Section: Overview
Overview
Key publications
Research funding
Supervising & teaching
Career

Key details

Areas of expertise

  • Decentralised systems
  • Centralised water & waste water
  • Hydraulic and hydrology
  • Integrated urban water management
  • Water sensitive urban design

Available to supervise research students

Not available for media queries

About Ashok Sharma

Dr Ashok Sharma is an Associate Professor of Water Resources in the Institute of Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable Cities at Victoria University (VU).

He has nearly 30 years’ of experience in research, academia, consulting and construction.

His areas of expertise include:

  • water resources
  • centralised/decentralised urban and peri-urban water supply
  • wastewater and storm water infrastructure
  • sustainability assessment
  • integrated urban water management
  • water sensitive urban design
  • ecological footprint assessment
  • project management
  • life cycle costing.

Before joining VU, he worked for nearly 12 years at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia as Senior Research Engineer and Principal Research Engineer. There he led research on decentralised systems and water sensitive urban design, and managed various research projects on urban water systems.

Prior to CSIRO, he has worked as a Planning Engineer at the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines Australia, Assistant Professor Civil Engineering at Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi, India and as an Engineer at State Water Corporation, Uttar Pradesh, India.

Dr Sharma has published nearly 200 scientific articles including 70 articles in national/international peer-reviewed journals, 11 book chapters and 4 books.

Qualifications

  • PhD (Civil Eng), Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India, 1990
  • ME (Env Eng), Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India, 1986
  • B Tech (Civil Eng), G B P University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India, 1979

Key publications

Year Citation
2008 Swamee, P. K., & Sharma, A. K. (080101). Design of Water Supply Pipe Networks (1st). Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Interscience.

Year Citation
2015 Sharma, A., Gardner, T., Begbie, D., & Tjandraatmadja, G. (150101). Rainwater tanks in Australia: Their social/ political context, a research overview, policy implications, future research needs and application of findings to other countries In Sharma, A. ;. (Ed.) (pp. 319-338). London: IWA Publishing.

Year Citation
2018 Inamdar, P. M., Sharma, A. K., Cook, S., & Perera, B. JC. (180701). Evaluation of stormwater harvesting sites using multi criteria decision methodology. Journal of Hydrology, 562 (181-192).

doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.04.066

2018 Sapkota, M., Arora, M., Malano, H., Moglia, M., Sharma, A., & Pamminger, F. (180301). Understanding the Impact of Hybrid Water Supply Systems on Wastewater and Stormwater Flows. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 130 (82-94).

doi: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.11.025

2016 Sharma, A. K., Pezzaniti, D., Myers, B., Cook, S., Tjandraatmadja, G., Chacko, P., Chavoshi, S., Kemp, D., Leonard, R., & Koth, B. (160701). Water sensitive urban design: An investigation of current systems, implementation drivers, community perceptions and potential to supplement urban water services. Water (Switzerland), 8(7),

doi: 10.3390/w8070272

2015 Yazdanfar, Z., & Sharma, A. (150101). Urban drainage system planning and design - Challenges with climate change and urbanization: A review. Water Science and Technology, 72(2), (165-179).

doi: 10.2166/wst.2015.207

2012 Sharma, A. K., Cook, S., Tjandraatmadja, G., & Gregory, A. (120201). Impediments and constraints in the uptake of water sensitive urban design measures in greenfield and infill developments. Water Science and Technology, 65(2), (340-352).

doi: 10.2166/wst.2012.858

2012 Chong, M. N., Sharma, A. K., Burn, S., & Saint, C. P. (120101). Feasibility study on the application of advanced oxidation technologies for decentralised wastewater treatment. Journal of Cleaner Production, 35 (230-238).

doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.06.003

2009 Sharma, A. K., Grant, A. L., Grant, T., Pamminger, F., & Opray, L. (090501). Environmental and economic assessment of urban water services for a greenfield development. Environmental Engineering Science, 26(5), (921-934).

doi: 10.1089/ees.2008.0063

Research funding for the past 5 years

Please note:

  • Funding is ordered by the year the project commenced and may continue over several years.
  • Funding amounts for contact research are not disclosed to maintain commercial confidentiality.
  • The order of investigators is not indicative of the role they played in the research project.

Knowledge Exchange-Adaptive greening solution to tackle climate change
From: Council for Australian-Arab Relations Grant
Other investigators: Mr Nitin Muttil, Dr Hing-wah Chau, Aspr Elmira Jamei
For period: 2023-2024
$45,000

Stormwater sampling and analysis for stormwater harvesting project in Werribee river catchment
From: Greater Western Water
Other investigators: Dr Dimuth Navaratna, Aspr Shobha Muthukumaran
For period: 2021-2022
$40,000
Next Generation Water Management in the Werribee River Catchment
From: Victorian Higher Education Strategic Investment Fund
Other investigators: Ms Rowena Price, Ms Karen Jackson, Aspr Shobha Muthukumaran, Dr Dimuth Navaratna, Prof Mikel Duke, Dr Daniel Ooi, Mr Nitin Muttil
For period: 2021-2022
$500,000
Increasing Viability of Wastewater Desalination in Regional Victoria (Horsham).
From: Future Drought Fund: Natural Resource Management Drought Resilience Program
Other investigators: Dr Peter Sanciolo, Prof Stephen Gray, Aspr Shobha Muthukumaran, Dr Dimuth Navaratna
For period: 2021-2022
$50,000

Cost-effective implementation of WSUD approaches to manage stormwater quality and quantity
From: Water Research Australia Limited
Other investigators: Prof Stephen Gray
For period: 2017-2020
Not disclosed

Supervision of research students at VU

Available to supervise research students

Not available for media queries

Currently supervised research students at VU

No. of students Study level Role
1 Master of Applied Research Associate supervisor

Currently supervised research students at VU

Students & level Role
Master of Applied Research (1) Associate supervisor

Completed supervision of research students at VU

No. of students Study level Role
2 PhD Associate supervisor
1 PhD Principal supervisor
1 Masters by Research Associate supervisor
1 PhD Integrated Associate supervisor

Completed supervision of research students at VU

Students & level Role
PhD (2) Associate supervisor
PhD (1) Principal supervisor
Masters by Research (1) Associate supervisor
PhD Integrated (1) Associate supervisor

Other supervision of research students

Ashok has co-supervised 5 PhD students one each at Donghua University China, 2010; University of Technology Sydney, 2014; Griffith University, 2015; University of Melbourne, 2016 and University of South Australia, 2018.

Teaching activities & experience

Awards

Year Award
2012

Can Tho City People Committee Award for AusAid project on Climate Adaptation: Sustainable Urban Development Project Can Tho, Vietnam (Project team award) - Can Tho, Vietnam

2010

IWA Award for Research Excellence (runner up) in Sustainable Water Management during 2010 IWA World Water Congress, Montreal, Canada for a research publication. - International Water Association

2008

IWA Award for Research Excellence (runner up) in Sustainable Water Management during 2008 IWA World Water Congress, Vienna, Austria for a research publication - International Water Association

Professional memberships

  • Fellow, Institution of Engineers Australia
  • Chartered Professional Engineer, Institution of Engineers Australia
  • Editor Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology – AQUA, International Water Association
  • Life fellow, Institution of Engineers India
  • Editor Infrastructure Asset Management Journal, Institute of Civil Engineers UK