sharing network for professionals relating to the management, operation and maintenance of storm surge barriers, and has representation from all the surge barriers worldwide.
Entry requirements
You must have a UK 2:1 honours degree or higher in a relevant subject.
You can also have its international equivalent.
International applications
If English is not your first language, you will need an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) overall score of 6.5, with a minimum of 6.0 in all components.
Visit our English language proficiency pages to find out about other qualifications we accept.
Fees and funding
For UK students, tuition fees and a stipend of £15,285 tax-free per annum for up to 3.5 years.
How to apply
Apply now
You need to:
- choose programme type (Research), 2025/26, Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences
- choose PhD in Ocean and Earth Science FLOOD CDT (full time)
- add the project title under ‘Topic or field of research proposed’
- add your supervisor in section 2
Applications should include:
- a 1 page statement of your research interests in flooding and FLOOD-CDT and your rationale for your choice of project
- a CV (resumé) giving details of your academic record and stating your research interests
- name two current academic referees together with institutional email addresses (on submission of your online application your referees will be automatically emailed requesting they send a reference to us directly by email)
- academic transcripts and degree certificates (translated if not in English) – if you have completed both a BSc and an MSc, we require both
- an IELTS/TOEFL certificate, if applicable.
Contact us
Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences
If you have a general question, email our doctoral college: fels-pgr-apply@soton.ac.uk.
Project leader
For project specific queries, email the lead supervisor Alessandro Silvano: A.Silvano@soton.ac.uk.
