My current research agenda highlights three areas of research, two of my academic passions and one field which, I have experience in, as applied in my work at IHE Delft:

• The first of my interests involves exploring numerical methods in Computational Hydraulics and accuracy of models for river systems for 1/2/3 dimensions, with special focus on floods.
• My second interest encompasses studying large water bodies, lakes and reservoirs, from the point of view of operating and water quality assessment.
• The third point on my research agenda includes the optimization and development of decision support systems for Water distribution networks.

As part of the research agenda I am guiding PhD students within the Hydroinformatics Chair Group of the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education. A number of themes  that potential PhD students may want to consider as the basis for a PhD study, are  defined bellow. I am highlighting only the themes I am involved in. For detailed information on the whole UNESCo-IHE PhD themes and programmes, please consult http://www.unesco-ihe.org.

Currently I am involved in PhD research in the following themes (each of which would lead to more specific topics):

Theme Advanced methods of simulation modelling: Application areas include rivers, river basins, urban applications, floods in rural and urban areas, coastal and groundwater resources with the overall objective of better management practices. Special attention is given to take into account explicit considerations of risk and uncertainty, especially important in climate change studies. We would like to explore novel approaches and developing new integrative modelling frameworks including multi-model and ensemble modelling, data assimilation, integrating remote sensing and other data sources, meteorological and climate models, hydrological and hydraulic models, GIS-based hazard mapping tools and decision support systems. Set of the modelling tools with which we have experience includes Mike11, Mike 21, Sobek, Delft 3D, InfoWorks, ISIS, MOUSE, SWMM, EPANET, HEC-HMS, HEC-RAS, HBV, SWAT, MikeSHE, MODLFOW, various GIS platforms, etc.

Theme Further development and application of risk-based robust multi-objective optimisation techniques and model-based real-time control methods in solving practical water-related problems. Applications may include reservoir optimisation and control, river basin management, groundwater remediation, urban water networks optimization, control and rehabilitation and model calibration.  Use of cloud computing for parallelization of complex tasks is also foreseen.

Theme Development of collaborative decision support frameworks for communities of practice and networks of stakeholders focussed on particular aspects of water management, such as modelling, forecasting, warning, monitoring, optimization, planning, etc. These frameworks would be model-based, use Internet, mobile telephony and other ICT technologies, and support the best management practices.

The Hydroinformatics Chair Group has experience in all of these areas, so that the experiences and techniques can be applied complementary to each other. Staff members have also been involved in a number of practical civil engineering projects where such tools were applied in combination with other computer-based technologies, such as information and knowledge systems, interactive Web portals and GIS.

In case of questions and/or suggestions please contact me through the Cotact page.