Co-designing Decision-Support Tools for Nature-based Solutions in Climate Resilience

About this opportunity

Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of natural hazards worldwide, placing growing pressure on urban environments and critical infrastructure. In Aotearoa New Zealand, cities were designed for historical climate conditions and are increasingly vulnerable to flooding, coastal hazards, and other climate risks. Nature-based Solutions (NbS), including green infrastructure, blue infrastructure, and blue-green networks, are emerging as effective approaches for enhancing climate resilience and delivering environmental, social, cultural, and economic co-benefits. However, policymakers and practitioners continue to face major challenges in determining which NbS are most effective, where they should be implemented, and how their performance can be evaluated and incorporated into long-term planning and investment decisions.

This fully funded PhD position will be part of an interdisciplinary research team that aims to develop an innovative decision-support tool to support the planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of NbS.  The specific PhD topic will be developed with the supervisory team but will focus on investigating how decision-support tools can enable the large-scale adoption of NbS through land-use planning and spatial decision-making.

Location

The University of Waikato, Hamilton Campus.

Additional project information

• A Master's degree (or equivalent) with research component in Urban Planning, Environmental Planning, Geography, Environmental Science, Data Science, or a closely related discipline.

• Demonstrated interest in climate change adaptation, resilience, Nature-based Solutions, or environmental planning.

• Strong analytical and research skills.

• Experience with GIS, spatial analysis, quantitative or qualitative research methods is desirable.

• Excellent written and spoken English.