2011 Committee Meetings

  • 27th January
  • 3rd March
  • 31st March
  • 28th April
  • 26th May
  • 23rd June
  • 21st July
  • 18th August
  • 15th September
  • 13th October
  • Modelling AGM at Annual Conference, Rotorua - 9th November
  • 8th December
Pipes Pupu Springs
Water New Zealand Modelling SIG Committee 2010/2011

Profiles

Chairman - Brian Robinson
Brian Robinson is a Senior Civil Engineer at Aurecon with 10 years experience in catchment management, urban drainage, and flood management. He has specialist expertise in developing and calibrating hydraulic wastewater, stormwater and combined network models, as well as considerable experience modelling rivers and open channel systems. He also has experience in design of flood alleviation schemes, pipe and pump station upgrades and combined sewer overflow (CSO) structures. Brian has worked on and managed a wide range of projects addressing factors such as model build and development, calibration, system performance assessment, development impact assessment and overflow impact assessments, investigation of system improvement options, and conceptual design. Brian has worked throughout New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom using a wide range of software packages.
Committee Member – Ian Garside

Ian Garside is a founder member of the modelling SIG, was on the initial committee and is a former chair of the group.  Ian also sits on the Water NZ Conference Technical committee.  Ian has over 30 published papers, the majority of which are on topics from the modelling industry.  Ian has a master's degree in Engineering Hydrology and his master thesis was on the development of Rainfall Time Series for wastewater network applications.  Ian has worked on wastewater, water and Stormwater network planning projects throughout the world.  The more notable projects were the first Urban Pollution Management studies in the UK for United Utilities, Welsh Water and Yorkshire Water and Project Storm in NZ for Watercare, he was technical lead for both these studies.  Ian played a key role assisting Watercare to secure their wastewater network consent and advised Sydney Water in developing needs, options and Inflow / Infiltration effectiveness studies as part of their SCAMPS programme.  Ian is currently Operations Manager for Beca's NZ Water and Environmental operation which employs around 90 staff working in the water and waste sector.
Committee Member -Marcel Bear
Marcel is a Principal Consulting Engineer specialising in water supply reticulation. He has been involved in the engineering profession for 18 years and was an original member of the Modelling SIG. Over this time he has seen a need to maintain the transfer of knowledge to younger modellers and to establish and strengthen the network of contacts between engineers. For this reason he has helped organise and actively participated in training and networking building events. He sees his role as SIG Chair to continue the work of the previous chair/committee and build from it to establish a community of modellers, both national and international, that can call on each other and learn from each other to the betterment of water modelling.
Committee Member - Nick Brown

Nick manages the modelling team at North Shore City Council encompassing modelling for Wastewater, Stormwater, and Water Supply.  Nick was there at the first modelling group meeting, a predecessor of the Modelling SIG.  Nick has spent the past 15 years modelling including, rainfall runoff, hydro electric, wastewater, stormwater, coastal, groundwater, 1D, 2D, using a range of tools including MOUSE, MIKE21, MIKE11, SWMM, Hydroworks, Tuflow, Modflow, Drains, ILSAX.  Nick has worked as a modeller in New Zealand and Australia and has a masters in Hydrology and Oceanography and a bachelors in Earth Science.
Committee Member - Rathika Jebamony

Rathika Jebamony is a senior modeller at DHI Water and Environment Ltd. For over 7 years, Rathika has been involved with hydrological and hydraulic modelling of both urban and rural stormwater and wastewater systems. Modelling projects that Rathika has been involved with over the years are wide-ranging. A few examples include model build and calibration, system performance analysis, data analysis, network genetic algorithm optimisation and model peer reviews. At DHI, Rathika also plays a significant role in software support, software and hydraulic modelling training to NZ modellers and is the head of customer care for DHI software products in New Zealand. Through this daily contact, Rathika has firsthand knowledge of the needs and wants of modellers around NZ. Rathika is a motivated person who is keen to help modellers get to the next level.
Committee Member - Thomas Joseph

