Postdoc in Transdisciplinary Digital Twins for Climate-Smart and Health-Safe Cities

Job description

The challenge

Cities worldwide are increasingly implementing Blue-Green Infrastructure and Nature-Based Solutions to address climate-related challenges such as urban heat stress and flooding. While these interventions can improve urban resilience and liveability, they may also introduce new public health risks, including mosquito breeding and vector-borne disease transmission.

The UrbanHealthTwin project addresses this challenge by developing digital twin approaches for climate-resilient and health-conscious urban planning. The project integrates climate, water, urban, biological, epidemiological, and community knowledge into an explainable digital twin that supports evidence-based climate adaptation decisions in São Paulo and Rotterdam.

Your role

As postdoctoral researcher, you will lead the development of the UrbanHealthTwin digital twin platform, integrating climate, hydrological, epidemiological, biological, and urban-system models into an interactive and explainable decision-support environment for climate adaptation and public health planning.

You will coordinate digital twin activities across the wider international consortium and help ensure that the platform aligns with both scientific objectives and practical stakeholder needs. You will also investigate existing digital twin initiatives in Rotterdam and explore opportunities to connect and build upon ongoing city-scale developments.

In this role, you will:

• Lead the UrbanHealthTwin project and work package on Digital Twin for Urban Climate and Health Risk Integration.
• Develop knowledge-graph-based approaches for integrating heterogeneous datasets and models.
• Support simulation orchestration across hydrological, urban climate, epidemiological, and urban-system models.
• Design interactive and explainable digital twin interfaces for policymakers, planners, public health professionals, and community stakeholders.
• Translate complex model outputs into accessible insights for scenario-based climate adaptation decision-making.
• Support the integration of probabilistic exposure and risk maps into digital twin workflows.
• Contribute to case studies involving urban heat islands, waterlogging risks, mosquito breeding risks, and climate adaptation scenarios.
• Train and support project stakeholders in digital twin concepts, tools, workflows, and interfaces.
• Collaborate closely with academic and societal partners in the Netherlands and Brazil.
• Contribute to scientific publications, prototypes, and project deliverables.

Environment and collaboration

The successful candidate will work within the Integral Design and Management Section of the 3MD Department, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, TU Delft, and will be associated with the DigiConstruct Lab.

The project brings together researchers and stakeholders from TU Delft, Leiden University, University of Groningen, institutions in São Paulo, and a broader network of urban and public health partners. The role offers opportunities to lead digital twin development, coordinate an international research work package, collaborate with urban and public health stakeholders, and contribute to prototypes, case studies, publications, and scientific outputs.

Job requirements
We are looking for a candidate with strong computational and interdisciplinary research skills, and an interest in climate adaptation and urban health challenges. You:

• Hold a PhD, or are close to completing a PhD, in a relevant field such as Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Geomatics, Civil or Environmental Engineering, Urban Systems, Climate Adaptation, or a related discipline.
• Have experience with digital twins, geospatial modelling, simulation workflows, semantic data integration, urban analytics, or decision-support systems.
• Have strong programming skills, preferably in Python and/or JavaScript.
• Are comfortable working with geospatial and heterogeneous datasets.
• Have experience with GIS and spatial data processing, including geospatial datasets, map layers, or web-based mapping tools.
• Enjoy collaborating across disciplines and working with researchers, policymakers, and stakeholders.
• Communicate clearly in English and can explain technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Are willing to travel to São Paulo for an extended research stay and collaborate closely with Brazilian project partners.
• Are motivated to work in an international and transdisciplinary research environment.

Experience with knowledge graphs, semantic web technologies, web development, urban climate modelling, epidemiological modelling, FAIR data principles, or climate-risk mapping is considered an advantage.

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)
Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences
The Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences (CEG) is committed to outstanding international research and education in the field of civil engineering, applied earth sciences, traffic and transport, water technology, and delta technology. Our research feeds into our educational programmes and covers societal challenges such as climate change, energy transition, resource availability, urbanisation and clean water. Our research projects are conducted in close cooperation with a wide range of research institutions. CEG is convinced of the importance of open science and supports its scientists in integrating open science in their research practice. The Faculty of CEG comprises 28 research groups in the following seven departments: Materials Mechanics Management & Design, Engineering Structures, Geoscience and Engineering, Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Transport & Planning, Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences.

Postdoc in Transdisciplinary Digital Twins for Climate-Smart and Health-Safe Cities

Job description

The challenge

Cities worldwide are increasingly implementing Blue-Green Infrastructure and Nature-Based Solutions to address climate-related challenges such as urban heat stress and flooding. While these interventions can improve urban resilience and liveability, they may also introduce new public health risks, including mosquito breeding and vector-borne disease transmission.

