PhD Studentship - Delivery, Performance and Legacy: Negotiating Innovative Urban Water Options at the Olympic Park – (Ph.D.)

Cranfield University and The Cranfield Water Science Institute seeks applications for a PhD Research studentship to study the social and governance dimensions of an innovative water recycling scheme at the Olympic Park in London.
Whilst significant effort has been invested in the design and development of novel technologies and processes to deliver more sustainable water services, deployment of these innovations within urban environments in particular has been slow to emerge.
Water recycling schemes are a particularly interesting and significant example of this reality as the regulatory, governance, engineering, and management communities struggle to shape attractive conditions for reuse scheme implementation.
The Olympic Park context provides an exciting opportunity to, for the first time, monitor the performance of a large scale urban reuse project in the UK across a range of management and human factor dimensions.
The multi-cultural nature of the community which will inhabit the Olympic Park in Summer 2012 offers another distinctive dimension to the research. Working closely with Thames Water and organizations associated with the Olympic Park, the project will explore both individual and institutional responses to the reuse scheme as an urban water intervention, as well as the history of its planning, development and implementation.
Primary fieldwork will entail elicitation of knowledge, experiences, and opinions from those involved in the design and execution of the water recycling scheme as well as with individuals using facilities supplied with recycled water. Findings will inform contemporary debates and developments in three important areas of sustainable water management; incentivising more sustainable interventions, regulation & governance of innovative water management options, and water reuse scheme design.