Job offer in environmental evaluation

• Title:
  Researcher: Environmental evaluation of production systems.
  Applied to the agricultural recycling of organic waste.
• Job description:
  Researcher responsible for developing a multi-criteria environmental evaluation method for agricultural production systems, using recycling of waste and organic co-products as a means of intensification.
  Responsible agricultural recycling is a good way to reduce environmental impacts (energy and fertilizer savings, preservation of non-renewable resources, reduction in direct pollution), but it can also be a source of impacts if flows of pollutants are released into the water, air and
  soil when it is carried out. Interlinked scales ranging from a cultivated plot of land to an entire region should be considered so that these flows can be converted into impact indicators. In this sense, the developed method should be based on the modelling of complex systems allowing the specification of flows in time and space, as well as in-depth knowledge of environmental evaluation methods.
  Life cycle analysis (LCA) will be the preferred but not exclusive  method, on which work is carried out at the UMR SAS at the INRA in  Rennes, with which the unit is closely linked.
  
  Starting with a systemic analysis of the production systems, the proposed recruits should facilitate the link, which is essential to the research unit’s project, between its two fundamental focuses:
• On the one hand, analytical research into the operation of the biophysical processes (organic product transformations in and outside the soil) which help specify the emission factors needed to calculate the environmental evaluation indicators.
• On the other hand, systemic research aimed at the dynamic simulation of organic matter flows (agricultural, urban or agro-industrial) in operations and between operations within a region, enabling us to account for the agricultural practices interacting with the biophysical
  processes at work in these systems (animal and plant productions, environmental "leaks").
  
  The long-term partnerships established by the research unit with people from agricultural industries (sugar cane, rearing), State organisations and local and regional authorities on Réunion Island will enable research to be carried out into environmental evaluation to give a new
  dimension to the design of strategies for the management of rearing, agro-industrial and domestic effluents.
• Required profile:
  Ph.D. required; additional postdoctoral research preferable.
  Knowledge of the rural environment an advantage.
  In addition to skills in system agronomy or agro-ecology, the candidate should have good experience of modelling complex systems and/or proficiency in environmental evaluation methods.
• Location:
  Réunion Island (Saint Denis)
  
• Type of contract: Prmanent
• Start date: December 2008

For further information about this position:
Hervé Saint Macary (herve.saint_macary@cirad.fr
<mailto:herve.saint_macary@cirad.fr>)
François Guerrin (francois.guerrin@cirad.fr
<mailto:francois.guerrin@cirad.fr>)
Jean Marie Paillat (jean-marie.paillat@cirad.fr
<mailto:jean-marie.paillat@cirad.fr>)