Postdoctoral position on probabilistic hydraulic modelling

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INRAE presentation

The French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) is a major player in research and innovation. It is a community of 12,000 people with 272 research, experimental research, and support units located in 18 regional centres throughout France. Internationally, INRAE is among the top research organisations in the agricultural and food sciences, plant and animal sciences, as well as in ecology and environmental science. It is the world’s leading research organisation specialising in agriculture, food and the environment. INRAE’s goal is to be a key player in the transitions necessary to address major global challenges. Faced with a growing world population, climate change, resource scarcity, and declining biodiversity, the Institute has a major role to play in building solutions and supporting the necessary acceleration of agricultural, food and environmental transitions.

Work environment, missions and activities

- You will be working in the River Hydraulics team of the RiverLy Research Unit, AQUA Department, INRAE Lyon-Villeurbanne site, France. This project forms part of the ANR ARCO research project ‘Supporting underwater rescue operations in rivers’ (2024–2028), specifically Work Package WP3.3 (partners: INRAE, LMFA, Compagnie Nationale du Rhône, University of Liège).

This research project aims, through an 18-month postdoctoral position, to develop an integrated method for calculating probability maps of a victim’s location following immersion in a river, based on two-dimensional depth-averaged (2DH) numerical models of river flow, with the aim of improving the success rate of rescue operations. 

The method must be generic and reproducible (not specific to a site or a 2DH code), open source (codes and scripts), probabilistic (Monte Carlo propagation of uncertainties in data and input parameters, results in the form of distributions) and applicable under operational conditions, i.e. using the information generally available during a search and rescue operation (start/end points, characteristics of the body and clothing, duration of immersion, discharge, water temperature, weather, season/date, wind, etc.), and with computation times compatible with real-time application. The input data will include data and statistics from the epidemiological study (WP1), pre-calculated 2DH flow fields (WP3.2) and additional information on detailed riverbed bathymetry, riverbed cover, obstacles likely to trap the body, etc. The integrated tool will be tested and validated using experimental field data from an instrumented human dummy (WP2) and real-world intervention data (WP1), by verifying whether the observed trajectories are (statistically) consistent with the calculated location probability maps.

The post-doctoral student will be supervised by Jérôme Le Coz (INRAE) and Théophile Terraz (INRAE), and the work will be overseen by a committee comprising the project partners, including firefighters from the Rhône SDMIS (underwater search and rescue). 

 

- You will be in charge of the following tasks:

• Phase 1 (2 months): Familiarisation by the postdoctoral researcher with the project, the associated methods and tools (including the BaM Bayesian simulation platform and the 2DH hydraulic models Open-Telemac for the Rhône-Saône in Lyon and WOLF for the Meuse in Liège), and a literature review (deterministic and probabilistic Lagrangian models, PhD works by C. Delhez and K. Sessou).
• Phase 2 (6 months): Development of a methodology for establishing probabilistic trajectories and positions, implementation of the calculation chain.
• Phase 3 (4 months): Application to experimental cases (Lyon and Liège), evaluation, improvement and validation of the method.
• Phase 4 (4 months): Open publication of scripts and datasets, drafting of a scientific article, participation in a scientific conference, preliminary work on updating the probability map of presence using non-presence observations (Bayesian inference).
• Phase 5 (2 months): Drafting of the final report, contribution to the specifications for a future operational application.

Specific working conditions: Travel may be required for scientific presentations (conferences, etc.), site visits and field experiments, as well as for meetings with partners of the project.

Training and skills

- Recommended background: PhD thesis in open-channel hydraulics and numerical modelling and/or probabilistic numerical modelling

- Desired skills: Programming languages (including Python), English language skills, probability/statistics/uncertainty analysis

- Appreciated experience: Scientific research work at Master’s level, PhD or even post-doctoral research

- Required skills: Scientific rigour, independence, oral and written communication skills, a team player with an interest in operational applications

 

INRAE's life quality

By joining our teams, you benefit from (depending on the type of contract and its duration):

- up to 30 days of annual leave + 15 days "Reduction of Working Time" (for a full time);
- parenting support: CESU childcare, leisure services;
- skills development systems: training, career advise;
- social support: advice and listening, social assistance and loans;
- holiday and leisure services: holiday vouchers, accommodation at preferential rates;
- sports and cultural activities;
- collective catering.

How to apply

I send my CV and my motivation letter