Andrea Pozo Estivariz

Andrea is originally from the northern part of Spain. She studied her bachelor’s and master’s degree in Civil Engineering in Santander at the University of Cantabria, where she was working for a year and half as a researcher in the coastal engineering field as part of the Geoocean group. After that she moved to New Zealand to pursue her PhD.

Andrea’s PhD research focuses on the development of advancing methods of rapid flood risk scenario assessment using hybrid approaches of hydraulic modelling and machine learning. Flooding is one of New Zealand’s most damaging hazards. It is also the hazard that will change the most rapidly in intensity and nature as climate change impacts become realized. However, current computing power means flood risk assessments are usually limited to a handful of scenarios for each catchment of interest.

During her PhD Andrea will investigate the feasibility of using a hybrid hydrodynamic/machine learning model to reduce the numerical modelling load and enable probabilistic modelling, using the Wairewa catchment (Little River, Canterbury) as the study site. Her PhD is part of the 5-year multi-stakeholder research Endeavour Programme “Reducing flood inundation hazard and risk across Aotearoa/New Zealand”, MBIE funded and led by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). Her research’s results will provide the tools to aid discussions with the Wairewa Rūnanga and be used to develop a Mātauranga Māori approach to flood resilience.

Her supervisory team includes Prof Matthew Wilson (UC), Dr Emily Lane (NIWA), Prof Marwan Katurji (UC) and Prof Fernando Méndez (University of Cantabria).

In her free time Andrea enjoys spending time outdoors, do sports and any other plan with friends.