Post-Doctoral researcher on hydrometric gauges for monitoring and detecting climate change signals

Maynooth University is committed to a strategy in which the primary University goals of excellent research and scholarship and outstanding education are interlinked and equally valued.

We are seeking a Post-Doctoral researcher to work on the EPA funded IHRN: Update and Expansion of an Irish Hydrometric Reference Network for monitoring climate signals project. Working with Prof Conor Murphy (Geography/ICARUS) and Dr. Niamh Cahill (Maths/ICARUS) the successful candidate will develop and evaluate an Irish reference network of hydrometric gauges (including river flows, lakes and groundwater) for monitoring and detecting climate change signals. In close collaboration with hydrometric experts the project will identify long-term, high-quality gauges that are free from confounding factors such as land use change, urbanisation, abstractions, and discharges, that can be used to confidently monitor the response of hydrological systems to climate variability and change. Work will evaluate metadata and data quality, establish criteria for selection of reference type stations based on international literature, appraise approaches for infilling missing data and reconstruction of time series to evaluate the dependence of trends on period of record. Trend analysis will be deployed to detect changes in hydrological indices representing the full range of flow conditions, while signal to noise relationships will be leveraged to identify sentinel sites and indices for which the climate signal is likely to emerge earliest. The project will draw upon and contribute to the international ROBIN project which seeks to develop international reference networks to better understand how climate change is impacting hydrology. The IHRN, and its analysis, will provide a critical tool for monitoring water resources across a range of sectors and facilitate delivery of monitoring requirements as part of the Water Framework Directive and climate change adaptation. Recommendations for further development of methods and the network will be provided.

Salary

Post-Doctoral Researcher (2022):         €41, 209 p.a. pro-rata (Point 1)

Appointments will be made in accordance with public sector pay provisions.