진학프로석·박사 채용 접수 플랫폼

Joining the French Geological Survey (BRGM) means becoming part of France’s leading public institution for Earth Science applications bringing together 1,000 wholeheartedly committed experts across 29 bases in Mainland and Overseas France. BRGM focuses on enhancing geological knowledge and understanding of surface and sub-surface-related phenomena, with a view to: meeting the challenges of environmental changes through innovative projects with societal implications.

Context and contributions of the position

BRGM is recruiting for its Regional Action Department (DAT), based in Pessac, a postdoctoral researcher to join the IMPACTS research project, in partnership with INRAE. The project focuses on the quantification and simulation of the expected effects of land use changes in typical landscapes of the Atlantic western seaboard on microclimate, carbon balance, water regime, and soil fertility.

The project includes three components: an observation-based study, a fine-scale modelling approach, and long-term projections.

https://consortium-biocontrole.hub.inrae.fr/projets-cofinances/impact

The objective of the project is to quantify, understand, and project into the future the environmental impacts of forests, vineyards, and large energy or water infrastructure. The aim is to understand how these land uses affect local climate, water and carbon cycles, groundwater recharge, and soils, as well as their mutual interactions.

The project will be applied to the model landscape of the Landes de Gascogne forest and surrounding vineyards, with results expected to have broader applicability.

The objective of the postdoctoral project is to quantify the impact of land use changes on the piezometric level of groundwater, for example as induced by the operation of an energy or hydraulic infrastructure (typically, the conversion of a pine forest into a photovoltaic park).

The first phase will consist of developing a GARDENIA model (rainfall – groundwater level – river discharge) for a representative catchment area combining upstream forest and downstream vineyards (Thiéry, 2006), in order to reproduce the behaviour of a typical watershed and assess the impact of land use changes on :

i) infiltration, and

ii) streamflow discharge.

A spatialized modelling approach using MARTHE software, based on existing models (Saltel et al., 2021), will be developed in parallel. These simulations will be used to test hypothetical land use scenarios covering variable surface areas to determine the critical surface threshold beyond which the environmental impact becomes significant (e.g., increased flood risk).

Changes in land use and their effects on groundwater recharge and surface runoff are of major interest for sustainable water resource management (Owuor et al., 2016). Replacing natural vegetation with other types of land use (croplands, infrastructures) most often leads to a reduction in evapotranspiration, resulting in increased recharge and higher stream discharge (Scanlon et al., 2005). Understanding these effects is essential for effective land use planning in the context of climate change.