Thomas is a senior hydraulic modeller at AWT. He has more than 8 years of experience in water resources and 11 years in the Civil Engineering industry. His experience includes several disciplines within water resources including detailed hydraulic modelling of water, wastewater, and stormwater systems. His current interest and expertise lies in enterprise level geospatial data management and web integration.
Committee Member - Jeff McLean

Jeff is an environmental engineer with Opus International Consultants specialising in modelling of water supplies. Over the last seven years, Jeff has been involved in the building, calibrating and using water models for improving system operation and forward planning for water supplies. Jeff has worked with a number of local authorities across New Zealand, from Far North District Council in the North to Dunedin City Council in the South, on both large and small urban supplies, and with rural water supplies. Jeff has a keen interest in training and developing new modellers.
Committee Member - Rob Tinholt

Rob Tinholt is the Network Planner for wastewater at Watercare Services Ltd. He has over fifteen years experience in wastewater and stormwater planning, modelling and design working for both consultants and utility companies. Rob has a Bachelor of Engineering Degree from the University of Canterbury, and a Diploma in Business Administration from Auckland University. His interest is in improving our use of the tools we have to understand what happens in drainage networks so that we make better decissions. Rob therefore has a strong interest in the role of modelling and he believes he can make a significant contribution including but not limited to: 1. Contributing to discussions and development of strategy to raise the profile of modelling in NZ 2. Developing modelling and flow monitoring standards, and 3. Improving the way modelling is used to achieve the goal of improved understanding and decission making. He is a proud father of two, he enjoys a good debate and a good challange, and is a finisher of this year's Ironman NZ.
Committee Member - Louisa Sinclair

Louisa is the Hydraulic Modeller for Dunedin City Council. For over 7 years Louisa has been involved in wastewater modelling along side various capital works projects and water main rehabilitation design in the UK. Louisa has a Masters Degree in Civil Engineering for The Queen’s University of Belfast (UK) and prior to starting her position at DCC in May 2010 she gained the title of Chartered Engineer with Engineers Ireland. Louisa has previously been a training coordinator to local staff and lead training coordinator across a sector. Louisa is keen to use her passion for training and development through the Modelling SIG committee.  
Committee Member - Tonia Gnoerich

Tonia Gnoerich is a professional civil engineer with more than nine years experience; she is specialized in water, environment and computer sciences with experiences in the fields of water resources, integrated river basin management; river, water supply and waste water modelling as well as some mining experience. Experience has been gained on a global basis in many international locations such as USA, Chile, UK, Brunei, etc. In these locations projects undertaken have been primarily with central governments and local bodies. She was involved in mining projects with particular emphasis on water balances, hydrological studies, river redesign and pumping system design. Additionally she has had experience in River, Waste and Clean Water Modelling. She was exposed to all aspects of modelling including GIS data management, model build, pressured pipes, open channel flow, and calibration. Furthermore she had had experience in river and flood management. Of special interest was her involvement in marketing strategies after the hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, as well as storm modelling investigations and river bank protection design, management and analysis.
Committee Member - Keith Woolley

Keith Woolley has worked in the water Industry for nearly thirty years with a broad experience in water modelling. He works as a senior engineer at Capacity Infrastructure Services Ltd Wellington in major projects, water engineering and planning, strategic planning, reservoir development programmes and modelling. Previously Keith was a committee member of the modelling group for approximately ten years, and deputy chairman and chairman for four years. Recently Keith was co-opted onto the Standards Australia committee for water valves. His professional qualifications include CPEng and IntPE.
Committee Member - Colin Roberts

Colin is Managing Director and Head of Innovation for DHI New Zealand. He sits on DHI’s Global Knowledge Innovation Team for urban water. He has over 16 years experience in the modelling industry working in New Zealand, Australia and Europe in areas of water resources, urban and coastal and marine. His interests are broad covering the areas of formulating and developing numerical models to solve issues in water analysis and management; schematising protpotypes for modelling; promoting the powerful use of mathematics and computational models in natural and man-made environments; and in capacity building and educational aspects of the modelling industry. Colin is passionate about promoting and profiling the exciting and value-added possibilities of modelling.

