PhD student wildfire risk assessment and fire propagation (100

Biological sciences » Biological engineering

Organisation/Company Hasselt University Research Field Biological sciences » Biological engineering Engineering Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Recognised Researcher (R2) Positions Master Positions Final date to receive applications 14 Aug 2026 - 23:59 (Europe/Brussels) Country Belgium Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 38 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Reference Number 256/DRB/042 Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Your function

Wildfires have significant socio-economic and ecological impacts, posing risks to human lives, buildings, ecosystem services and biodiversity values. In Europe, areas with increased danger are being pushed north by climate change. Even though many industrialized countries have implemented fire management strategies, formal risk assessment systems are lacking in many regions, including Flanders. Pan-European initiatives are hampered by coarse spatial resolution, often underestimating local fire dynamics and overlooking the need for region-specific assessments.

Without this locally contextualised accuracy, the reliable prediction of fire propagation and optimization of resource deployment remains severely constrained. Five PhD students will perform research to meet Fire Risk’s core objectives:

- the development of a locally calibrated fire spread model that accounts for land management and design scenarios (PhD
1) - the generation of near-real-time, high-resolution maps of fuel loads, fuel moisture, microclimate conditions, and fire weather indices for improved wildfire risk assessment and management (PhD
2) - understanding how land management and landscape design influence wildfire risk and post-fire ecosystem resilience (PhD
3) - the translation of scientific outputs into actionable frameworks for both operational decision-making and long-term governance (PhD
4) - the enhancement of first responder training through high-fidelity 3D visualization (PhD
5).

The vacant research position corresponds to the above mentioned ‘PhD 1’ in the Fire Risk project. More specifically, you will combine spatial data science with environmental modelling to generate the first high-resolution assessment of the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) and wildfire risks in Flanders. During the first year, you will analyse high-resolution geodatasets and collaborate with various stakeholders to establish locally tailored definitions and maps of interface and intermix WUIs where human infrastructure meets natural vegetation.

In the subsequent years, you will combine these insights with predictive modelling and select, train, and validate process-based or deep-learning fire propagation models using a.o. detailed information about topography, meteorology, and historical fire events. Ultimately, you will use this model to simulate various land management scenarios and mitigation measures, translating complex spatial data into an actionable decision-support tool for regional fire prevention and climate resilience.

The position requires strong quantitative and programming skills (R or Python), experience with spatial and ecological modelling, and the ability to work with large datasets. You will collaborate with the Fire Risk-consortium (including the other PhD researchers) and international partners. You will conduct research, write and publish scientific articles, actively participate in international and national congresses/meetings and participate in the doctoral school of Sciences and Technology, with the aim of writing a doctoral dissertation.

Your team

The Centre for Environmental Sciences (CMK) is a multidisciplinary research institute bringing together 227 researchers from 38 nationalities across six research groups. CMK focuses on fundamental and applied environmental research, as well as industrial collaboration, to address complex societal challenges that require interdisciplinary approaches. Research at CMK spans multiple domains, including understanding environmental influences on organisms,…