About the Project
Flooding is the leading natural threat to the UK (jointly with storms), and the intensity and losses are expected to increase with the changing climate. Flood embankments, which are long linear structures constructed from rock and earth, are a key defence along the UK’s rivers and coasts. A changing climate puts these structures under additional stress, due to hotter summers (generating dry cracking) and wetter winters (increasing water influx), impacting their efficacy and resilience. This accelerates the deterioration of these structures, many of which are at the end of their design life, and can lead to catastrophic failure and major flood events. In addition, they can be difficult to monitor non-invasively and routinely, making the potential degradation a concerning unknown given that key deterioration processes are initiated in the subsurface – with surface expression only occurring at a late stage incurring much higher costs than early intervention. This PhD project will advance non-invasive geophysical monitoring and imaging techniques for flood embankments. These techniques can inform targeted engineering interventions to boost the UK’s resilience to the growing flood risk. The project is embedded in a collaboration between Bristol academics, industry experts from AtkinsRĂ©alis, the British Geological Survey and the Environment Agency.
The project will deploy cutting-edge geophysical techniques to survey and image flood embankments using both active and passive surveys at select test sites. These non-invasive techniques have the potential to provide detailed spatial information about the interior state of embankments and, with repeat surveys, their changes over time. We will employ multiple geophysical techniques, which together constrain the subsurface more accurately. Survey techniques will include electric and seismic methods, such as Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT), active and passive seismics, distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) Capacitive Resistivity Imaging (CRI) and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). Fibre-optic cable based sensing (e.g. DAS) is a particularly promising new technology that requires development, including AI-based data analysis and modelling techniques. Research will involve 1) the design of multi-method geophysical surveys for embankments, 2) conducting the surveys at select test sites, 3) adapting geophysical data processing, inversion and modelling methods for the scale and geometry of river embankments (including the potential use of AI/ML based methods), 4) assessing the influence of environmental factors on embankment performance, and 5) depending on the student’s interest, exploring targeted engineering solutions.
How to Apply
All applications should be made online. Under programme Geography (PhD). Start date ‘Apply for September 2026 Start‘.
To ensure your application is considered under the NERC FLOODS CDT funding you must complete the Funding page in your online PhD application as follows:
1. Select Studentship for What is your likely source of funding?
2. Enter NERC FLOODS CDT in the free text Please give the name of your scholarship or Studentship field.
3. Set Percentage from this source to 100%
4. Set Is this funding already secured? to No
You may find it useful to watch the prospective applicant webinar here.
