The aim of this research is to address imbalance between water supply, demand and security of supply due to the following:
- increasing population growth and urbanisation
- degradation and overexploitation of natural resources
- climate change impacts.
Research areas
Decentralised & distributed systems
Understanding the role of decentralised systems in addressing the impacts of urbanisation, population growth and climate change on current water systems.
This includes exploring various approaches/systems for their harvesting potential for water conservation, water quality improvement and flood mitigation and decentralised wastewater treatment for local reuse.
The research will include undertaking hydraulic, hydrologic, economic and environmental assessment of urban water systems.
Green Infrastructure & Urban Heat Island Mitigation
A challenge for liveability and sustainability of cities is improvement of microclimate and Human Thermal Comfort (HTC) condition for the urban dwellers. Green Infrastructure (GI) is an interconnected network of green spaces that conserves natural ecosystem values and functions.
The infrastructure has been proven as the most effective strategy to moderate urban temperature by shading and evapotranspiration process. Research is undertaken into analyse the effect of shape, size and distribution of GI on microclimate and HTC.
Integrated urban water management & water sensitive urban design
Exploring the applications of integrated urban water management approaches for sustainable urban water services. This covers technical, economic, social, environmental, climate change, water demand, risk and reliability aspects. It includes green infrastructure.
The impact of these approaches and factors on water infrastructure and associated management for their long-term sustainable operation and maintenance will also be investigated.
The externalities and social aspects of integrated water management and water-sensitive urban-design approaches will be investigated in collaboration with other research groups at VU.
River Water Quality Modelling
Rivers can provide valuable supply of drinking water for humans, irrigation water to farmlands, water for hydropower and home for many aquatic ecosystems. The groups current research in river water quality modelling includes development and application river water quality indices.
Improving river water quality considering point and non-point sources of pollution.
Water Infrastructure & Asset Management
Researching ways to efficiently and cost-effectively upgrade Australia's aging water infrastructure. Our current research in water infrastructure and asset management includes identifying the key factors that are causing excessive leaks and bursts in Melbourne’s water supply network.
Analysing the impacts of climate change and urbanization on urban drainage systems, including impact of source management practices on septicity in sewerage pipe networks.
Analysing deterioration models for stormwater pipes and monitoring corrosion in water mains using in-situ sensors have also been researched into.
Research projects
Featured project
Modelling the capacity of stormwater to meet future residential water demand
Demand for water is increasing due to population growth and urbanisation, and future climate variability is predicted to put an additional load on water supply systems.
It means that we need to manage water resources in a more sustainable way, including harvesting and treating stormwater for non-potable (and in some cases, potable) water supply in residential areas.
A team of Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable Cities researchers have been assessing and modelling the use of stormwater in a residential context, and its predicted capacity to meet residential water supply requirements.
The case study for the research was an urban growth area in Melbourne, specifically an area in Melton which is currently a greenfield site where 160,000 houses are proposed to be built by 2040.
To assist in meeting water demand forecasts at the Melton growth area and surrounding areas, the available stormwater in the region needs to be effectively captured, treated to an equivalent quality, and then pumped to the storage before usage. Harvested stormwater would need to be treated through the combination of natural/engineered processes and appropriate advanced treatment trains in order to be at potable standards.
The modelling found that harvested water, if treated to potable standards, can meet nearly 40% of water requirements for residential needs.
Research team: Dr. Peter Sanciolo, Dr. Amir Behroozi, Dr. Dimuth Navaratna, Dr. Ashok Sharma, Dr. Shobha Muthukumaran (Lead).
Read the article for more information
Modelling treatment costs
Following the publication of this paper, the research team are modelling treatment costs. The team are reviewing to determine the likely chemical and microbial characteristics of stormwater, the treatment train requirements, and the likely costs of treatment to potable standards for a high growth metropolitan region of Melbourne.
Current projects
The following are the industry supported projects in this area:
- Estimating the Economic Level of Leakage for Greater Western Water (Nitin Muttil; VU RISE project) – 2021–ongoing
- Stormwater quality and quantity monitoring at Werribee funded by Melbourne Water ($70k) – current
- Development of Intelligent Water Networks supported by Western Water* ($75k) – current
- Climate Change Effects on Urban Drainage System in the City of Greater Shepparton, Victoria (Nitin Muttil; $5,604) – 2018–20
- Developing a Leak Management Strategy for City West Water* - Problem Identification (Nitin Muttil; $32,461) – 2020–21
- Effect of Green Infrastructure on Microclimate and Human Thermal Comfort (Anne Ng; $10,000) – 2020–current
- Recovery of excess energy from City West Water* Network (Nitin Muttil; $54,390) – 2018–19
*City West Water and Western Water integrated in 2021 to form Greater Western Water.
