PhD on Integrating Resilience and Sustainability for Future-Proofing Urban Infrastructure Systems

Challenge: Achieving sustainable and resilient infrastructure.

Change: Integrated infrastructure management to enable transitions.

Impact: Improved understanding of infrastructure management tradeoffs.
 

Job description

The Department of Engineering Systems and Services at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) is seeking a highly motivated and talented PhD student to join our research team.

The increased severity and frequency of extreme weather events have substantial impacts on the built environment and pose significant societal risks. In many cities, these risks are compounded by aging infrastructures (roads, water distribution systems, and energy grids among others), evolving (inter)dependencies, and growing demand from rapid urbanization. This is particularly true in cities of the Global South, where infrastructure development and management have historically been haphazard and uncoordinated, resulting in more pronounced impacts of climate extremes in recent years. Therefore, aligning infrastructure growth, replacement and management with the transition to sustainable and resilient cities becomes crucial, to enabling urban infrastructure systems to meet user expectations, emission targets and withstand unanticipated shocks.

However, research on sustainability and resilience within the context of infrastructure asset management remains fragmented. Infrastructure operators often prioritize short-term needs and lack clarity regarding system-level, long-term sustainability transitions. Additionally, there is ample empirical evidence for systemic risks that stem from cross-infrastructure dependencies. Understanding these cascading risks and integrating them into management approaches will be instrumental in making our infrastructure systems futureproof under resource constraints.
 

The aim of this position is to develop the theoretical and empirical foundations to address the emerging uncertainties to manage sustainable and resilient urban infrastructure systems, especially in cities that are infrastructure-deficient (e.g., in Global South) or have inadequate resources for systematic maintenance.
 

As a successful candidate, you will develop the research and related use-case(s) based on an interconnected urban infrastructure network at a city or regional level. The infrastructure systems that you may consider include multimodal transportation/freight networks or interconnected urban utilities (such as road networks and drainage networks). After identifying gaps in the current state of the art, you will develop a theoretical framework to model infrastructure performance and demand fulfilment under various extreme weather disruptions, climate change scenarios, and demand stresses. You will calibrate or validate the theoretical model using infrastructure performance datasets. For example, you will use datasets from pavement asset management systems (PAMS) along with open-source weather datasets, regional traffic projections, and land use datasets in the study region(s). You will apply the theoretical models on possible future scenarios and develop cross-infrastructure resource allocation strategies to achieve sustainability and resilience objectives. You will also have the opportunity to develop novel infrastructure system performance datasets using ML/AI tools to advance your research. The outcome of this PhD research is analysing how investments in resilience and sustainability can support the broader societal role of infrastructure systems in the future, especially in resource-deprived contexts. This research will help inform policy at various levels, aiming to improve existing infrastructure management practices, especially in infrastructure-deficient settings, with a long-term view.
 

We are looking for a creative and autonomous candidate, who is keen to combine methods and approaches from different fields, such as network modelling (focusing on transport networks, energy grids, or water distribution systems), geospatial/urban analysis, and policy-oriented simulation or optimization methods.     

Requirements

You have a master’s degree (or equivalent) in Civil Engineering, Operations Research, Transportation Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related field. (essential)

• You bring your strong background and expertise in civil infrastructure systems management and network optimization.
• You have excellent programming skills (e.g., Python or/and Java) and familiarity with network optimization algorithms.
• You have excellent working knowledge of geospatial tools, such as ArcGIS, QGIS, and geopandas or willingness to learn these packages.
• You are experienced in data collection, analysis (including statistical analysis), and visualization.
• You are an analytical and problem-solving thinker, with a keen interest in interdisciplinary research.
• You are an effective communicator and you have good technical writing skills in English, as proven by your publications or thesis.
• You enjoy both working independently and collaboratively within a team.

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 and 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 € 2770 per month in the first year to € 3539 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.

From 1 September next, a salary increase of 3.7% applies due to a Collective Agreement amendment, followed by an additional 1% increase on 1 January 2025. In addition, most employees employed on 1 September 2024 will receive a one-off payment of €300 gross based on full-time employment.

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.

Application procedure

Are you interested in this vacancy? Please apply before 15 January 2025 via the application button and upload your the following information:

• Curriculum Vitae (CV).
• Motivation letter indicating your research interests and experience.
• Two-page motivation letter indicating your research interests and experience, and how you bring both to this project.
• We invite you to also record a short video, in which you can explain your motivation and background and share the link. Please send us a link to the video (e.g., on YouTube, Google Drive) in your motivation letter, since you cannot upload this on the application portal.
• Diplomas/degrees including a grade transcript of previous education at Master level.
• Names and details of two references who support your application (e.g., MSc supervisor) -- no letters are needed at this stage.
• Proof of academic writing skills by linking to MSc thesis or research paper.

Please note:

• A pre-employment screening can be part of the selection procedure.
• You can apply online. We will not process applications sent by email and/or post.
• Please do not contact us for unsolicited services.

For more information about this vacancy, please contact Dr. Srijith Balakrishnan via S.Balakrishnan@tudelft.nl or Prof. Tina Comes via T.Comes@tudelft.nl.