Five PhD scholarships are available at Politecnico di Milano within the ENVIRONMENTAL AND... (# of pos: 5)

Applications are welcome for the opening of 5 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) positions associated with PhD-level research activities related to “Energy Transition & Environmental Impact” and “Sustainability & Circular Economy”.

We offer 5 full-time, each for a period of 36 months, with strong career perspectives in academic and industrial sectors.

List of available PhD / ESR positions:

ESR 1 - INFRASTRUCTURES AND SUBSURFACE WATER BODIES

Objectives: Development of robust methodologies and tools that can be used to study the quantitative (changes in piezometric levels and fluxes) and qualitative (i.e., deterioration of groundwater quality) impact of subsurface critical infrastructures on the surface-subsurface water continuum. The newly developed methodologies will allow including the joint impact of climate change and subsurface (infra) structures on the assessment of the temporal evolution of groundwater levels, fluxes, and quality. This will guide the planning of future actions for sustainable development and environmental protection. Development of probabilistic risk assessment strategies, to increase certainty through quantification of risk and to allow establishing decision-making tools able to include and quantify acceptable (or otherwise unacceptable) risk levels.

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ESR 2 - CHARACTERIZATION OF THE HYDRAULIC PROPERTIES OF POROUS ASPHALT FOR THE OPTIMIZATION OF WASTE-WATER COLLECTION AND TREATMENT SYSTEMS

Objectives: Permeable pavements such as porous asphalt (PA) have proved to be powerful tools to manage stormwater in urban watersheds, offering great advantages in terms of rainwater runoff and traffic safety. Thanks to the high degree of PA connectivity, rainwater can infiltrate through the road surface and be collected in the designed treatment facility. The latter is needed due to the fact that a wide variety of organic pollutants emitted by vehicles and traffic-related activities resulted to be persistent to degradation and tend to bioaccumulate, with a potential environmental impact. The optimization and maintenance of stormwater collection and treatment systems requires an accurate prediction of water fluxes and pollutants concentrations. This highlights the need of characterizing PA in terms of key properties governing the dynamics of flow and transport phenomena. Key objectives of the research are: (i) to develop experimental procedures for the determination of flow and transport properties of PA samples and (ii) to evaluate possible mechanisms of interaction between PA and organic pollutants of practical interest.

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ESR 3 - HYDRAULIC CRITICALITIES OF RIVER BRIDGES

Objectives: Hydraulic processes constitute the first cause of default of bridges, in Italy and all over the world. The interaction between the river and the bridge generates complex intercorrelated phenomena (e.g., flux obstruction, river bed and banks erosion, hydrodynamic loads). We presently face strong uncertainties in evaluating bridge safety with respect to hydraulic processes, both within the design of new structures and while assessing potential criticality of existing ones. Deeper phenomenological understanding, proper inspections procedures and monitoring set-ups can constitute useful tools to reduce such uncertainties. The research is aimed at defining operational procedures for the assessment of hydraulic criticalities of river bridges and for their structural safety. Among the strategic objectives of the National Research Plan, the project is mainly focused on "infrastructures and competition", but also has an impact on "improvement of people's quality of life and reduce inequalities", by supporting the following lines: (i) Speeding up and simplification of infrastructure investments; (ii) Modernization and enhanced connection of transport systems; (iii) digitization for better logistics and road safety; (iv) Better connections for inland and mountain areas.

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ESR 4 - DEVELOPMENT OF FLOOD DAMAGE ASSESSMENT TOOLS FOR THE ITALIAN CONTEXT

Objectives: The capability of performing reliable flood damage assessments (FDA) is of paramount importance to achieve objectives of sustainability and resilience of societies towards climate change effects. In fact, knowledge of flood damage is of paramount importance both in the emergency (to identify priorities of intervention and to support the damage compensation by private and public bodies) and in the peace time (to identify areas at higher risk and to evaluate benefits of flood mitigation strategies). However, we are far from the capability of performing comprehensive FDA including all potentially affected assets and kinds of damage, especially in the Italian context. The research will address the need of developing tools for estimating flood expected damage to those assets for which the paucity of models is more evident. At the same time, investigated assets will be chosen according to their strategic role for the resilience of a community (like economic activities, transport networks, etc.) as well as for the wellbeing of a society, being them distinctive of their cultural background (like environmental and cultural heritage).

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ESR 5 - DIGITIZATION OF WATER DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS, REDUCTION AND MONITORING OF WATER LEAKAGES FOR THE APPLICATION OF THE PNRR (NATIONAL PLAN FOR RECOVERY AND RESILIENCE) M2C4 - I 4.2

Objectives: Develop and apply strategies for optimisation and efficiency of water distribution network. In particular it will deal with the development of the NRW reduction Plan, that includes activities to reduce both real and apparent losses, estimating the impact of each activity on the reduction of losses on time. Some of the activities included in the plan are: a) Pressure management: creation of PMZ and DMA and optimisation of pumps operations; b) Active control of losses; c) Replacement of customers' water meters: in order to minimise under-registration, development of a massive replacement plan considering the installation of static smart meters; d) Public fountains: monitoring plan, planning of the installation of water meters on all public fountains in the coming years; e) Refurbishment of the network and connections: consider selective substitution based on the status of activities and the risk of failure, as well as the application of no excavation techniques.

Please find more details here .