Staff & students
Read about our researchers, and access further information in the sections below.
Researchers
| Name | Phone and email | Research interests |
|---|---|---|
| Dr Nitin Muttil Leader |
+61 3 9919 4251 nitin.muttil@vu.edu.au |
Hydrologic modelling, urban water management, urban drainage and flood control, water-sensitive urban design, climate change impact studies and hydroinformatics. |
| Dr Anne Ng Deputy Leader |
+61 3 9919 5507 anne.ng@vu.edu.au |
River water quality, integrated urban water management, water infrastructure management, dendrohydrology and green infrastructure. |
| Dr Parvez Mahbub | +61 3 9919 5964 parvez.mahbub@vu.edu.au |
Environmental engineering, Flow-based applications in analytical chemistry, Chemical engineering, Scalable reactor technology, Spectroscopic and electrochemical sensor technology |
| Dr Shobha Muthukumaran | +61 3 9919 4859 shobha.muthukumaran@vu.edu.au |
Integrated urban water management, green infrastructure practices, membrane separation technologies, water and wastewater treatment and advanced oxidation processes. |
| Professor Chris Perera Emeritus Professor |
+61 3 9919 4729 chris.perera@vu.edu.au |
Hydrology and water resources, climate impact studies, integrated urban water management, river water quality, and water asset management. |
| Associate Professor Ashok Sharma | +61 3 9919 4519 ashok.sharma@vu.edu.au |
Integrated urban water management, water-sensitive urban design, green infrastructure, decentralised water and wastewater systems, hydraulic design, optimisation and hydrological modelling. |
| Dr Muhammad Atiq Ur Rehman Tariq | muhammadatiqurrehman.tariq@vu.edu.au | Civil engineering, hydrology and water resources, smart cities and urban informatics, artificial intelligence. |
Adjunct researchers
The following Adjunct Researchers are associated with this research area:
- Mr Dean Barnett Adjunct Research Fellow
- Dr Dale Browne Adjunct Research Fellow
- Dr Kein Gan Adjunct Professor
- Dr Tony Ladson Adjunct Associate Professor
- Mr Euan Nichol, Honorary Fellow
Adjunct expertise
Associate Professor Atiq Tariq
Associate Professor Atiq Tariq completed his fully funded PhD from TU Delft, The Netherlands. He has vast teaching and research supervision experience in reputed universities across Europe, Asia and Australia. His research interests include hydroponics, water harvesting, and flood management. Key highlights from his career are as below:
- He has served as an Academic Head (youngest) for more than 6 years. He played a key role in Pakistan’s membership in Washington Accord.
- He is a pioneer in introducing water footprints and virtual water trade in the agriculture sectors of Australia.
- He has delivered many keynote lectures and has published more than 10 publications as the 1st author in Q1-ranked journals (SCIMago ranking).
- He also has served as a Guest editor in a Q1-ranked journal.
- He has received the best conference, best journal, and editor’s choice awards for his research papers.
- An article based on Dr Atiq’s expertise in flood management has appeared in World’s leading news agency “Reuters”.
- As a consultant, Dr Atiq has executed mega projects in Australia and abroad.
Students
The following PhD students are working in this area:
- Fatma Balany
- Frank Deans
- Ngoc Cuong Nguyen
- Santosh Kaini
- Samira Rashetnia
Past students (graduated since 2009)
| Name | Thesis topic |
|---|---|
| Prasad Inamdar (PhD) | Evaluation of potential stormwater opportunities and sites in an urban development |
| Sachindra Dhanapala Arachchige (PhD) | Catchment level downscaling of hydroclimatic variables from general circulation model outputs. |
| Iwan Juwana (PhD) | Development of a water sustainability index for West Java, Indonesia. |
| Nilantha Gamage (PhD) | Use of remote sensing data for generation of streamflow time series. |
| Nepi Marleni Ni Nyoman (PhD) | Impact of source management practices on septicity in sewerage pipe networks. |
| Shishutosh Barua (PhD) | Drought assessment and forecasting using a non-linear aggregated drought index. |
| Sithranjan Shanmugasundaram (Masters) | Statistical analysis to detect climate change and its implications on water resources. |
| Stephanie Ashbolt (PhD) | Development of short-term optimal operating plans for water grids. |
| Walter Godoy (PhD) | Multi-objective optimisation of water supply systems - a shared vision. |
Partners, funders & collaborators
- AusAid
- City of Melbourne
- City of Greater Shepparton
- Greater Western Water
- Melbourne Water
- WaterRA
- Wyndham City Council
Contact us
Dr Nitin Muttil
Phone: +61 3 9919 4251
Email: nitin.muttil@vu.edu.au
