Water and Environmental Engineering
Water and environmental engineering has to do with water resources development and management, yield analysis, low and flood flow hydrology, river hydraulics, design of hydraulic structures such as dams, tunnels and pump stations, water services, water quality and water treatment, as well as coastal and port engineering.
In the Water Division, fields of specialisation include river and stormwater hydraulics, design of hydraulic structures, hydrology, water services, water quality and treatment, and port and coastal engineering.
The division is endowed with an excellent and spacious hydraulic laboratory where a large number of model studies have been performed. Computer modelling also finds wide application in research and specialist consulting work.
Dr Adèle Bosman
Short Bio
Adèle Bosman is a lecturer in Hydraulics Engineering at the Stellenbosch University. She holds a BEng, MSc and PhD (civil engineering), all from Stellenbosch University. For the past 12 year she specialised in the design of Hydraulic Structures, and River and Reservoir hydrodynamic modelling and rock sour studies. Previously she worked for Aurecon for five year, where she was involved mainly in the design of water and wastewater treatment plants.
Education/Qualifications
BEng (Civil), MSc (Civil), PhD (Civil)
Professional Experience
2009-2013: Engineer, Aurecon Cape Town
2013 – 2023: Lecturer: Stellenbosch University, Department of Civil Engineering
2024 – present: Senior Lecturer: Stellenbosch University, Department of Civil Engineering
Honours, Awards, Memberships
Member of the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA)
Awarded Best Presenter by a YPF member at the 2019 SANCOLD Conference
Research Interests
Design of Hydraulic Structures
River and reservoir hydrodynamic modelling
Sedimentation and rock scour studies
Physical and numerical modelling
Selected Publications
• Bosman A and Basson GR (2020). Physical model study of bedrock scour downstream of dams due to spillway plunging jets, Journal of South African Institute of Civil Engineering, 62(3), 36-52. ISSN 1021-2019.
• Bosman A and Basson GR (2019). Rock scour hole equilibrium geometry prediction for plunging jets at dams. SANCOLD Annual Conference: Sustainable long-term dam infrastructure development and management, Benoni, South Africa, 6-8 November.
• Bosman A, Basson GR, Bosman DE (2016). Hydraulic model study of the blowback behaviour of the bottom outlet of the Berg River Dam, South Africa. Journal of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering, 58(1), 43-52.
Teaching
Hydraulic Structures 424 and Hydraulics 354
Dr Caitlin Courtney
Short Bio
Caitlin Courtney is a senior lecturer in wastewater engineering at Stellenbosch University. She holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering and a PhD in Water Quality Engineering from the University of Cape Town. Her career includes diverse experiences in academia and industry. Before beginning her postgraduate studies, she spent two years working in the wastewater treatment and biogas sector and later transitioned to academia, where she lectured in UCT’s Chemical Engineering Department and contributed to research within the transdisciplinary Future Water Institute. Caitlin is also the co-founder of the innovative UCT start-up Pee-cycling, which develops technologies to recover valuable nutrients from human urine. Her current research interests focus on resource recovery from wastewater, non-sewered sanitation, membrane technologies, aquatic chemistry, and addressing contaminants of emerging concern.
Education/Qualifications
BSc in Chemical Engineering, University of Cape Town (2015)
PhD (Civ Eng), University of Cape Town (2023)
Professional Experience
2017-2018: Junior Wastewater Engineer, Aquest Colsen
2019 – 2022: Postgraduate student, University of Cape Town
2023-2024: Lecturer, Chemical Engineering, University of Cape Town
2025 – present: Senior Lecturer, Civil Engineering, Stellenbosch University
Research Interests
Urine source separation and treatment
Resource recovery from wastewater
Non-sewered sustainable sanitation
Membrane processes
Aquatic chemistry
Contaminants of emerging concern
Selected Publications
Simha, P., Courtney, C., Randall, D.G. 2024. An urgent call for using real human urine in decentralized sanitation research and advancing protocols for preparing synthetic urine. Frontiers in Environmental Science 12, 1367982
Simbeye, C., Courtney, C., Simha, P., Fischer, N. and Randall, D.G., 2023. Human urine: A novel source of phosphorus for vivianite production. Science of The Total Environment, p.164517.
Courtney, C. and Randall, D.G. 2023. Investigating the potential of eutectic freeze crystallization for the further concentration of human urine after reverse osmosis treatment. Water Research 223, 119760.
International Collaborations
Dr Prithvi Simha (Swedish University of Agricultural Science)
Teaching
Water Treatment 324
Prof Kobus du Plessis
Short Bio
Prof JA du Plessis has more than 33 years of experience in the field of water engineering, which includes 16 years in industry. His industry work experience includes working for the Department of Water and Sanitation, the Department of Agricultural, the City of Cape Town and as Director of Water Supply for the West Coast District Municipality, where he gained experience with water related institutional arrangements and specifically the Water Act and Water Service Act.
