To apply for this project please click here. Tick programme type - Research, tick Full-time or Part-time, select Academic year – ‘2024/25, Faculty Environmental and Life Sciences’, search text – ‘PhD Ocean & Earth Science (FLOOD CDT)’. In Section 2 of the application form you should insert the name of the project and supervisor(s) you are interested in applying for. if you have any problems please contact I.D.Haigh@soton.ac.uk.
To apply for this project please click here. Tick programme type - Research, tick Full-time or Part-time, select Academic year – ‘2024/25, Faculty Environmental and Life Sciences’, search text – ‘PhD Ocean & Earth Science (FLOOD CDT)’. In Section 2 of the application form you should insert the name of the project and supervisor(s) you are interested in applying for. if you have any problems please contact I.D.Haigh@soton.ac.uk.
Coastal flooding is already 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 currently more than 50 storm 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 increasingly frequently. Increased used of barriers in the future has critical implications for barrier management, maintenance, and operation and also has negative ramifications for shipping (increasingly interrupting navigation with economic impacts) and the health of the estuary behind the barrier and the important ecosystems (e.g., saltmarshes and lagoon) they support. This project will focus on Venice (Italy), one of the world’s most famous cities because of its unique cultural heritage built over 1000 years. The entire city of Venice along with the lagoon constitutes a UNESCO World Heritage site. Venice also represents an important economic area (> 20 Billions Pound every year) based on tourism and shipping activities. Venice is especially vulnerable to flooding and the MOSE storm surge barrier has been built to protect the city. The overall aim of this PhD is to assess the impact of sea level rise and changes in storminess on flooding in Venice and to consider implications for the MOSE storm surge barrier. The impact of high-end sea level rise (> 1 m by 2100) due to collapse of the ice sheets will also be considered. Results will be used to guide future barrier management, maintenance, operation, and upgrade/replacement planning of the MOSE barrier.
The study will have three main components. First, a broad scale assessment will be carried out assessing how both mean and extreme sea-levels have changed in Venice lagoon in the past, using tide gauge records and model re-analysis, and assessing likely future changes using a range of projections. Second, a statistical method will be developing (building on existing work being carried out at the University of Southampton) to estimate, using climate change projections, how many more times the MOSE barriers will have to close each year and when in the year, in the future. Changes in weather predictability in a warming world will be assessed as part of this exercise. Today storm surge barriers typically close between 1 and 30 times per year, but with a sea level rise of 1 m, this will increase to >100 closures per year. An assessment will be made of implications of increased closures on storm surge barrier management and maintenance and operation. This will consider the engineering implications on integrity/reliability. Moreover, the role of inhomogeneity of data used in forecasting water levels and in the decisional support systems will be investigated in a scenario of rapid sea level rise. Third, the project will undertake a detailed numerically modelling exercise to consider how increased closures of the MOSE Barrier will impact on the ecosystem and water quality health of Venice Lagoon.
- Umgiesser, G., Bajo, M., Ferrarin, C., Cucco, A., Lionello, P., Zanchettin, D., Papa, A., Tosoni, A., Ferla, M., Coraci, E., Morucci, S., Crosato, F., Bonometto, A., Valentini, A., Orlić, M., Haigh, I. D., Nielsen, J. W., Bertin, X., Fortunato, A. B., Pérez Gómez, B., Alvarez Fanjul, E., Paradis, D., Jourdan, D., Pasquet, A., Mourre, B., Tintoré, J., and Nicholls, R. J.: The prediction of floods in Venice: methods, models and uncertainty (review article), Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 2679–2704, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-2679-2021, 2021. https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/21/2679/2021/
- Sunke Trace-Kleeberg, Ivan D. Haigh, Marc Walraven, Susan Gourvenec (2023) How should storm surge barrier maintenance strategies be changed in light of sea-level rise? A case study, Coastal Engineering, 184, 104336, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coastaleng.2023.104336.
