PhD "Integration of flux measurements in groundwater models

Organisation/Company Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) Research Field Environmental science » Earth science Environmental science » Water science Environmental science » Other Technology » Environmental technology Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Final date to receive applications 20 Mar 2026 - 22:59 (UTC) Country Belgium Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

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Moreover, the VUB is a member of EUTOPIA
, an alliance of like-minded European universities, all ready to reinvent themselves.

The Faculty of Engineering
, Department Water and Climate
,is looking for a PhD-student with a doctoral grant
.

More concretely your work package,
for the preparation of a doctorate
, contains:

For predicting impacts such as climate change and pumping on the groundwater system, as well as for understanding and quantifying groundwater drought resilience and adaptation, hydro geologists use numerical groundwater flow models. Current groundwater flow models often exhibit important uncertainties related to input parameters and boundary conditions. Reducing this uncertainty is difficult if these models are only calibrated using groundwater level measurements.

We know that measurements of groundwater fluxes are very sensitive to model parameters and boundary conditions and could reduce model uncertainty significantly. Unfortunately, it is challenging to measure groundwater fluxes in the field. A new iFlux sensor prototype to measure real-time groundwater fluxes in the field is a promising technique, but is a very local measurement compared to the spatial extent of groundwater flow models.

It is therefore interesting to combine these local measurements with distributed measurements of fluxes that can reveal variations in space. The recently granted fully funded FWO project “Can we listen to groundwater?” aims to investigate the potential of (quasi-) distributed optical fibre sensing techniques for measuring groundwater fluxes through sensor development, lab and field experiments, modelling and uncertainty assessment with a focus on two case studies: a shallow unconsolidated aquifer and a fractured rock to assess to what extent and in which conditions (quasi-)distributed fibre-optic sensing can be used to estimate groundwater fluxes and result in uncertainty reduction in numerical groundwater flow models.

Within this context, we are looking for an excellent PhD candidate on “Integrating distributed fibre-optic sensing and local direct groundwater flux measurements into groundwater flow models for reducing uncertainty”. The research work will include:

• Field measurement and geostatistical analysis of groundwater fluxes;
• Integration of flux measurements in uncertainty quantification of groundwater models;
• Assessment of uncertainty reduction of groundwater models.

The selected candidate will join the Groundwater Group of the Research Group of Water and Climate of VUB. The candidate will be supervised by prof. Marijke Huysmans and co-supervised by Lara Speijer. Given that the PhD project is embedded in interdisciplinary collaboration between the research group of Water and Climate…