The UrbanHealthTwin project addresses this challenge by developing digital twin approaches for climate-resilient and health-conscious urban planning. The project integrates climate, water, urban, biological, epidemiological, and community knowledge into an explainable digital twin that supports evidence-based climate adaptation decisions in São Paulo and Rotterdam.

Your role

As postdoctoral researcher, you will lead the development of the UrbanHealthTwin digital twin platform, integrating climate, hydrological, epidemiological, biological, and urban-system models into an interactive and explainable decision-support environment for climate adaptation and public health planning.

You will coordinate digital twin activities across the wider international consortium and help ensure that the platform aligns with both scientific objectives and practical stakeholder needs. You will also investigate existing digital twin initiatives in Rotterdam and explore opportunities to connect and build upon ongoing city-scale developments.

In this role, you will:

• Lead the UrbanHealthTwin project and work package on Digital Twin for Urban Climate and Health Risk Integration.
• Develop knowledge-graph-based approaches for integrating heterogeneous datasets and models.
• Support simulation orchestration across hydrological, urban climate, epidemiological, and urban-system models.
• Design interactive and explainable digital twin interfaces for policymakers, planners, public health professionals, and community stakeholders.
• Translate complex model outputs into accessible insights for scenario-based climate adaptation decision-making.
• Support the integration of probabilistic exposure and risk maps into digital twin workflows.
• Contribute to case studies involving urban heat islands, waterlogging risks, mosquito breeding risks, and climate adaptation scenarios.
• Train and support project stakeholders in digital twin concepts, tools, workflows, and interfaces.
• Collaborate closely with academic and societal partners in the Netherlands and Brazil.
• Contribute to scientific publications, prototypes, and project deliverables.

Environment and collaboration

The successful candidate will work within the Integral Design and Management Section of the 3MD Department, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, TU Delft, and will be associated with the DigiConstruct Lab.

The project brings together researchers and stakeholders from TU Delft, Leiden University, University of Groningen, institutions in São Paulo, and a broader network of urban and public health partners. The role offers opportunities to lead digital twin development, coordinate an international research work package, collaborate with urban and public health stakeholders, and contribute to prototypes, case studies, publications, and scientific outputs.

Job requirements
We are looking for a candidate with strong computational and interdisciplinary research skills, and an interest in climate adaptation and urban health challenges. You:

• Hold a PhD, or are close to completing a PhD, in a relevant field such as Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Geomatics, Civil or Environmental Engineering, Urban Systems, Climate Adaptation, or a related discipline.
• Have experience with digital twins, geospatial modelling, simulation workflows, semantic data integration, urban analytics, or decision-support systems.
• Have strong programming skills, preferably in Python and/or JavaScript.
• Are comfortable working with geospatial and heterogeneous datasets.
• Have experience with GIS and spatial data processing, including geospatial datasets, map layers, or web-based mapping tools.
• Enjoy collaborating across disciplines and working with researchers, policymakers, and stakeholders.
• Communicate clearly in English and can explain technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Are willing to travel to São Paulo for an extended research stay and collaborate closely with Brazilian project partners.
• Are motivated to work in an international and transdisciplinary research environment.

Experience with knowledge graphs, semantic web technologies, web development, urban climate modelling, epidemiological modelling, FAIR data principles, or climate-risk mapping is considered an advantage.

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)
Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences
The Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences (CEG) is committed to outstanding international research and education in the field of civil engineering, applied earth sciences, traffic and transport, water technology, and delta technology. Our research feeds into our educational programmes and covers societal challenges such as climate change, energy transition, resource availability, urbanisation and clean water. Our research projects are conducted in close cooperation with a wide range of research institutions. CEG is convinced of the importance of open science and supports its scientists in integrating open science in their research practice. The Faculty of CEG comprises 28 research groups in the following seven departments: Materials Mechanics Management & Design, Engineering Structures, Geoscience and Engineering, Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Transport & Planning, Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences.

Postdoc in Coastal Infrastructure Reliability under Climate Change

Job description

Coastal and offshore infrastructure systems are increasingly exposed to changing environmental conditions, sea level rise, and sequences of extreme events. Understanding how these changes affect their reliability and resilience is essential for supporting adaptation strategies, risk-informed design, and long-term decision-making.

TU Delft coordinates the Horizon Europe project EU-INTERCHANGE, which develops climate services, datasets, and tools to assess the impacts of climate change on European regional and coastal seas. The project will generate state-of-the-art hindcast and future projection datasets of marine environmental parameters, including waves, water levels, ocean conditions, storm surge information, and climate-change scenarios. These datasets provide a unique opportunity to assess how present and future environmental conditions may affect the reliability of coastal and offshore infrastructure systems.

