Associate Professor Badin Gibbes

Associate Professor

School of Civil Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
b.gibbes@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 59151

Overview

Badin is an environmental engineer with over 20 years’ experience in environmental hydrology and water resource engineering. In his current role with the University of Queensland’s School of Civil Engineering he leads a program of research that aims to support the sustainable management of water resources and aquatic ecosystems. This research seeks to quantify water flows and the associated transport of sediment and contaminants in environmental systems ranging from upland rivers and streams to lakes, estuaries and the near-coastal ocean as well as their connected groundwater systems. Badin employs a multi-disciplinary approach that combines the application of innovative environmental monitoring with a range of models to better understand how different factors influence water quality and ecosystem health in these systems.

Prior to joining the University of Queensland, Badin was active in engineering and environmental management roles within various local government, state government, not-for-profit and professional engineering consulting organisations. He applies this past industry experience in his current research activities, which are characterised by close collaboration with water management agencies, to deliver scientific information to support management decisions.

Badin also maintains an active involvement in the University of Queensland’s undergraduate and post-graduate teaching programs where he delivers lectures in various subjects including environmental engineering, hydrology, environmental risk assessment and modelling of surface water and groundwater systems. The experience gained in these roles enables him to communicate complex environmental information with a level of detail appropriate to a range of different audiences from community stakeholders to the engineering profession and regulatory agencies. Badin also supervises a number of post-graduate and undergraduate students who are pursuing research in the area of environmental hydrology and contaminant transport, with many focusing on the implications of forecast climate shifts on water resource management decisions.

Research Interests

  • Environmental Hydrology and Water Resources
    Monitoring and modelling of water flows and associated bio-geochemical processes at the catchment scale as they relate to water supply systems. A particular research interest is monitoring and modelling the coupled hydrodynamic and bio-geochemical processes that occur in lakes and water supply reservoirs.
  • Surface Water-Groundwater Interactions
    Measurement and modelling of the exchange of water (and associated dissolved chemicals) between groundwater and surface water systems such as lakes, rivers, estuaries and oceans.
  • Contaminant transport and fate
    A focus of my research is on natural substances such as sediments, nutrients, pathogens, heat and salt that can become contaminants when changes in land use or anthropogenic activity cause them to be present in elevated concentrations in aquatic systems. A combination of environmental monitoring and numerical models are used to explore the movement of these contaminants through environmental systems.

Qualifications

  • BEng with Honours (Environmental Engineering), Griffith University
  • Master of Engineering Science (Water Engineering), University of New South Wales
  • PhD in Environmental Engineering, The University of Queensland

Publications

View all Publications

Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • (2019) Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • Engineered wetlands are increasingly used in urban stormwater systems to enhance water quality and ecosystem health. Design of these systems is often informed by coupled hydrologic and water quality models, however these models are often unable to resolve detailed hydrodynamic and water quality interactions. Recent advances in numerical models and computational capacity now allow simulation of these processes.

    The project will focus on the application of a coupled three-dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality model to directly simulate the hydraulic and water quality performance of urban wetlands. Specifically, the project seeks to develop and test innovative approaches to the simulation of flow-vegetation interactions (with a focus on aquatic macrophytes) and the associated implications for nutrient cycling, pathogen dynamics and aquatic vegetation over multiple seasonal cycles. This project involves close collaboration with an industry partner that is an international leader in the simulation of water quality, with opportunities to complete research while embedded within the industry partner organisation. The successful candidate will have an opportunity to develop world-class skills in the construction and application of advanced water quality models. Exposure to environmental modelling is a prerequisite and previous experience in data analysis would be advantageous.

  • Opportunities in these areas of investigaiton are continually emerging. Please contact me directly (b.gibbes@uq.edu.au) to discuss the latest research opportunities or to propose your own study topic.

    Current areas of active research include:

    1. Monitoring and modelling of pollutants (sediments, nutrients, pathogens and chemicals) in lakes and groundwater systems.

    2. Urban lake modelling and management.

    3. Simulation of future climate impacts on the hydrologial cycle with a focus on assessing changes in catchment runoff and lake dynamics.

View all Available Projects

Publications

Featured Publications

Book

Book Chapter

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

Completed Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • Engineered wetlands are increasingly used in urban stormwater systems to enhance water quality and ecosystem health. Design of these systems is often informed by coupled hydrologic and water quality models, however these models are often unable to resolve detailed hydrodynamic and water quality interactions. Recent advances in numerical models and computational capacity now allow simulation of these processes.

    The project will focus on the application of a coupled three-dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality model to directly simulate the hydraulic and water quality performance of urban wetlands. Specifically, the project seeks to develop and test innovative approaches to the simulation of flow-vegetation interactions (with a focus on aquatic macrophytes) and the associated implications for nutrient cycling, pathogen dynamics and aquatic vegetation over multiple seasonal cycles. This project involves close collaboration with an industry partner that is an international leader in the simulation of water quality, with opportunities to complete research while embedded within the industry partner organisation. The successful candidate will have an opportunity to develop world-class skills in the construction and application of advanced water quality models. Exposure to environmental modelling is a prerequisite and previous experience in data analysis would be advantageous.

  • Opportunities in these areas of investigaiton are continually emerging. Please contact me directly (b.gibbes@uq.edu.au) to discuss the latest research opportunities or to propose your own study topic.

    Current areas of active research include:

    1. Monitoring and modelling of pollutants (sediments, nutrients, pathogens and chemicals) in lakes and groundwater systems.

    2. Urban lake modelling and management.

    3. Simulation of future climate impacts on the hydrologial cycle with a focus on assessing changes in catchment runoff and lake dynamics.