PhD student in forest fires

100%, fixed-term

The group Hydrology and Climate Impacts in Mountain Regions at the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF in Davos and the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zurich studies water and climate extremes in mountain regions under global change. We have strong expertise in hydrology, climate sciences, extreme value analyses, statistical modelling, and climate impact assessments and are looking, from spring 2024, for a PhD student to work on the project “Synchronous forest fires in Europe under current and future climate conditions”.

Project background

Forest fires in Europe no longer just affect the Mediterranean but also have negative impacts in more temperate regions such as the Alps. They are particularly challenging to manage if many locations are affected at once. While fire-favoring weather conditions are expected to become more frequent also in temperate regions, it is unclear how these changes affect fire synchronicity. This project develops methods relying on large-ensemble approaches to study synchronous forest fires under current and future climate conditions. Specifically, it (1) identifies synchronous fires and describes their hydro-climatic drivers, (2) quantifies the frequency of occurrence of hydro-climatic conditions favoring synchronous fires in different regions of Europe under current climate conditions, and (3) predicts changes in the frequency of occurrence of hydroclimatic conditions favoring synchronous fires under climate change.

Job description

Within this PhD project, you will study the occurrence, drivers, and future changes of synchronous forest fires using large climate ensembles. You will publish your results in scientific journals and present them at international conferences. The work location will be at SLF in Davos and you will obtain a PhD degree at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science at ETH Zurich.

Your profile

What you bring:

• a MSc degree in climate sciences, environmental sciences or engineering, or a closely related field
• experience with programming (e.g. in Python, R)
• experience in working with climate data
• very good oral and written communication skills in English

What is desired in addition:

• experience with machine learning, statistical analyses, and large datasets

Your workplace

Your workplace

We offer

• Interdisciplinary and international working environment
• Workplace in a beautiful and diverse mountain environment
• Young and supportive team
• Perspectives for career development

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