Within this position, you will develop and apply reliability and risk analysis frameworks for coastal and offshore engineering systems, with specific attention to the combined effects of marine environmental loads, sea level rise, climate change, and system deterioration. The work will contribute to the identification of coastal risks and to the development of approaches that support coastal resilience, protection, and adaptation.

You will use advanced statistical and probabilistic methods to assess failure probabilities and reliability under present and future climate conditions. This may include Monte Carlo methods, multivariate statistical approaches, Bayesian networks, vine copulas, or other suitable methods to describe the dependence between environmental variables, infrastructure components, and possible cascading system effects.

The activities you will be responsible for will combine the processing and analysis of large environmental datasets with the development of probabilistic models for engineering reliability assessment. You will derive relevant environmental loading conditions, quantify uncertainties, and translate climate projections into reliability indicators and risk-based information that can support coastal infrastructure planning and adaptation. As a final stage, the developed reliability framework will be embedded in the EDITO portal, ensuring that the project outputs can be accessed and used within a wider digital environment for marine and coastal data services.

You will work in the Hydraulic Engineering Department of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at TU Delft, in close collaboration with project partners across Europe. In addition to your research activities, you will contribute to joint publications, participate in project meetings, collaborate with academic and professional partners, and support the supervision of MSc students. This position offers a unique opportunity to develop an independent research profile at the interface of coastal engineering, reliability analysis, climate change impact assessment, and infrastructure resilience.

Job requirements
Essential requirements

• A PhD degree in civil, mechanical, offshore engineering, or a closely related field.
• Proven experience in the statistical analysis of marine environmental variables.
• Demonstrated experience in the reliability analysis of coastal, offshore, or other engineering systems.
• Proven strong programming skills (e.g. Python, Matlab).

Desirable requirements

• Proven experience in coastal hydrodynamics and wave modelling;
• A record of scientific publications demonstrating strong analytical and writing skills;
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team, and to communicate effectively with academic and professional partners.     

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)
Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences
The Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences (CEG) is committed to outstanding international research and education in the field of civil engineering, applied earth sciences, traffic and transport, water technology, and delta technology. Our research feeds into our educational programmes and covers societal challenges such as climate change, energy transition, resource availability, urbanisation and clean water. Our research projects are conducted in close cooperation with a wide range of research institutions. CEG is convinced of the importance of open science and supports its scientists in integrating open science in their research practice. The Faculty of CEG comprises 28 research groups in the following seven departments: Materials Mechanics Management & Design, Engineering Structures, Geoscience and Engineering, Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Transport & Planning, Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences.

Postdoc in Wadden Sea and Estuaries: System Dynamics and Sediment Management under Climate Change

Job description

We are seeking a Postdoc candidate for WadSED, a large NWO project on the Wadden Sea tidal basins and the Western Scheldt estuary. We seek to understand these systems and predict their morphodynamics and long-term morphological development under influence of natural dynamics, human interference and sea-level rise. Multiple PhDs and Postdocs are working on this challenge and link new insights to the societal challenges regarding sediment management, ecology and flood safety. The topic of this Postdoc project focusses on the response of the Wadden Sea and other tidal basins to accelerating sea level rise.

Position at Delft University Of Technology
The objective of the Postdoc at TU Delft is to develop and apply morphodynamic models for predicting long-term morphological development of tidal basins like the Wadden Sea and estuaries like the Western Scheldt, under influence of sea level rise and human interferences. Specifically,

• To develop next-generation model combining the best of the reduced complexity model ASMITA and the process based model Delft3D.
• To upgrade the ASMITA software by addition of multiple sediments, exchange over tidal divides, exchange with salt marshes, addition of river flow and recalibration.
• To apply the models for predicting response of the Wadden Sea, Western Scheldt and other international systems to SLR and subsidence using probabilistic simulations.
• In collaboration with Deltares investigate the impact of the morphodynamic changes on ecology and flood safety.

You will be part of a larger team of PhDs and postdocs from WadSed and be encouraged to collaborate on common topics, mutually exchange new insights, and where possible incorporate them in your research. At TU Delft, you will be part of the Coastal Engineering section where we combine research on hydrodynamics, morphodynamics, and human interventions to the coast using numerical modelling and field measurements. You will primarily work with Zeng Bing Wang (TU Delft/Deltares), Bram van Prooijen (TU Delft) Ymkje Huismans (Deltares), Quirijn Lodder (RWS), who look forward to collaborate and supervise with enthusiasm and dedication.

For more information on the project and subprojects see WadSED website (https://wadsed.nl). This vacancy concerns project WP2.1.

