Dr Alma Schellart

MSc, PhD

School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering

Senior Lecturer in Water Engineering

Headshot of Alma Schellart
Profile picture of Headshot of Alma Schellart
a.schellart@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 5765

Full contact details

Dr Alma Schellart
School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering
Room F126
Sir Frederick Mappin Building (Broad Lane Building)
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
Profile

By aiming to understand water flow and quality throughout the whole catchment, and how uncertainty is introduced into numerical modelling, I can advise the water industry on how to better manage our existing sewer infrastructure, and make it more cost-effective and sustainable.

Dr Alma Schellart


Alma studied her MSc degree in Civil Engineering specialising in Water Management at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

After completing her PhD on uncertainty in sewer sediment transport with us, she worked as a researcher here on uncertainty in integrated water quality modelling and the use of rainfall radar data.

From 2011 to 2013 Alma lectured at the University of Bradford where she expanded her research on urban rainfall and started research on energy balance in the urban water cycle and heat recovery from urban drainage systems. She rejoined the Department in 2013.


Research interests

Alma’s research focuses on improving our existing sewer systems and finding better ways to manage them as the global population grows.

By using computer modelling, fieldwork and laboratory measurements she seeks to improve the numerical models used to manage sewer systems.

She looks at water quality and quantity as both are vital for managing and monitoring for our existing systems.

Alma’s work in water quality explores uncertainty and involves predicting the amount of run-off and sediments that may enter our water systems.

The pattern and amount of water which enters our sewer systems is expected to change significantly because of climate change and population growth. Alma aims to find solutions to make better use of our existing sewer infrastructure, which are more sustainable and cost-effective.

Alma has coordinated a large European project, looking into quantifying uncertainty in integrated catchment studies.

This involved seven other universities and several commercial partners in their exploration of uncertainty in different models and data collection methods, in order to gain a bigger picture of simulating water flow and quality throughout the whole catchment.