He joins the University of Stellenbosch in 2003 and is presently a Professor in Hydrology and Environmental Engineering in the Civil Engineering Department. He is a former Head of the Department of Civil Engineering.
Education/Qualifications
BEng (Civil Engineering), M Eng (Risk management of water resources) and PhD (Integrated water demand management in local governance).
Honours, Awards, Memberships
Professional registered engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa.
Fellow Member of the SA Institute of Civil Engineers (SAICE).
Fellow Member of the Institute of Municipal Engineers of Southern Africa (IMESA).
Council and EXCO member of IMESA.
Member of the Education and Training panel for SAICE.
Member on the Editorial Panel of the SAICE Journal.
Member of the International Association for Water, Environment, Energy and Society.
NRF Level C2
Research Interests
Prof Du Plessis specialised in water resource evaluations, flood hydrology and he provide institution support to various local authorities. He has a special interest in the modelling of conjunctive water use (surface / groundwater/ desalination and re-use) on a daily time step as well as the various flood related topics, including the use of Radar data and regional maximum floods.
Selected Publications
Visit my Google Profile (https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=A6ROXt0AAAAJ) for a complete list of my publications
Teaching
Water Resources, Flood Hydrology and Environmental Engineering
Dr Katelyn Johnson
Short Bio
Katelyn Johnson is a senior lecturer specialising in Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering. She has 4 years’ experience in industry and 8 years in academia. Her interdisciplinary research combines hydrology, hydrometeorology, and climate change to address challenges around flood resilience and water resources management. She has led multiple flood-related research projects supported by both local and international funders and collaborates with institutions like the Institute of Natural Resources and the University of Bath. Her teaching philosophy focuses on fostering self-directed learning and she is passionate about growing students to become future engineers.
Education/Qualifications
PhD Civil Engineering (University of KwaZulu-Natal)
MSc Civil Engineering (University of KwaZulu-Natal)
BSc Civil Engineering (University of KwaZulu-Natal)
Professional Experience
2025 – present: Senior lecturer, Stellenbosch University, Department of Civil Engineering
2017 – 2024: Lecturer, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Discipline of Civil Engineering
2013 – 2017: Civil Engineer and Assistant Resident Engineer, Eyethu Engineers, Durban
Honours, Awards, Memberships
Honours:
Invited keynote speaker at the SA Hydrological Society Conference – 2024
Awards:
IAHS Sivapalan Young Scientists Award – 2023
British Council Newton Researcher Links Award – 2019
Memberships:
ECSA (Candidate Engineer)
IAHS
SAHS
HETASA
Golden Key Member
Research Interests
Extreme rainfall and flood events
Climate change and impacts on hydrological systems
Flood-risk modelling and resilience
Integration of indigenous knowledge in water resources management
Selected Publications
Johnson, KA, Smithers, JC, Schulze RE, Kjeldsen, TR. 2024. Non-stationary frequency analysis of extreme rainfall events on the east coast of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Hydrological Sciences Journal. Accepted, In Press.
Phillips, R, Johnson, KA, Barnes, A and Kjeldsen, TR. 2024. Identifying the Pathways of Extreme Rainfall in South Africa Using Storm Trajectory Analysis and Unsupervised Machine Learning Techniques. Journal of Hydroinformatics 26 (1): 162–174. https://doi.org/10.2166/hydro.2023.261.
Johnson, KA, Smithers, JC and Schulze, RE. 2021. A review of methods to account for impacts of non-stationary climate data on extreme rainfalls for design rainfall estimation in South Africa. Journal of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering 63 (3):55-61.
Johnson, KA and Smithers, JC. 2020. Updating the estimation of 1-day probable maximum precipitation in South Africa. Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies 32 (3): 100736.
Johnson, KA and Smithers, JC. 2019. Methods for the estimation of extreme rainfall events. Water SA 45(3):501-512.
International Collaborations
Dr Thomas Kjeldsen, University of Bath, United Kingdom
Teaching
Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering
Mr Tanduxolo Nguza
Short Bio
Completed my BEng in Civil at the University of Pretoria and my MEng (Water) at Stellenbsoch University. Engineering consulting experience in municipal infrastructure and SA Army Engineering experience in Bailey Bridge building, water purification and sewer network maintenance.
Education/Qualifications
MEng
BEng
Professional Experience
4 years
Research Interests
Sewer sediment management and Sewer Information Management Systems
Teaching
Hydraulics 324
Specific research topics for the upcoming year are available below but feel free to contact our researchers directly as well.
