Smart Tech for Safer Dams: Tackling Erosion with Innovation
New UNSW Engineering CRC-Project – Positions available
Published on the 26 March 2026
Congratulations to School of Civil & Environmental Engineering researchers Adnan Sufian, Kurt Douglas, and Stefan Felder who are partners with industry in a successful Australian Federal Government 2026 Cooperative Research Centre Project (CRC-P) Grant, Smart Tech for Safer Dams: Tackling Erosion with Innovation. (Total Grant Amount $1,500,000 - Total Project Value $3,574,355).
This exciting three-year collaboration between Pells Consulting, Sunwater, and UNSW Civil & Environmental Engineering, aims to develop next-generation tools to address one of the most challenging problems in dam engineering: rock erosion in spillways.
Australia’s ageing dams face growing erosion risks, worsened by more frequent and intense floods due to climate change. Current assessment methods are highly uncertain. This project will use robotic technologies to collect real-world data of erosion damage and develop automated tools for modelling and risk prediction.
The solution will reduce upgrade costs, improve public safety, and offer a scalable alternative to manual inspections. It meets urgent industry needs, supports regional infrastructure resilience, and positions the lead partner for growth in domestic and export markets. The tools are designed for uptake by the dam industry, delivering long-term value for money and environmental benefit.
The Project will address the following topic areas:
- Undertaking UAV (terrestrial) and USV (bathymetric) surveys of various dam spillways, with development of industry leading capability in this area.
- Geological interpretation of rock masses in unlined spillways including rapid development of rock mass models, and discrete fracture network (DFN) modelling for interpretation of mechanism of past scour.
- CFD modelling of spillways and correlation between observed scour, interpreted geological mechanisms and hydraulic parameters in CFD models.
- Physical hydraulic modelling to represent and analyse the process of scour of fractured rock masses.
- Development of new code for simulation of scour by coupling CFD modelling with rock-mass models, including calibration to field and laboratory studies.
UNSW academics are delighted to get to work with industry partners Pells Consulting and Sunwater. Dr Steven Pells is a proud alumnus of the School, having completed his PhD in 2016 in geotechnical engineering, (supervisors A/Profs Kurt Douglas and Bill Peirson). Steven's PhD studies on the erosion of unlined spillways involved research on over 25 dams across Australia and abroad, providing new analysis methods that are widely applied across industry. Sunwater is Queensland’s largest regional bulk water service provider, managing 19 dams and a network of weirs, pipelines, channels and pump stations.
Research & Consulting Roles Available
The project offers opportunities across computational modelling, laboratory physical modelling at the UNSW Water Research Laboratory, and field-based investigations in advancing UAV / USV techniques. There are a number of roles we are seeking to fill to do this, including PhD students, Postdoctoral Researchers and consulting roles. We welcome candidates with backgrounds in civil engineering, dam engineering, geotechnical engineering, hydraulic/water engineering, and engineering geology.
Further details are provided in this document: Positions Available (PDF).
Apply now! For further details on PhD and Postdoctoral opportunities, please contact Dr Adnan Sufian at a.sufian@unsw.edu.au.
For consulting opportunities, please contact Dr Steven Pells at steven@pellsconsulting.com.au.
Please feel free to share this opportunity with your networks.
Dr Steven Pells at Ord Diversion Dam, WA during his PhD research.
