PhD Position on Modelling Human Behavior in Response to Changes in Urban Heat and Air Quality

Are you interested in simulating human behaviour and making that part of one of the biggest digital twins for Destination Earth? Join our multinational European team to create true impact.

Job Description

Today, cities face significant challenges caused by climate change and environmental degradation. More frequent heat waves and human activities contribute to deteriorating air quality. The dense and high-rise urban fabric and the high population density in urban areas complicate maintaining healthy environments. Poor air quality and heat affect human health by increasing vulnerability to pandemics and reducinag lung function. Worse health outcomes also have economic consequences by affecting citizens’ economic productivity1. Poorer communities are disproportionately vulnerable, raising climate injustice concerns, and highlighting the crucial need for balanced decision making in urban design to ensure a healthy environment in modern cities. 

Urban design decisions ideally rely on a balanced evaluation of criteria, utilizing science-based scenarios for atmospheric flow and human behaviour from digital twins (DT). These decision support tools must represent Earth-system processes at high resolution. The UrbanAIR project empowers municipalities not only to understand the consequences of choices in urban design on the environment, but also to adapt the city landscape to climate change, and to ensure citizens’ safety in case of an extreme event (heat wave, excessive pollution). 
 

This PhD project will focus on the socio-economic impacts of atmospheric climate change and hazards. It uses empirical methods (e.g. household surveys) to study private adaptation decisions with computational social science methods (e.g. spatial agent-based modelling) to explore how human behaviour evolves in various urban environments under climate stresses in particular heat. The PhD project will deliver two behavioral models one for city of Barclona and one for Antwerp. This modeling effort will be accompanied by survey on households (designed by the student and executed by external entities) and other data. Moreover, connecting behavioral insights to the DT developed in the UranAIR project and using environmental data from the DT to use in the behavioral models is an important aspect of this  PhD project. 

Job requirements

A candidate should ideally have:

• Master’s degree in Environmental Studies; Spatial or Environmental Economics; Complex Systems Science. 
• Previous experience with agent-based modeling or with one of the programming languages (Python; Java; C++; Julia) is an advantage.
• Capacity to perform statistical data analysis is beneficial.
• Domain knowledge in the field of coupled social-environmental systems, climate change adaptation or global environmental change in general is an advantage.
• Excellent written and spoken command of English. For more details please check here the Graduate Schools Admission Requirements. 
   

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)

Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty Technology, Policy & Management

The Faculty of TPM provides an important contribution to solving complex technical-social issues, such as energy transition, mobility, digitalisation, water management and (cyber) security. TPM does this with its excellent education and research at the intersection of technology, society and policy. We combine insights from both engineering and social sciences as well as the humanities. TPM develops robust models and designs, is internationally oriented and has an extensive network of knowledge institutions, companies, social organisations and governments.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management.

Conditions of employment 

Doctoral candidates will be offered a 4-year period of employment in principle, but in the form of 2 employment contracts. An initial 1,5 year contract with an official go/no go progress assessment within 15 months. Followed by an additional contract for the remaining 2,5 years assuming everything goes well and performance requirements are met. 

Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, increasing from € 2872 per month in the first year to € 3670 in the fourth year. As a PhD candidate you will be enrolled in the TU Delft Graduate School. The TU Delft Graduate School provides an inspiring research environment with an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff and a mentor. The Doctoral Education Programme is aimed at developing your transferable, discipline-related and research skills. 

The TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, discounts on health insurance, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged.  

For international applicants, TU Delft has the Coming to Delft Service. This service provides information for new international employees to help you prepare the relocation and to settle in the Netherlands. The Coming to Delft Service offers a Dual Career Programme for partners and they organise events to expand your (social) network.

Additional information

If you would like more information about this vacancy or the selection procedure, please contact Dr. Amineh Ghorbani (TU Delft; a.ghorbani@tudelft.nl). For information about the application procedure, contact the HR Advisor Martine van de Vorst, email: recruitment-tbm@tudelft.nl.  

Application procedure

Are you interested in this vacancy? Please apply no later than 1 December 2024 via the application button and upload the following documents:

• CV
• Motivational letter
• Your MSc transcript with grades
• 2 names of potential referees

Doing a PhD at TU Delft requires English proficiency at a certain level to ensure that the candidate is able to communicate and interact well, participate in English-taught Doctoral Education courses, and write scientific articles and a final thesis. For more details please check the Graduate Schools Admission Requirements. 

For information about the application procedure, contact the HR Advisor Martine van de Vorst here. 

Please note:

• You can apply online. We will not process applications sent by email and/or post. 
• A pre-employment screening can be part of the selection procedure.
• A knowledge security check will be part of the selection procedure.
  (for details page 45: national knowledge security guidelines)
• Please do not contact us for unsolicited services.