Developing social heat and flood vulnerability indices to support climate risk assessment and place-based adaptation_REP2025

Developing social heat and flood vulnerability indices to support climate risk assessment and place-based adaptation_REP2025

Lead Supervisor:
Dr Katie Jenkins

Locations:
University of East Anglia

Duration:
6 weeks

Suitable undergraduate degrees:
Environmental sciences, Physical Geography

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Project background

The successful applicant will contribute to an exciting new project the ‘Maximising UK Adaptation to Climate Change Hub’, funded by Defra and UKRI. As part of the programme staff from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change research are exploring how to enhance the usefulness and accessibility of climate risk data provided by models at the Tyndall Centre, to help support stakeholders with place-based adaptation decision making. The objective of this project is to create new projections of how social heat and flood vulnerability may change in the future under scenarios of socio-economic change.

To achieve this objective, the successful applicant will:

Review and apply existing methods to create social heat and/or flood vulnerability indices for the UK (using excel or programming language). Whilst existing indices consider data for the present day, this project will be novel in using the UK shared socio-economic pathways (UK-SSPs) data to create a timeseries of changing heat and flood vulnerability to 2100 under a variety of future socio-economic pathways.

The candidate will explore how vulnerability may differ under each of the five scenarios over time and the importance of including different metrics in the indices, such as income or education.

The candidate will explore how vulnerability may differ under each of the five scenarios regionally for the UK by creating spatial maps using GIS.

To provide a written report, reflecting on literature in the area, the method, results, analysis and applications of the indices.

As part of the project the candidate will be encouraged to use their initiative in expanding on current methods to test and develop the vulnerability indices and presenting results in different ways, with guidance providing from the supervisory team and different practitioners. To support this, the candidate will engage with project partners working on the MACC-HUB from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, such as the London Climate Ready Partnership, including presenting and discussing the indices during online meetings.

Ultimately, the outputs from the project will be used in workshops run as part of the MACC-HUB to help explore how climate risk data and socio-economic data can be used in informing adaptation decision-making.

Eligibilty criteria

Students must meet all of the eligibility requirements listed below to apply for a REP:

  • Be undertaking their first undergraduate degree studies (or integrated Masters) – note that students in in their final year who have graduated and no longer have student status at the time the placement starts are not eligible;
  • Be eligible for subsequent NERC PhD funding (please see the relevant text in the Terms and conditions for training funding and associated guidance for further information); and
  • have the right to work in the UK.

 

Students from outside the UK who do not already have right to work in the UK, should not apply.

How to apply

The deadline for applications will be 12:00 on Monday 19 May 2025.  

In order to be considered for a placement, please apply to aries.dtp@uea.ac.uk providing the following:

  • A supporting statement explaining your motivation for applying for this project. Please include answers to the following questions:
    • which project are you applying for?
    • why have you applied for this project (e.g. what interested you about this project, what in particular made you want to undertake this research)?
    • what do you hope to achieve by undertaking this placement (e.g. is it for experience, to gain skills, to develop your interests)?
    • what skills do you have that make you an ideal candidate for this placement (e.g. what skills have you developed during your degree that might apply)?
    • what do you hope to do when you complete your degree (e.g. have you considered a working in scientific research in the future, or is this your first experience)?
  • A recent CV
  • A reference from your personal tutor (please ask your tutor to send this to us directly)
  • An interim transcript if available
  • Please also complete the online EDI form (this form is a mandatory part of the application process, but contains ‘prefer not to say’ options for all questions asked)
Selection process

·  Applications are screened for eligibility

·  Applications are forwarded to supervisors (the EDI form is not included)

·  Supervisors shortlist candidates and interview for the placement.

Candidates will be scored according to the following criteria:

  • Fit to project (e.g. your current skills, area of study, interests)
  • Enthusiasm for environmental research (e.g. what you hope to achieve through undertaking this placement, why you chose this project in particular)
  • Evidence of suitability to undertake a research placement (e.g. evidence from your tutor reference, transcript, and CV that you are an engaged student)

Successful candidates will be informed by Friday 13th June 2025