Job requirements
Required conditions are:

• A PhD in a relevant field, e.g. Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Marine Geology, Oceanography, Physical Geography, Physics, Mathematics.
• A record of scholarly contributions i.e. publications or software products, commensurate with this career stage.
• Excellent communication skills (written and oral), including proficiency in English.

In addition:

• You have demonstrated an affinity and a strong interest in numerical model development and application.
• You look forward to diving into the fundamental mechanisms behind hydrodynamics and sediment transport and translate that into concepts for numerical modelling.
• You have a passion for doing interdisciplinary research in teams and demonstrate inclusive values towards building a diverse community.
• You like to finish what you start.

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)
Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences
The Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences (CEG) is committed to outstanding international research and education in the field of civil engineering, applied earth sciences, traffic and transport, water technology, and delta technology. Our research feeds into our educational programmes and covers societal challenges such as climate change, energy transition, resource availability, urbanisation and clean water. Our research projects are conducted in close cooperation with a wide range of research institutions. CEG is convinced of the importance of open science and supports its scientists in integrating open science in their research practice. The Faculty of CEG comprises 28 research groups in the following seven departments: Materials Mechanics Management & Design, Engineering Structures, Geoscience and Engineering, Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Transport & Planning, Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences.

Postdoc in Coastal Infrastructure Reliability under Climate Change

Job description

Coastal and offshore infrastructure systems are increasingly exposed to changing environmental conditions, sea level rise, and sequences of extreme events. Understanding how these changes affect their reliability and resilience is essential for supporting adaptation strategies, risk-informed design, and long-term decision-making.

TU Delft coordinates the Horizon Europe project EU-INTERCHANGE, which develops climate services, datasets, and tools to assess the impacts of climate change on European regional and coastal seas. The project will generate state-of-the-art hindcast and future projection datasets of marine environmental parameters, including waves, water levels, ocean conditions, storm surge information, and climate-change scenarios. These datasets provide a unique opportunity to assess how present and future environmental conditions may affect the reliability of coastal and offshore infrastructure systems.

Within this position, you will develop and apply reliability and risk analysis frameworks for coastal and offshore engineering systems, with specific attention to the combined effects of marine environmental loads, sea level rise, climate change, and system deterioration. The work will contribute to the identification of coastal risks and to the development of approaches that support coastal resilience, protection, and adaptation.

You will use advanced statistical and probabilistic methods to assess failure probabilities and reliability under present and future climate conditions. This may include Monte Carlo methods, multivariate statistical approaches, Bayesian networks, vine copulas, or other suitable methods to describe the dependence between environmental variables, infrastructure components, and possible cascading system effects.

The activities you will be responsible for will combine the processing and analysis of large environmental datasets with the development of probabilistic models for engineering reliability assessment. You will derive relevant environmental loading conditions, quantify uncertainties, and translate climate projections into reliability indicators and risk-based information that can support coastal infrastructure planning and adaptation. As a final stage, the developed reliability framework will be embedded in the EDITO portal, ensuring that the project outputs can be accessed and used within a wider digital environment for marine and coastal data services.

You will work in the Hydraulic Engineering Department of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at TU Delft, in close collaboration with project partners across Europe. In addition to your research activities, you will contribute to joint publications, participate in project meetings, collaborate with academic and professional partners, and support the supervision of MSc students. This position offers a unique opportunity to develop an independent research profile at the interface of coastal engineering, reliability analysis, climate change impact assessment, and infrastructure resilience.

Job requirements
Essential requirements

• A PhD degree in civil, mechanical, offshore engineering, or a closely related field.
• Proven experience in the statistical analysis of marine environmental variables.
• Demonstrated experience in the reliability analysis of coastal, offshore, or other engineering systems.
• Proven strong programming skills (e.g. Python, Matlab).

Desirable requirements

• Proven experience in coastal hydrodynamics and wave modelling;
• A record of scientific publications demonstrating strong analytical and writing skills;
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team, and to communicate effectively with academic and professional partners.     

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)
Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences
The Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences (CEG) is committed to outstanding international research and education in the field of civil engineering, applied earth sciences, traffic and transport, water technology, and delta technology. Our research feeds into our educational programmes and covers societal challenges such as climate change, energy transition, resource availability, urbanisation and clean water. Our research projects are conducted in close cooperation with a wide range of research institutions. CEG is convinced of the importance of open science and supports its scientists in integrating open science in their research practice. The Faculty of CEG comprises 28 research groups in the following seven departments: Materials Mechanics Management & Design, Engineering Structures, Geoscience and Engineering, Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Transport & Planning, Hydraulic Engineering and Water Management.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences.