Post-Doctoral Research Fellow: Urban Fire Risk Modelling for the Tomorrow’s Cities’ Nairobi Urban Disaster Risk Hub at African Centre for Technology Studies

Programme: Nairobi Urban Disaster Risk Hub under the Climate Resilient Economies Programme and the Africa Sustainability Hub at the African Centre for Technology Studies

Line manager: Professor George Khroda (University of Nairobi), Dr Musyimi Mbathi (University of Nairobi), and Dr Hugh Sinclair (University of Edinburgh).

Qualifications

• Must hold a PhD in Civil or Water Engineering or Hydrology, Urban Geography, Flood Science or other relevant field.
• Experience in applied research and the identification of uncertainties
• Evidence of urban mapping, statistical analysis, and handling of large datasets is desirable
• Expertise in flood modelling within informal urban environments.
• Good understanding of climate change scenarios.
• Must be self-motivated and follow strict timelines.
• A good record of academic publications - excellent academic writing skills, data base expertise, and familiarity with policy briefs.
• Development of participatory risk maps.
• Ability to work in teams
• Ability to transfer localized models to other areas with relative ease.

Skills and competences

• Excellent interpersonal, management and communication skills, with proven ability to support narratives to describe results.
• A team player with ability to build strong working relationships, and experience working across different disciplines and with different stakeholders.
• Ability to work under limited supervision, produce regular internal progress reports and meet deadlines
• Strong technical writing skills and the ability to engage with literatures from the Humanities and Social Sciences
• Ability to write effectively and report to different audiences.
• Ability to manage own time effectively to deliver to tight deadlines and to work on a wide range of different demands.

Main Responsibilities

Research

• Collect secondary flood data and impact for modelling and mapping across the city from organizations such as the Kenya Red Cross, Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD), SDI/CURI/KDI, and Newspaper articles, and any other sources.
• Carry out field visits for data collection, verification of facts and ground truthing.
• Map historic flood events in Mukuru and other Nairobi catchments as appropriate GIS/Google Earth/Satellite Imagery and other appropriate datasets as necessary, in support of the point above.
• Compute Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for the Nairobi City County in general but with high resolution for Mukuru informal settlement.
• Delineate watershed, soil types, natural and constructed drainage infrastructure (roads, railroads, land use etc) from current and other available planning maps of the city and more specifically within the Mukuru basin.
• Analyze statistics provided from Nairobi City County contacts and other sources to provide initial analysis of frequentist flood data, and working with other Hub researchers, support the analysis of gender/intersectionality risk issues at the settlement (Mukuru) and city level.
• Compute Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for the Nairobi City County in general but with high resolution for Mukuru informal settlement.
• Delineate watershed, soil types, natural and constructed drainage infrastructure (roads, railroads, land use etc) from current and other available planning maps of the city and more specifically within the Mukuru basin.
• Using ArcGIS tools, develop a hydrological model based on surface flow models; using digital elevation model (DEM) based on frequency and magnitudes of the flooding for a 20-year (1990-2010) period.
• Carry out calibration, validation and sensitivity analysis of the model.
• Using catchment areas to produce flood outlines, depth and velocity distributions for current and future rainfall scenarios.
• Select flash floods, identify and delineate flooding hotspots, and any cascading hazards.
• Forecast any potential damages/ impacts during major rainy periods and select elements of an Early Warning Systems.
• Link flood maps with socio-economic and demographic profiles (WP 1) and vulnerability profiles (WP 2) to assess risk and map risk profiles.
• Present data and meta-data for internal and external dissemination, working closely with other physical hazards modelers within the Hub to ensure data compatibility, for both inventory purposes, and for multi-hazard risk and resilience identification/assessment purposes.

Policy and outreach

• Work with other researchers within the Hub specifically looking at community engagement and planning to facilitate their discussions through developing flood risk maps in easily understandable forms, potentially participating in pertinent discussions.
• Support the production of policy briefs for, and with, local, national and international stakeholders (i.e. NCC, UN-Habitat) on the mapping of flood risks in informal urban settlements.
• Support the establishment of DRR Community of Practice (CoP). The CoP will include a wide array of stakeholders drawn from local, county, national and international levels to support a more integrated review and inputs into the research outputs and outcomes.
• Support the development and delivery of a multi-hazard DRR Management Plan for the City
• Support and contribute to the Capacity building plans designed towards the desired culture change through contributing to Capacity needs assessments, skill development through targeted programmes including capacity building programmes, customized trainings, Exchange visits (annually), Executive courses (Yr 2) to deliver an open process for career development
• Prepare integrated policy interventions and plans.

Terms of Employment

• One (1) year Contract renewable based on performance and availability of funds.
• The position provides competitive pensionable remuneration with an inclusive medical cover
• Provides an opportunity to work and establish networks with globally renowned researchers in the field of Disaster Management and with real career growth opportunity in the area of research and development.
• The position provides an equal opportunity for all, and women candidates are highly encouraged to apply.