Last application date Apr 30, 2024 00:00
Department TW15 - Department of Civil Engineering
Contract Limited duration
Degree a Master’s degree in civil engineering, coastal/offshore engineering, (electro) mechanical engineering, or a related area, with a proven strong knowledge on coastal or offshore structures.
Occupancy rate 100%
Vacancy type Research staff
VACANCY FOR PHD POSITION ON NATURE-INCLUSIVE-DESIGN OF ADAPTED MARINE INFRASTRUCTURE USING OYSTER REEFS (PER30/2194)
PROJECT BACKGROUND
Driven by the EU legislation and governmental interest worldwide, nature-inclusive-design (NID) solutions targeting nature conservation and restoration, are becoming crucial in marine infrastructure projects. Such an example are NIDs based on European flat oysters (Ostrea edulis) which are ecosystem engineers creating reefs that provide shelter, food and breeding habitats to a wide range of marine species. Oyster reefs used to be widely present in Europe, however, fishing and harvesting has destroyed most of these reefs thereby supressing their important ecosystem role. On the other hand, offshore marine infrastructure, such as wind parks and artificial islands, provide new opportunities because they can serve as suitable locations for oyster reef restoration or creation, as part of their nature-inclusive-design. However, methodologies for offshore flat oyster reef restoration or creation integrated in marine infrastructure, and at the same time applicable to the Belgian part of the North Sea, do not exist yet.
In view of the knowledge gaps which currently hinder large-scale flat oyster reef restoration, creation and integration in offshore marine infrastructure, the “REEFCOVERY” project has been recently introduced. REEFCOVERY is an ICON project (“Interdisciplinair Coöperatief onderzoek”) funded by VLAIO (Flanders innovation & entrepreneurship agency) through the yearly calls organised by the spearhead Blue Cluster. Project partners: Jan De Nul nv (project coordinator), Ghent University (three research groups), ResourceFull and DEME.
The project’s main objective is to overcome current scientific and technological challenges related to the understanding, design, installation, survivability, maintenance and monitoring of these reef ecosystems. Consequently, the target of Reefcovery is to investigate conditions that are necessary to ‘kick-start’ self-sustaining large-scale flat oyster reefs in North Sea conditions. The oyster NIDs which will be investigated within Reefcovery will support future large-scale restoration of habitats and marine ecosystem functioning as well as oyster reef applications as part of the nature-inclusive-design of nearshore and offshore marine infrastructure, i.e. biogenic reefs integrated in: coastal structures, scour protection of offshore wind monopiles, cable crossings, artificial energy islands, multi-use offshore platforms, etc.
In order to ensure successful application of large-scale oyster NIDs four “Research Lines” have been defined in the Reefcovery project. The research line referring to the present PhD topic is focussing on numerical and experimental investigation of the structural lay-out and hydrodynamic performance of the proposed NID oyster reefs. These reefs should enable marine structures to keep their primary functionality while supporting reef formation and biodiversity increase. In this research line, also large-scale installation techniques of oyster reefs, hydrodynamic survivability of the reefs (materials and structure), and reef operational efficiency and effective installation will be investigated.
TASK DESCRIPTION
The research will be carried out to develop and apply a framework to assess nature-inclusive designs for offshore infrastructure by numerical and physical modelling of wave-structure interactions for artificial biogenic reefs. Layout designs of oyster reef solutions will be developed during the project using input delivered by all four Research Lines of the project.
Within REEFCOVERY, you will be responsible for:
PROFILE
WHAT WE CAN OFFER YOU
APPLICATION DETAILS
To apply, please send your full CV with a cover letter indicating the reference number of the vacancy (PER30/2194), and explaining your motivation for this vacancy and highlighting any previous experience of coastal/ocean engineering and numerical modelling of wave-structure interaction, to Rafail.Ioannou@UGent.be and AWW@UGent.be before 30th April 2024.
Please send in addition a list with the names and contact details (address, telephone, e-mail) of at least one, but preferably up to three referees, closely associated with your expertise and skills.
MORE INFORMATION
For more information about this vacancy, please contact Prof. Peter Troch (Peter.Troch@UGent.be) and Rafail Ioannou (Rafail.Ioannou@UGent.be).
Ghent University is one of the top 100 universities in the Dutch language area, with more than 44,000 students and 15,000 staff members.
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