PhD Researcher WEF POST LONGUE DURÉE - REMEDIATING EXTRACTIVE URBANISM

Delta Urbanism Interdisciplinary Research Group, part of TU Delft's Department of Urbanism, jointly with the History of Architecture and Urban Planning Group in the Department of Architecture and the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus PortCityfutures research center, are seeking to expand their teams with a PhD researcher interested in urban Water-Energy-Food (WEF) systems, social sciences and environmental innovations at their intersections with scientific understanding and insights the history of the environment as mean to create a sustainable future. The doctoral researcher will be part of the WEF POST LONGUE DURÉE research project and thus connected to an international research consortium based in South Africa and the Netherlands. The researcher will also engage in other activities in the field of research and education.

The reclamation of post-extraction landscapes is a global issue and intertwined with the WEF nexus. This project proposes the concept of ‘ecosystem participation’, which is explored as a combination of Longue Durée and Reversed Engineering with Nature, as a tool for highlighting, preserving and repurposing post-extraction landscapes in relation to the WEF nexus. The aim is to create a research and design community, theoretical foundation, methodological approach and learning matrix in which the spatial dynamics and Longue Durée interactions between water, energy, and food are analysed in extractive and post-extractive contexts to inform an interdisciplinary vision for sustainable futures. The project is co-funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the South African National Research Fund (NRF) through the Merian Fund cooperation programme.

The aim of the research connected to the PhD position is to develop a conceptual and methodological framework to explain the longue durée of water and food security, energy transitions and ecosystem health, based on systemic urban analysis. Next, the research will develop an integrated methodology for redesigning these landscapes with a conscious new use of technology. The research will respond to relevant research gaps in sustainability transitions, resilience and adaptive design literatures, addressing the following main research questions: What are the defining elements of a dynamic equilibrium ecosystem participation that can sustain an environmentally, economically and socially resilient future in post-extractive landscapes in general? What are the component ingredients for a strategy of ecosystem participation to search/ design/ deliver a new, dynamic and responsive balance between the resources of water, energy and food in the post-extractive landscape? 

The main objectives of the PhD research position are:

• Developing a conceptual and methodological framework.
• Analysing the technical knowledge on extraction landscapes with the specific focus on “reverse engineering with nature”, engineering with nature to the transitioning of mining sites, environmental (soil/resource) rehabilitation.
• Conducting field research and workshops in South Africa and collaborating with other PhD researchers in the larger project.
• Publishing research findings in scientific journals, international conferences.

The research will be jointly supervised by an experienced and collaborative team comprising of members from both TU Delft and Wits University.