Professor Reza Ahmadian
Professor
- ahmadianr@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 4003
- S2.42, Queen's Buildings - South Building, 5 The Parade, Newport Road, Cardiff, CF24 3AA
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
I am a Professor of Water and Environmental Engineering and the Director of International at School of Engineering, Cardiff University. I have circa 20 year's experience in developing and refining hydro-environmental computational models to investigate hydrodynamic, flood modelling as well as simulating water quality and sediment transport processes. I also led one of the School's Impact Case Study in REF2021 focused on flood risk management and hydro-epidemiological modelling strategies.
I am the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Water Management and the past Chair and member of the leadership team of the International Association for Hydro-environment engineering and Research (IAHR) UK chapter.
My research is mainly focused on hydro-environmental modelling motivated by reducing the risk to humans’ health and sustainable use of water. Three key strands of my research are as follows:
- Flood modelling with particular focus on modelling flash floods, dynamically 1D-2D linked flood models, implementation of sustainable solutions including, Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS), modelling flood risk and hazard and evacuation and access route planning.
- Water quality and sediment transport modelling particularly nutrients and faecal bacteria modelling including interaction with sediment, dynamic decay rate and monitoring approaches for both bathing water and aquaculture sites.
- Marine and riverine renewable energy including small hydro-power, tidal stream and tidal range schemes. This includes resource and hydro-environmental impact assessment, optimisation of the schemes, wider benefits such as energy storage systems and developing a resilient turbine for off-grid utilisation.
Biography
Career Overview:
- Reader at School of Engineering, Cardiff University (August 2019- present)
- Senior Lecturer at School of Engineering, Cardiff University (August 2017- July 2019)
- Lecturer at School of Engineering, Cardiff University (September 2013- July 2017)
- Research Associate in Hydro-environmental Modelling, Cardiff University (February 2010 – September 2013)
- Research Associate in Hydro-environmental Modelling, Cardiff University (April 2007- September 2008)
- Beton Shargh Co., Iran (June 1998- August 2005)
Education:
- PhD., Cardiff University (Full time; October 2005 –February 2010)
Thesis: Modelling Hydrodynamic and Bacterial Processes through Linked River, Floodplain and Coastal Systems: with Particular Application to Marine Turbines, Barrages and Embankment Breaches.
- MSc Water Engineering (Full time; September 2002- February 2005) Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
Thesis: Estimation of Sediment Load in Rivers Using Artificial Neural Networks
- BSc in Civil Engineering (Full time; September1996 –September 2001)
Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
Biography:
I graduated from Amirkabir University of Technology - Tehran Polytechnic (Iran), with a BSc in Civil Engineering in 2001 and an MSc in Water Engineering in 2005. I also worked as a civil engineering at different levels, before I started my PhD including during my under graduate and masters studies.
My PhD research was focused on improving various 1D and 2D hydro-environmental numerical models through enhancement of boundary conditions, increasing model efficiency, linking model applications compliance with OpenMI standard, development of a user-friendly graphical user interface and incorporating numerical models into a GIS software beside refinements of models using laboratory data. Through a Halcrow (now Jacobs) studentship, I was also in development of ISIS 2D and linking of the model to ISIS 1D (both are components of Flood Modeller Pro now).
I worked as research associate at Cardiff University from Feb 2010 to Sep 2013, working on two different projects simultaneously. One of the projects involved developing hydro-environmental models to predict water quality at a pilot site, namely Swansea Bay, and providing a better understanding of pollution sources, to assist with maintaining UK’s Blue Flag beaches by meeting the new EU Bathing Water Directive. The other project involved developing hydro-environmental models to simulate the hydro-environmental impacts of various marine renewable energy schemes, including tidal stream turbines and tidal range schemes, such as tidal lagoons and barrages.
Publications
We are currently unable to retrieve the list of publications. Visit our institutional repository.Teaching
Module Leader (ML) for Application of Numerical Analysis in Engineering, year 4, Cardiff University (2013- present).
Teaching Environmental and Computational Hydraulics. WISE CDT graduate school. Exeter University (2018).
ML for Environmental Fluid and Geomechanics, year 1, Cardiff University (2015-present).
ML for Field Studies of the Natural and Built Environment (week-long residential field course) and delivering Coastal Zone Engineering and Water Engineering during the field trip, year 2, Cardiff University (2015-2018).
ML for First Year laboratories in civil engineering and delivering mechanical testing laboratory, year 1, Cardiff University (2013-2015).
Surgeries for First and Second Years Engineering Analysis, Cardiff University (2013-2014).
