WaterSYSTEMS Research Group

The WaterSYSTEMS Research Group is one of the most experienced and accomplished engineering research concentrations in the Australian tertiary sector. Our internationally recognised group focusses on applied research and problem solving in three major areas:

   Asset Management, with a particular focus on non-invasive pipe condition assessment.

   Decision Support and Optimisation, supporting decision making from the design of water distribution systems through to enabling sustainable environmental flows.

   Hydrology and Climate Impacts, focussing on understanding  uncertainty in future water supply and accommodating those uncertainties in system design.

Our capability statement can be found here and a complete list of our research team here.

Since 1998 members of the WaterSYSTEMS Research Group have been involved in grants totalling over $5M from sources such as the Australian Research Council, Co-operative Research Centre, the Goyder Institute and other funding schemes. This success has been enhanced by long established, extremely productive international collaborations. The quality and impact of the research has been recognised through a number of awards, including:

• Congratulations to Augusta Lane , Ian Usher, Catriona Murphy and Ronnie Ling, winners of OzWater 2012 prize for excellence in undergraduate  water studies for paper entitled "Optimum use of subsidies for reducing domestic water consumption".

• Congratulations to Jakin Ravalico, Graeme Dandy and Holger Maier, whose paper was recently named as the best paper published in Environmental Modelling and Software in the “Generic Modelling and/or Software Methods” category in 2010. The paper, titled  “Management Option Rank Equivalence (MORE) – A New Method of Sensitivity Analysis for Decision-Making” was seen to epitomise the aims and scope of the journal, as well as be of an outstanding quality, innovative, and either interdisciplinary in their problem treatment or generic in their utility.

• Honour Award for Planning from the 2010 International Water Association Asia Pacific Regional Project Awards for a  major project to determine how best to integrate water from Adelaide's new AU$1.83 billion desalination plant and improve interconnectivity within the Metropolitan Water Supply Network. Optimatics, United Water and the University of Adelaide, in conjunction with SA Water, applied cutting-edge optimisation technology and multi-criteria analysis (MCA) in their work towards the preferred feasible engineering solution.

• Award for the Best Presentation at the Practical Responses to Climate Change Conference held in Melbourne in September 2010 for a paper entitled Sensitivity of estimated urban water supply security based on various global circulation models and SRES emission scenarios coauthored by Fiona Paton, Graeme Dandy and Holger Maier.

• Biennial Medalist, International Environmental Modelling and Software Society, 2010 to Holger Maier for outstanding, insightful and rigorous contributions to environmental modelling and software and for unselfish dedication to promoting the aims of the Society.

• Angus Simpson was awarded the Premier's Water Medal at the Australian Water Associations Awards in 2010. The  Premier's Water Medal recognises an eminent individual for an outstanding contribution to the South Australian Water Industry or management and conservation of water in South Australia.

• The Water Industry Alliance Chairman's award made to Graeme Dandy and Angus Simpson in 2010 for significant contributions to building the intellectual future of the water industry through research, teaching and consulting.

• In December 2009, Graeme Dandy was invited to deliver the Munro Oration at the 32nd Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium, Newcastle, Australia. (the award is made to an eminent speaker in the field of hydrology and water resources).