University of Melbourne

The Waterway Ecosystem Group (WERG: see thewerg.org) at the University of Melbourne is led by Prof. Tim Fletcher & Assoc. Prof. Chris Walsh and comprises a team of around 30 researchers and postgrad students. The group’s research focusses on

  1. impacts of stormwater quality and hydrology on the flow regimes, water chemistry, geomorphology and aquatic ecology of urban streams,
  2. technologies for the treatment, flow-management and harvesting of urban stormwater,
  3. modelling of urban stormwater flow regimes, water quality and the impact of multiple-scale implementation of stormwater control measures.

The group’s beacon project is the Little Stringybark Creek project, which is a world-leading attempt at retrofitting an entire urban catchment using infiltration, biofiltration and stormwater harvesting technologies, applied across a range of scales.

In 2009 Fletcher was an Invited Professor at DEEP and has contributed to seminars and workshops of the OTHU since 2008 (he has also hosted >15 INSA research students at Melbourne). Tim Fletcher will oversee Post-doctorate with Gilsain Lipeme Kouyi on the modelling of water infiltration and nanoparticles transfers in infiltration systems and soils and on the development of INFILTRON-mod. Tim is currently hosting a 6-month sabbatical of Assoc. Prof. Gislain Lipeme Kouyi in Melbourne, Australia.

Relevant publications

  • Le Coustumer, S., Fletcher, T.D., Deletic, A., Barraud, S. and Lewis, J.F. 2009. Journal of hydrology. 376, 1 (2009), 16–23.
  • Le Coustumer, S., Fletcher, T.D., Deletic, A., Barraud, S. and Poelsma, P. 2012. Water research. 46, 20 (2012), 6743–6752.
  • Li, Y.L., Deletic, A., Alcazar, L., Bratieres, K., Fletcher, T.D. and McCarthy, D.T. 2012. Ecological Engineering. 49, (2012), 137–145.
  • Marin, M., Lipeme Kouyi, G., Ross, A., Fletcher, T., Molle, P. and Chocat, B. 2013. NOVATECH 2013. (2013).

Team members involved in the project

Tim Fletcher