Vulnerability of low-lying coastal transportation networks to natural hazards

About the project

Vulnerability of transportation networks to natural hazards represents a fundamental challenge for climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction. This interdisciplinary project will explore vulnerability of road and rail networks, and of users, to natural hazards in low-lying coastal areas. It will use quantitative methods and approaches from network science, natural hazards management, social science, human geography, and built-environment geography.

Transportation networks such as roads and railways are fundamental to societal functioning, but are especially vulnerable to disruption and fragmentation by natural hazards. Failure of transportation networks can turn a hazard event into a disaster. This might be by

Knowing how a road or rail network could fragment or fail from disruption by natural hazard, who will be affected, and with what likelihood of occurrence, is therefore valuable information for authorities, managers, and planners of urban systems. However, standard vulnerability assessments often do not account for network connectivity, and indirect impacts on users. This means they miss key diagnostic for systemic vulnerability to network failure that means assessments may underestimate the potential impacts of extreme events.

The project will address research questions such as:

This project will deliver critical, quantitative insight into climate adaptation of critical infrastructure for societal resilience and disaster risk reduction.

The postgraduate student who leads this project will build transferrable skills in stakeholder analysis, multi-criteria analysis, geospatial analysis, open-source code (e.g., Python), and science communication through clear technical writing (e.g., for peer-review publication) and presentations to broad audiences.

• obstructing emergency response
• impeding delivery of essential supplies
• preventing removal of debris and waste
• intensifying direct physical and indirect economic damage
• protracting processes of recovery
• How do different kinds of hazard disruptions (e.g., flooding, erosion, sediment and debris deposition) drive different spatial patterns of network failure?
• What patterns of network vulnerability emerge from reconstructing the evolution of past hazard extremes, who is affected, and how might those insights inform the modelling of future extremes?
• Who are the transport network users most vulnerable to hazard-driven disruptions and network failures?

Professor Eli Lazarus

• coastal and fluvial dynamics
• geomorphology
• human-environmental coupled systems

Professor Emma Tompkins PhD

• How households and businesses are adapting to climate and weather hazards
• Monitoring real-time adaptation to hydro-meteorological/climate hazards, (including compound and cascading hazards)
• Methods to assess the effectiveness of climate adaptations

Entry requirements

You’ll need either of the following (or their international equivalents ):

• 2.1 honours degree and evidence of high quality writing and analysis
• master’s degree with merit, including 60% for your dissertation

English language requirements

If English is not your first language, you'll need an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) minimum level of 6.5 with 6.0 in all components. Your awarded certificate needs to be dated within the last 2 years.

Visit our English language proficiency pages to find out about other qualifications we accept.

If you need further English language tuition before starting your degree, you can apply for one of our pre-sessional English language courses .

Fees and funding

This project is funded by the ESRC South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership .

Full tuition fees will be paid and a tax-free stipend of up to £17,668 per year for up to 3.5 years.

You can also claim funding for training and fieldwork.

How to apply

• Apply to the University of Southampton
• Apply to the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership for funding

Apply to the University to do the research

Apply now

You need to:

You'll need to send us:

If you have any questions about the degree application, email the graduate school .

• choose programme type (Research), 2023/24, Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences
• choose PhD in Geography (Full time)
• add name of the supervisor (Dr Eli Lazarus) in section 2
• your CV (resumé)
• a research proposal
• your academic transcript
• 2 academic referees
• an IELTS or TOEFL certificate if English is not your first language

Apply for funding to do the research

Then you need to apply to the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership (SCDTP), funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

You don't need to wait for a decision from the University before making your SCDTP application.

Visit the SCDTP website to apply for funding .

If you have any questions about the funding application, email the SCDTP .

Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences

If you have a general question, email our doctoral college (fels-gradschool@soton.ac.uk)

Project leader

For an initial conversation, email Dr Eli Lazarus (e.d.lazarus@soton.ac.uk)

Research areas