Publications

Journal articles

Chapters

Conference proceedings papers

  • Seyoum AG, Tait S, Schellart ANA, Shepherd W & Boxall J (2024) Optimizing mobile sensor movement and trajectory to improve water distribution network calibration. HIC 2024: 15th International Conference on Hydroinformatics: From Nature to Digital Water: Challenges and Opportunities (pp 149-150). Beijing, China, 27 May 2024 - 27 May 2024. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
  • Seyoum A, Tait S, Boxall J, Schellart A & Shepherd W (2023) Moving sensor deployment for network-wide pipe roughness calibration. 11th IWA Symposium on Modelling and Integrated Assessment, 24 September 2023 - 27 September 2023. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Boxall J, Shepherd W, Tait S, Schellart A, metje N, Makana L, Bouch L, Bowman B, Shrimpton E & Rogers CDF (2022) A Vision for Pervasive Autonomous Inspection of Buried Pipe Infrastructure. 38th International Conference on Trenchless Technologies, No-Dig 2022, 3 October 2022 - 5 October 2022. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shepherd WJ, Abdel-Aal M, Ostojin S, Mounce S, Shucksmith J, Schellart A, Skipworth P, Steinhardt J & Tait S (2017) Developing and testing a Fuzzy Logic algorithm to alleviate the risk of flooding by controlling a flow control device in a laboratory setting. Proceedings of 14th IWA / IAHR International Conference on Urban Drainage (ICUD2017). Prague, CZ, 10 September 2017 - 15 September 2017. View this article in WRRO RIS download Bibtex download
  • Schellart ANA, Wang L & Onof C (2017) High resolution rainfall measurement and analysis in a small urban catchment. 9th International Workshop on Precipitation in Urban Areas: Urban Challenges in Rainfall Analysis, UrbanRain 2012 (pp 115-120) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Gires A, Tchiguirinskaia I, Schertzer D, Lovejoy S & Schellart A (2017) Definition and implementation of innovative comparison tools between radar and rain gauge rainfall measurement. 9th International Workshop on Precipitation in Urban Areas: Urban Challenges in Rainfall Analysis, UrbanRain 2012 (pp 38-43) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shepherd W, Mounce SR, Ostojin S, Abdel-Aal M, Schellart A, Skipworth P & Tait S (2017) Optimising a Fuzzy logic real-time control system for sewer flooding reduction using a genetic algorithm. CCWI 2017 - 15th International Conference on Computing and Control for the Water Industry RIS download Bibtex download
  • Ochoa-Rodriguez S, Wang LP, Bailey A, Schellart A, Willems P & Onof C (2015) Evaluation of radar-rain gauge merging methods for urban hydrological applications: Relative performance and impact of gauge density. Rainfall in Urban and Natural Systems - Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Precipitation in Urban Areas, UrbanRain 2015 RIS download Bibtex download
  • Seco I, Schellart AN, Jensen H, Gomez Valentin M & Tait S (2014) Effect of biodegradability on erosion of highly organic sewer sediment.. 13th International Conference on Urban Drainage, Sarawak. Sarawak, Malaysia, 7 September 2014 - 12 September 2014. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Ali A, Mohamed M, Aal MA, Schellart A & Tait S (2014) Thermal and Hydraulic Properties of Sandy Soils during Drying and Wetting Cycles. New Frontiers in Geotechnical Engineering RIS download Bibtex download
  • M. Abdel-Aal , R.Smits , M. Mohamed , K.De Gussem , A. Schellart & S Tait (2013) Viability of Heat Recovery from Combined Sewers. 7th Int. Conf. Sewer Processes and Networks. Sheffield, UK RIS download Bibtex download
  • S. Ochoa-Rodriguez , M. A. Rico-Ramirez , S.A. Jewell , A. N. A. Schellart , L. Wang , C. Onof & C. Maksimovic (2013) Improving rainfall nowcasting and urban runoff forecasting through dynamic radar-raingauge rainfall adjustment (2013).. 7th Int. Conf. Sewer Processes and Networks. Sheffield, UK RIS download Bibtex download
  • Schellart A, Liguori S, Kraemer S, Saul A & Rico-Ramirez M (2012) Analysis of different quantitative precipitation forecast methods for runoff and flow prediction in a small urban area. Weather Radar and Hydrology, Vol. 351 (pp 614-619) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shepherd W, Schellart A, Saul A & Hanson D (2010) Comparison of rainfall radar and rain gauge data and application to sewer hydraulic modelling. Integrating Water Systems - Proceedings of the 10th International on Computing and Control for the Water Industry, CCWI 2009 (pp 763-766) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Seyoum AG, Tait S, Schellart ANA, Shepherd W & Boxall J () Advancing Water Distribution Network Calibration: A Framework for Comparing Static and Mobile Sensing Approaches. The 3rd International Joint Conference on Water Distribution Systems Analysis & Computing and Control for the Water Industry (WDSA/CCWI 2024), Vol. 162 (pp 73-73) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shepherd W, Mounce S, Ostojin S, Abdel-Aal M, Schellart A, Skipworth P & Tait S () CCWI2017: F88 'Optimising a Fuzzy Logic Real-Time Control System for Sewer Flooding Reduction using a Genetic Algorithm' RIS download Bibtex download

Preprints

Research group

SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) and Urban Drainage

Environmental Fluid Mechanics

Grants

View all research projects

Past Grants

Grand Challenge for Water

The EPSRC-funded Grand Challenge Centre for Water, comprising 6 UK universities and 100+ industrial partners working in collaboration to develop the sustainable water solutions of the future and to accelerate innovation uptake across the water sector.

Professional activities and memberships
  • Coordinator of Marie-Curie Initial Training Network on Quantifying Uncertainty in Integrated Catchment Studies – 2014 to 2018
  • Co -Investigator on CENTAUR H2020 project: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/centaur - 2015 - 2018
  • Co-Investigator on TWENTY65 - https://twenty65.ac.uk/ - 2016 - 2021
  • Member of IWA Working Group in Data and Models, and IWA working group Sewer Processes and Networks
Potential PhD offerings

Unfortunately I am not seeking any PhD Students at this time, however please contact me if you are interested in doing a project in my research area.