Position Announcement

Job Title: PhD on “Assessing the agricultural water use dynamic in semi-arid region through remote sensing and modelling”

Area of specialization in IWRI: Water Resources Management

Expected starting date: October 2021

The Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) invites applications for a position as PhD student within the International Water Research Institute (IWRI).

The research thesis will contribute to the assessment of the irrigated agriculture sustainability and the evaluation of the performance of the water saving programs at regional scale in semi-arid environment under climate change through an approach combining in-situ observations, remote-sensing data and eco-hydrological modelling. Indeed, monitoring crop water consumption or evapotranspiration (ET) and assessing the agricultural water use dynamics over time, particularly in semi-arid environments, is paramount for quantifying the impacts of climate change and landuse/landcover changes on water resources which allows a better allocation of water resource ensuring a sustainable agriculture. The main objective of this study is two-fold: i) developing and evaluating robust and operational models/approaches for ET estimation and mapping at regional scale using remote sensing techniques that combine multi-source satellite data, ii) assessing the effectiveness of the irrigation water saving program in the region of study through field experimentation and modelling. The geographic focus of the work will be a typical Mediterranean semi-arid basin in Morocco. Advanced techniques like eddy-covariance flux measurements, remote sensing, and modelling will be used. The PhD research will be carried out in collaboration with several national and international academic, research centres and public sector partners.

The work to be performed by the PhD researcher may include:

• developing and evaluating operational approaches to estimate agricultural water consumption (i.e. evapotranspiration) at regional scale, going back as far as possible in time thanks to the available satellite data archives,
• Assessing the spatial and temporal dynamic of the agricultural water consumption over the study area, using the models & approaches developed, and its impact on water resources sustainability,
• Conducting experiment for assessing at field scale the impacts of the irrigation conversion from surface to drip irrigation induced by the national water saving program,
• Writing peer-reviewed scientific publications and presentation for scientific conferences.

Applications must be sent in a single electronic zipped folder. The folder must contain: 1) a cover letter 2) a detailed Curriculum Vita, 3) reported notes from DEUG, License and Master or equivalent, 4) a copy of the Master or engineering degree certificate, 5) Electronic copies of the Master thesis.

This PhD project will be supervised by: Younes Fakir (UCA/CRSA), Mohamed Hakim Kharrou (IWRI), Vincent Simonneaux (IRD-CESBIO)

For any enquiry, please contact Dr. M.H. Kharrou ([email protected])

Candidates should have a Master or engineering degree in physics, environmental geomatics, earth sciences, water management, or related disciplines.

- Previous experience with remote sensing techniques and eco-hydrological modelling is required,

- Experience with field activities and practical water resources applications,

- Good skills in agro-meteorological, hydrological data processing and use,

- Programming skills (e.g. python, Matlab or R),

- GIS techniques and mathematical modelling,

- Excellent written and oral English language skills are important,

- Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively in an international and interdisciplinary team across institutes.