Ph.D. Position (f/m/d) Optimizing Blue-Green Infrastructure for Climate and Biodiversity
part time 75%

Organisationseinheit

Institut für Photogrammetrie und Fernerkundung (IPF)

Ihre Aufgaben

Do you have an interest in urban environments, climate change, and biodiversity? Do you enjoy working with spatial data, models, and decision-making approaches? Are you motivated to contribute to sustainable solutions for cities?

If so, we offer you the opportunity to pursue a Ph.D. within the international and interdisciplinary graduate school C4LaNd, Cluster 2 (Rethinking Urban Spaces), with partners at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the University of Melbourne, and the University of Hohenheim.

The PhD position “Optimizing Blue-Green Infrastructure for Climate and Biodiversity” is based in Campus South at KIT in Karlsruhe within the junior research group GRUSSlead by Dr. Benz, with close collaboration with the University of Melbourne. The position is embedded in a joint supervision framework, including a research stay of one year in Melbourne and a joint (cotutelle) PhD degree. In Melbourne the position is placed in the group of Prof. Wu.

The overarching question of the doctoral research will be:
How can blue-green infrastructure in cities be designed to jointly enhance biodiversity conservation and urban climate adaptation under increasing land-use pressure?

Lines of research include:

• Explore how biodiversity in urban areas can be assessed using conservation-based frameworks (e.g. Natura 2000 / FFH)
• Analyze spatial patterns of urban green infrastructure and their ecological characteristics
• Investigate how different urban green configurations influence urban climate, particularly heat stress
• Compare alternative design strategies for blue-green infrastructure
• Identify trade-offs and synergies between biodiversity conservation and urban climate adaptation
• Contribute to the development of multi-objective optimization approaches for urban land-use decisions
• Develop ideas for analysis, publications, and integration within the C4LaNd programme

Eintrittstermin

late 2026 (October/November)

Ihre Qualifikation

• A M.Sc. degree in environmental sciences, geography, ecology, climate science, environmental engineering, urban planning, or related fields
• Interest in urban sustainability, biodiversity, and climate adaptation
• Experience with spatial data analysis (e.g. GIS)
• Programming skills (e.g. Python or R) and/or modelling skills are an advantage
• Experience in interdisciplinary research is an advantage
• Interest in quantitative methods and decision-support approaches
• Fluency in English
• Motivation to work in an international and interdisciplinary research environment
• Willingness to spend an extended research period (one year) at the University of Melbourne