PhD on the Economic Limits to Global Groundwater Use (1.0 FTE)

What will you be doing?
In many areas of the world, groundwater is overexploited, leading to the depletion of groundwater volumes in aquifers and the necessity to pump groundwater from ever increasing depths. This, in turn, leads to higher extraction costs up to the point that groundwater use becomes uneconomic.

As a PhD you will elaborate on methodologies to analyze the costs and benefits of groundwater (extraction), taking into account climate change and socioeconomic scenarios. This methodology needs to be applicable for all regions in the world and will be used in the global assessment of the maximum economic groundwater depth. To do this, you will combine insights and models from economics with a state-of-the-art high resolution, physically-based global hydrological model including the linkage between surface water-groundwater. You will start with the assessment of the maximum economic limit (depth) of groundwater extraction under current water use and under future climate and socioeconomic scenarios. This analysis will result in global maps of the depth and time to economic depletion, the economically extractable volume, and its economic value. Additionally, you will look at the impacts on crop yield (food security) and include externalities such as the detrimental impacts on groundwater dependent ecosystems.

For a number of hotspot regions, you will perform further in-depth analyses that consider the potential of user-driven and policy-driven economic strategies to prevent or revert groundwater decline and safeguard crop yield, economic rate of return and ecosystem status in the future. These results will elucidate trade-offs between economic viability (e.g., income), ecological sustainability, and food security. You will collaborate closely with two postdocs who are responsible for advancing the global hydrological model, and with two PhDs, who will assess the physical and ecological limits to groundwater use.