University College London

The UCL Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction (IRDR) inspires innovation and evidence-based practice focused on improving disaster risk reduction (DRR) through our research, education, and partnerships. This creates a better life for many people by reducing the negative impacts of disasters.

The IRDR is an exciting cross-UCL department, which leads research, knowledge exchange and teaching in the fields of risk and disaster reduction and humanitarian action. By providing a focus for UCL’s activities, with its breadth of disciplinary emphasis, promotion of novel multidisciplinary research and translation into practice, the IRDR aims to assume a role of leadership both in the UK and internationally. The IRDR is an academic department in the Faculty of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, but works across all UCL’s faculties, spanning natural and social sciences, mathematics and statistics, engineering and development planning, global health, anthropology, the humanities, ethics and laws, and contributes to UCL’s Grand Challenges.

The IRDR has established the Humanitarian Institute, Centre for Digital Public Health in Emergencies, Centre for Gender and Disaster, and jointly with UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies the Warning Research Centre. The IRDR conducts research around the themes of disaster risk reduction and resilience, cascading crises, natural hazards, climate change risk and adaptation, humanitarian crisis response, GIS and remote sensing, law and economics, conflict and migration, catastrophe modelling, warning, digital health in emergencies, and inclusivity including gender responsive resilience, in order to integrate education, research, innovation and enterprise for the long-term benefit of humanity.

Homepage: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/risk-disaster-reduction/ucl-irdr

Timely evacuation is the most effective measure for reducing the loss of life due to a large tsunami. The capability of the coastal population to evacuate, escaping a potentially imminent tsunami event, is closely related to their perception of tsunami risk and their situational awareness. This PhD project aims to quantify the number of human lives saved in the aftermath of large tsunami events, as the level of risk preparedness increases among the population. The student will develop a high-resolution dynamic and digital model of the tsunami evacuation environment and the human response. This tool will then be used for the simulation of human response to tsunami inundation, in the presence or not of an alert. This digital model will provide local decision makers with a tool for testing the various counterfactual evacuation scenarios considering, the range of possible dynamic human exposure, whether timely alarm is being issued or not, intersectionality in readiness to act, level of population preparedness and situational awareness, and connectivity of the evacuation routes for a coastal city. This will eventually contribute to communication and awareness-raising activities that demonstrate the effect of self-evacuation and/or informed evacuation in saving lives.

This PhD studentship is fully funded for students eligible for UK fees.

For more information and how to apply, use the link below:
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/risk-disaster-reduction/news/2023/mar/phd-studentship-vacancy-deadline-extended-30-march-2023