PhD Position “The Language of Water. Mapping water systems across Belgian regions”
at Faculty of Architecture, Architectural Engineering and Urban Planning (LOCI), Université catholique de Louvain

Content

According to the World Resource Institute, by 2040 waterstress in Belgium will be “extremely high”: risks such as flooding risk, sea level rising, drought and extended pollution will soon become the everyday condition threatening all types of human activities. This situation calls for a comprehensive understanding of all water systems as a unique, and possibly integrated one. Water indeed runs within a unique and interconnected apparatus (above and below ground, within dense and diffuse urban areas) that, while designing different landscapes, intertwines different physical infrastructures, knowledges and ultimately policies. Furthermore, water in Belgium often crosses regional boundaries, thus worsening governance fragmentation. This project aims at mapping Belgian interregional water geographies to foster integrated water management as a necessary practice for spatial planning, grounding on the hypothesis that a simultaneous visualisation of urban and water spaces entails the integration of otherwise sectorialised knowledges and actions. The language of water intends to reveal the complexity of water elements, flows and systems that, despite belonging to different networks (and thus entailing sectorial policies, employments, owners and users) are deeply interconnected where ultimately the same interconnections are key factors in coping with the increasing water related challenges to which the city and territories are nowadays evermore exposed.

Job Description

• Starting a PhD (15 months) under the primary supervision of Prof. Chiara Cavalieri (Urbanism) and Prof. Sandra Soares-Frazão (Hydraulic Engineering), at Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
• Submitting research results for publication in peer-reviewed academic journals and presenting papers at (international) conferences.
• Application for fundings

Profile

• The applicant has a Master Degree in Urban Design, Urban Planning, Civil Engineering, Architecture, or related fields and obtained this degree no longer than 5 years ago
• The applicant has strong skills in urban/spatial analysis and or urban theory and the interpretation of processes of urbanization
• The applicant is interested in the water question
• The applicant has excellent mapping skills
• The applicant has excellent writing skills in English
• The applicant is able to work both independently and as part of a team
• The applicant speaks English, and either Dutch or French. Bilingual is an added value

Application

Interested candidates are invited to send an application to coordinateur-louvain4@uclouvain.be before 31st of August 2019. The application includes:

• cover letter
• curriculum vitae
• some evidence of mapping skills
• if possible, some evidence of writing skills (paper, thesis, etc.)

Additional Information

The project “The language of water” grounds into a preliminary research exploration funded by Department Omgeving (Flanders) in beginning 2019. The PhD research is funded for 15 months by the Louvain  oundation through the consortium Louvain4Water (UCLouvain), and will start in October 2019. For completing the PhD, application for additional fundings (FNRS, Fresh/Aspirant; Prix Ernest Du Bois; UCLouvain  FSR; others) will be required.
For more information, please contact Chiara Cavalieri: chiara.cavalieri@uclouvain.be