Projects are an important tool for me to facilitate the uptake of my research by operational end users and to deepen my understanding of the needs of a wide range of clients both nationally and internationally. I am particularly interested in the process of building capacity in developing countries and in understanding how to deploy appropriate technology to a range of end users
| Year | 2022 |
| Location | Colombo, Sri Lanka |
| Client | World Bank Group |
| Description | Assisted the National Building Research Organization (NBRO) in assessing appropriate technologies to monitor and forecast convective rainfall events that are the principal cause of landslides in Sri Lanka |
| Position Held | Subject Matter Expert on radar rainfall estimation and forecasting |
| Activities Performed | Liaised with NBRO and WBG staff to provide guidance on the feasibility of establishing a radar network operated by NBRO taking in account the optimization of radar for NBRO’s application, the human resources required to operate the radar network, the training required for existing staff and the potential gaps that would need to be filled with the addition of new staff. Reported to the World Bank task team |
| Year | 2015 |
| Location | Hanoi, Vietnam |
| Client | Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Vietnam |
| Description | As part of the bilateral agreement between Vietnam and Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology assisted MONRE with developing a plan to upgrade the flood warning service in Vietnam |
| Position Held | Subject Matter Expert on radar rainfall estimation |
| Activities Performed | Reviewed the weather radar systems used by MONRE, visited the radar sites, interviewed radar engineers, visited the Hanoi office and regional flood warning offices, and developed a road map for strengthening the systems so that they could be used quantitatively for flood warning |
| Year | 2013-15 |
| Location | Melbourne, Australia |
| Client | Smart Water Fund, Victoria State Government |
| Description | Customized real-time data feed of radar rainfall estimates and forecasts delivered to Victorian water agencies for use in their operations |
| Position Held | Lead Scientist |
| Activities Performed | Led the customer workshops determine the products that would best fit their needs, led the workshops on evaluating the customized products that were being developed, visited the Water Agencies and ran training workshops, supervised the development of the dashboard |
| Link to more information | Nowcast Data Trial |
| Year | 2013-14 |
| Location | Melbourne, Australia |
| Client | Sinclair Knight Merz, Consulting Engineers |
| Description | Developed a stochastic space-time multiplicative cascade model to generate ensembles of synthetic rainfall conditioned on historical extreme storms for use by SKM in a study to optimize the operating rules for the Wivenhoe Dam |
| Position Held | Lead Scientist |
| Activities Performed | Developed the algorithms to analyse the field properties of historical extreme storms (advection, scaling properties, probability distribution), modified STEPS to use these parameters to generate stochastic ensembles of extreme storms, reviewed the results with the client, and presented the results at workshops |
| Publications | Stochastic simulation of space-time rainfall patterns for the Brisbane river catchment |
| Year | 2013-14 |
| Location | Sydney, Australia |
| Client | Bureau of Meteorology |
| Description | Demonstrated the use of 1.5 km convection allowing NWP and advanced radar nowcasting products for convective weather forecasting |
| Position Held | Lead Scientist |
| Activities Performed | I initiated the project; contributed to writing the Business Case, managed the technical aspects of the preparations, and went to Sydney to lead the 10-week real-time trial |
| Publications | Forecasting Demonstration Project - Sydney 2014 |
| Year | 2012-16 |
| Location | Melbourne, Australia |
| Client | CRC for Water Sensitive Cities |
| Description | School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, developed a model to generate a 100-member ensemble of 10 years of rainfall for 250 km city domains at 5-min, 2 km resolution using STEPS to down-scale GCM rainfall |
| Position Held | Technical Supervisor |
| Activities Performed | Provided technical supervision of the Monash University scientist, provided the source code for STEPS and advised on how it should be modified, advised on the development of the algorithms to condition the stochastic fields on GCM data |
| Publications |
Stochastic_Space-Time
Downscaling of Rainfall Using Event-Based Multiplicative
Cascade_Simulations A Multiplicative Cascade Model for High-Resolution Space-Time Downscaling of Rainfall |
| Year | 2009-10 |
| Location | Shanghai, China |
| Client | WMO |
| Description | Delivered weather forecasting services to support the Shanghai World EXPO 2010 event |
| Position Held | Member International Science Steering Committee, Lead scientist of the radar rainfall estimation and forecasting system |
| Activities Performed | Participated in Committee Meetings, deployed the Bureau weather radar rainfall estimation and forecasting software in Shanghai, assisted with training the local forecasters, assisted with real-time operations during the EXPO |
| Link to more information | Final Review Meeting for World Expo 2010 Nowcasting Services |
| Year | 2006-8 |
| Location | Beijing, China |
| Client | World Weather Research Programme, WMO |
| Description | Delivered weather forecasting services to support the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, demonstrated 11 state-of-the-art nowcasting systems using the same input data |
| Position Held | Member International Science Steering Committee, Lead scientist for the BoM Rainfields and STEPS systems |
| Activities Performed | Deployed the BoM weather radar rainfall estimation and forecasting software in Beijing, assisted with training the local forecasters, assisted with real-time operations during the Games, co-authored papers on the results |
| Link to more information | Wilson et al. 2010, Nowcasting challenges during Beijing Olympics..., Weather and Forecasting |
| Year | 2000 |
| Location | Lahore, Pakistan |
| Client | Delft Hydraulics, Netherlands |
| Description | Provided consulting advice on the use of weather radar systems for a flood warning system in the Punjab Basin |
| Position Held | Subject Matter Expert on radar rainfall estimation |
| Activities Performed | Reviewed the weather radar systems used by the Pakistan Meteorological Service, visited the radar sites, interviewed radar engineers, and developed a road map for strengthening the systems so that they could be used quantitatively for flood warning |
| Year | 1998-2000 |
| Location | Sydney, Australia |
| Client | World Weather Research Programme, WMO |
| Description | Provided rainfall nowcasting services to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and demonstrated the use of nowcasting systems for high-impact convective weather |
| Position Held | Subject Matter Expert on radar rainfall estimation and nowcasting |
| Activities Performed | Developed and deployed the first version of rainfields, a radar rainfall estimation system, and SPROG, the first version of what was to become STEPS, provided training on the use of the systems to forecasters and WMO trainees, evaluated the performance of the algorithms and co-authored papers with the results |
| Publications | The
Nowcasting of Precipitation during Sydney 2000 An Appraisal of
the QPF Algorithms Sydney 2000 Forecast Demonstration Project Convective Storm Nowcasting |
| Year | 1999 |
| Location | Ankara, Turkey |
| Client | Turkish State Meteorological Works (DMI) |
| Description | The Bureau of Meteorology was contracted by DMI to draw up the necessary tender documents for a weather radar network and flood warning system for Turkey |
| Position Held | Subject Matter Expert on radar rainfall estimation |
| Activities Performed | Designed the weather radar network that would be able to provide the rainfall data required for a flood warning system. I selected the sites, including visiting each location, and in consultation with DMI drew up the tender specification for the radars |