PhD: Methodological challenges in mapping people and livestock position, Louvain, Belgium

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Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth an Climate Research, Earth & Life Institute

Methodological challenges in mapping people and livestock

High‐resolution maps of people and livestock are essential tools in geography, but also in environmental and agricultural sciences. They allow, for example, the estimation of potential impacts of various hazards that have strong spatial dimensions such as earthquakes, floods or the release of pollutants. They are also particularly important in epidemiology, because the density of hosts (people, or livestock, or both) is a key variable affecting the emergence, persistence and spread of infectious diseases. The main objective of this research will be to identify innovative ways to improve the spatial realism of outputs and to explore how alternative forms of modelling and representation could provide more spatially realistic outputs at different scales.

The position is financed by the Belgian FNRS (http://www.fnrs.be/) as part of a larger project obtained with the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Dr Marius Gilbert, spatial epidemiology of infectious and vector‐borne diseases (http://lubies.ulb.ac.be/Spatepi.html) where a linked Post‐Doc position is open (contact: mgilbert@ulb.ac.be). The project will be run in close collaboration with two other partners, Dr Andy Tatem at the University of Southampton (UK) (Afripop & Asiapop projects), where a PostDoc position will also be open (contact: andy.tatem@gmail.com), and Dr Tim Robinson (International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya).

Profile and requested competences:

Master in geography with < 2 years experience, strong training in remote sensing, GIS and spatial analysis, working knowledge of English, and a strong interest in ecology and epidemiology. The candidate should demonstrate an ability to work in a research team and to establish a local and international network.

Contract : 4 years scholarship starting September 2013

Application: send a detailed CV and a motivation letter to Professor Sophie Vanwambeke by email by 1st of August 2013.

Contact : Prof. Sophie Vanwambeke, sophie.vanwambeke@uclouvain.be
Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research, Earth & Life Institute,
http://www.uclouvain.be/teclim