Hydrogeology@UCL seeks a PhD research candidate to conduct research to determine if Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) can be used to detect and quantify near-stream groundwater change and infer associated changes in groundwater-river connectivity in restored and non-restored Chalk catchments. The position is part of the UCL EPSRC Doctoral Landscape Award (UELA) Studentships to undertake fully-funded four-year PhD studentships at UCL. The PhD candidate will be supervised by Dr. Brian Thomas in the Department of Earth Sciences.
Only home students will be considered for this project. You should check the UCL requirements for home student status prior to asking for more information.
This is a competitive PhD program, meaning that not all projects will be funded. Please email me directly (brian.thomas at ucl.ac.uk) with interest and a CV prior to applying through the UCL EPSRC portal. You can find useful application information here.
Project Description: Around 85% of the world’s chalk streams occur in England. These groundwater-fed river systems depend on hydrological connectivity between the river channel, adjacent floodplains and associated superficial groundwater storage, and the underlying Chalk aquifer. Restoration schemes across England aim to reverse centuries of channel modifications with the primary goal of restoring natural hydrological functioning. Historically, assessment of restoration outcomes relied on sparse field measurements that provide limited spatial and temporal coverage and lack transferability given variable hydrological and geological conditions between restoration sites.
Consequently, despite substantial investment in restoration schemes, determining whether restoration has altered groundwater-river connectivity remains challenging, creating a need for methods capable of addressing restoration efficacy. This project will investigate whether Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) can be used to detect and quantify near-stream groundwater change and infer associated changes in groundwater-river connectivity in restored and non-restored catchments. Combining satellite observations, hydrogeological and geological datasets and modelling, the candidate will establish methods for assessing groundwater-river connectivity following restoration. Research will focus on retrieval of surface deformation signals linked to groundwater-river connectivity and determining how deformation signals vary across restored and non-restored stream reaches. The research will identify deformation patterns in restored and non-restored catchments, relate those patterns to groundwater storage changes, quantify uncertainty in inferred groundwater-river connectivity relationships, and evaluate the potential of InSAR-based workflows for restoration assessment.