Links to some of the existing projects:
CATALYST - Circular Eutrophication
Contracts
| Title | People | Funder | Value | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
TidAl Range schemes as configurable Grid-scale Energy sTorage facilities (TARGET) |
Ahmadian R (Project lead & PI), Qadrda M, Yue Z, Munday M | EPSRC |
Total: £1.4M CU: £732k |
01/01/2023-31/12/2024 |
|
Marine Energy Engineering Centre of Excellence (MEECE) |
Ahmadian R, Mason-Jones A., et al. | WEFO |
£1.15M |
1/10/2021-31/05/2023 |
|
CATALYST: Transforming resilience across water and food systems |
WP3 PIs: Ahmadian R, Harbottle M | HEFCW- GCRF |
Total: £870K WP3: £250K |
01/12/2020-01/11/2021 |
|
Living with the “Perfect Beast”; establishing a centre of excellence for mixoplankton research in Wales |
Mitra A, Hall I, Perkins R, Ahmadian R | Welsh Assembly Government Ser Cymru II+ | £500,332 | 01/06/2020- 31/05/2023 |
|
Turnover Response System Development |
Ahmadian R | Royal Academy of Engineering |
£19,019 |
01/04/2020- 28/02/2023 |
| Mersey Tidal Range Assessment (phase I) | Ahmadian R | Liverpool City Region | Confidential |
2020-2021 |
|
Promoting Energy-water Nexus resource efficiency through Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (EERES4WATER) |
Ahmadian R | EU INTERREG Atlantic Area | £282,659 |
01/04/2019- 30/09/2022 |
|
Water Informatics: Science and Engineering (WISE) Centre for Doctoral Training (Since 2018) |
Shunqi P, Ahmadian R | EPSRC | £1,147,795 |
01/10/2018- 30/09/2022 |
| Studies on disaster-causing mechanisms and disaster reduction countermeasures of urban flooding in China and the UK |
Ahmadian R, Falconer RA | Royal Academy of Engineering | £197,224 | 01/04/2018- 30/3/2022 |
| Dynamic Assessment and Intelligent Tracking of Coastal City Flood Risk |
Ahmadian R, Falconer RA (Led by Hohai University) | Royal Academy of Engineering | £70,000 |
01/04/2018- 30/3/2020 |
| Impacts of high spring tides on saltmarsh land in north Gower and subsequent impact on shellfish beds in the Burry inlet | Ahmadian R | Food Standards Agency | £20,000 | 01/06/2014 - 31/05/2015 |
| Flood hazard indices and flood inundation extent for extreme flood events | Falconer RA, Ahmadian R | EPSRC - Impact Acceleration Account | £35,906 | 01/03/2016 - 30/11/2016 |
| Jamaica Bay Wetland Creations - Assistance with DIVAST Modelling | Falconer RA, Ahmadian R | Buro Happold | £5,000 | 01/12/13 - 30/11/14 |
| Multiscale hydro-environmental modelling of marine renewable energy devices | Falconer RA, Ahmadian R | HPC Wales - Fuijitsu | £57,583 | 01/10/2012 - 30/09/2015 |
| Input and auditing UU regional costal modelling | Falconer RA, Ahmadian R | United Utilities Group | £5,000 | 21/03/2014 - 30/09/2014 |
| QUOTIENT, quantification, optimisation and environmental impacts of marine renewable energy | Odoherty D, Odoherty T, Mason-Jones A, Pan S, Stoesser T, Bockelmann-Evans B, Ahmadian A, Grosvenor R, Prickett P, Byrne C | Ser Cymru Bangor LCEE | £61,000 | 01/01/2015 - 30/06/2018 |
| MAREN 2 | Bockelmann-Evans B, Falconer RA, Ahmadian R | EU INTERREG Atlantic Area | £184,888 | 01/03/2013 - 31/08/2014 |
Supervised Students
| Title | Student | Status | Degree |
|---|---|---|---|
| The role of wastewater treatment works as a source of poly- and perfluoroalkylated substances to coastal marine systems | Rafael Georgiou | Current | PhD |
| Assessment of performance of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) in improving water quality | Nailah Altuwairgi | Current | PhD |
| Investigating transport of petroleum hydrocarbon in groundwater; Nigerian case study | Davidson Faleye | Current | PhD |
| Improved hydro-environmental modelling of renewable energy schemes | Nicolas Hanousek | Current | PhD |
| Hydro-environmental Modelling of Wake Dynamics of Turbines and Sluices in Tidal Range Schemes | Catherine Leech | Submitted | PhD |
| Numerical and experimental design of novel vertical axis turbine | Bikash Ranabhat | Current | PhD |
| Optimisation of tidal range schemes | Jingjing Xue | Graduated | PhD |
| Flood modelling and hazard assessment during extreme events | Giovanni Musolino | Graduated | PhD |
| Hydro-environmental modelling of tidal lagoons | Bin Guo | Graduated | PhD |
| Water quality modelling in estuaries | Amyrhul Bin Abu Bakar | Graduated | PhD |
| Development of 1D shock capturing flood modelling tool | Joseph David Shuttleworth | Current | PhD |
|
Modelling flood inundation extent, hazard mapping and pathpogens using high performance computing |
Jonathan Auryn King | Graduated | PhD |
| Turbulence of flow through bridge openings | Ken Vui Chua | Graduated | PhD |
| Modelling hydrodynamic, solute and sediment transport processes for marine renewable energy tidal range structures | Nejc Coz | Graduated | PhD |
| Multiscale Hydro-environmental Modelling of Marine Renewable Energy Devices, with Particular Application to the Severn Barrage | Samuel Bray | Graduated | PhD |