Committee Member - Tristan Jamieson

Tristan is a Professional Engineer with over 10 years experience in water, wastewater and stormwater planning. Tristans primary focus has been numerical modelling - with most of his experience in the consulting industry. He is currently self-employed as the director of Watershed Consultation Ltd, which services the Local Government water sector.


Committee Member - Tom Parsons

Tom is a hydraulic engineer with over seven years experience in hydraulic modelling, design and analysis. Tom has worked within the fields of stormwater, wastewater and waterways using a range of tools on a number of projects, from analysis of existing systems through to detailed design of new infrastructure and construction management. His strong communication skills bring together technical experience and his people focus. Tom’s waterways experience in New Zealand has covered a broad range of environments from steep natural rivers to highly modified urban watercourses and structures. Modelling of rivers, dam break, overland flows and structures was complimented with river protection works design and construction management. He has modelled both open channel and stormwater network systems using a range of modelling packages. Tom has undertaken modelling studies of a number of wastewater networks both in New Zealand and abroad. He has undertaken preliminary and conceptual designs for sewerage systems for new developments in the Emirate of Ajman. He has developed models to undertake remedial sewerage system designs for existing combined sewer systems as part of his work in UK. Tom enjoys spending time with his young children, doing DIY around the house and currently sits on the IPENZ/WaterNZ Rivers Group Committee.
Committee Member - Robert Kelly

Robert is a chartered professional engineer but initially trained as a meteorologist. He gained a BSc (Hons) in Mathematical Physics at Liverpool University and an MSc in meteorology at McGill University in Canada where he was the recipient of a Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship. He spent a few years weather forecasting for the British and then New Zealand National meteorological services where he received the Chairman’s award. After completing a MEngSc in hydrology and water resources with distinction at the UNSW in Sydney in 2001, Robert joined Webb McKeown and Associates a small Sydney firm specialising in floodplain management. Robert was involved in modelling some of the large river systems of NSW including the Hawkesbury-Nepean, Murrumbidgee, Hunter and Macleay rivers both in 1d and 2d. Robert returned to New Zealand where he began work at Aurecon’s Tauranga office. Robert quickly became familiar with urban development, designing and undertaking contract supervision of several new subdivisions. Stormwater mitigation and modelling remained Robert’s primary focus. Robert has been involved in modelling and mitigation design for several large plan changes including Tauriko (Kopurereua Stream), Te Puke West (Raparapahoe Stream) and the Wairakei-Papamoa (Wairakei drainage system). He has also been involved in modelling and options analysis for urban piped networks including flood hazard mapping for the ICS Metrowater project and the Matua catchments in Tauranga. Robert was team leader for the culvert modelling design for the Hobsonville motorway, and also lead modeller for the Okere Gates options assessment project for Environment BOP. Recently Robert wrote catchment management plans for the Matamata Piako District Council, and also developed a soakage design manual for them. Robert continues to be highly involved in stormwater modelling, including 1d – culverts and bridges for KiwiRail and 2d flood hazard modelling for Tauranga City Council. In the last year however Robert has also been involved in water network modelling and is currently developing a detailed comprehensive water distribution network model for the Western Bay of Plenty District Council.
Committee Member - Dave Ward

Co-opted Committee Member - Mark Pennington

I’m a civil engineer with 14 years of experience, the bulk of which has been in hydraulic and hydrological analyses. I currently practice in these fields, mainly in hydraulic design of flood protection works and stormwater system analysis and design. So anything to do with the flow of water with a free surface is pretty much my game right now. I am a member of IPENZ and am on the committee of the IPENZ/Water New Zealand Rivers Group. I frequently use models to assist in my work, and am familiar with the use of a reasonable range of different software packages.
Co-opted Committee Member - Dr Asaad Shamseldin



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