Faisal Ahammed | East West University (original) (raw)

Papers by Faisal Ahammed

There are more than 260 transboundary river basins in the world which cover nearly half of the Ea... more There are more than 260 transboundary river basins in the world which cover nearly half of the Earth’s surface. These rivers, traversing around 145 countries, are a common cause of conflict between nations. The case study selected for this study is the Teesta River, a tributary to the Brahmaputra which flows from India to Bangladesh, where water sharing between India and Bangladesh has a long and disputed history. The model quantifies economic net benefit of opportunities to share water between the countries using a Hydro-Economic Model (HEM). Whilst HEMs exist for many transboundary river basins including the Nile Basin, the Ganges Basin, the Mekong, Volta, and Amu Darya, most HEMs that treat transboundary water issues consider a limited scope of water values most frequently including: agriculture, hydropower, and municipal water uses. However, water has many additional values including navigation, environment, fisheries, and water quality. This study adds to the HEM literature by ...

2017 7th World Engineering Education Forum (WEEF), 2017

The modern university is characterized by a strong relationship between research and teaching. Ex... more The modern university is characterized by a strong relationship between research and teaching. Existing literature suggests that very few investigations contributing to the teaching-research nexus debate have been examined through students' perspective. Therefore, a study was conducted to investigate students' perception on effectiveness of teaching-research nexus at the University of South Australia. Lecturer delivered his five research outcomes in the first five lectures of CIVE 5077: Water Futures course and thereafter conducted a survey using five point Likert scale questionnaire to understand students' perception. The respondents' number was 36; among them 36.11 % students were female, 58.33 % were international students, 30.55% were postgraduate students and 77.77% studants' grade points were above credit standing. 58.33% students agreed and 22.22% students strongly agreed that lecturer's research driven teaching was more interesting than theory based teaching. 75% students believed that research based teaching provided more learning opportunities compared with problem based teaching. However, only 47% students were motivated to perform a future research based on lecturer's research driven teaching. The outcomes of this study can be used in better formulation of curriculum for university level courses.

2019 International Joint Conference on Information, Media and Engineering (IJCIME), 2019

Self and Peer Assessment Resource Kit (SPARKPLUS), a web based peer assessment tool was applied t... more Self and Peer Assessment Resource Kit (SPARKPLUS), a web based peer assessment tool was applied to moderate individual grades for a Civil Engineering course at the University of South Australia in 2018. Nine criteria under three categories were considered to evaluate individual and team performance for ninety seven enrolled students. Each group consisted three to four students and five points rating scales were utilized. Rated peer factor was used to judge individual performance in the team, while the team performance was weighed using radar diagram. It was observed that SPARKPLUS is a user friendly effective tool to value the peer assessment for groups of engineering students.

Conventional practice among Australian municipal/government agencies faced with extensive urban r... more Conventional practice among Australian municipal/government agencies faced with extensive urban regrowth is to upgrade their (separated) storm drainage infrastructures every 20 – 50 years. Investment in these works is proving problematic for reasons of both direct cost and the indirect cost of community and local commercial/industrial disruption. An alternative cost-effective and environmentally beneficial strategy is proposed Infrastructure Compliant Stormwater Management (ICSM) a ‘source control’ approach focussed on the continuing operation – without upgrade or enlargement of existing, competentlyperforming stormwater infrastructures. This objective can be achieved in most urban settings through application of the regime-in-balance strategy (Argue, 2004/2013) to every case of re-development. The essence of this strategy is the quarantining of additional runoff above that generated on the (existing) developed site, and disposing of this temporarily-stored runoff by one or more of ...

Conventional Australian practice in managing stormwater generated in new residential sub-division... more Conventional Australian practice in managing stormwater generated in new residential sub-divisions uses traditional pit-and-pipe systems linked to detention basins to reduce peak discharges to pre-development levels. The question arises: can similar flow management be achieved cost-effectively in sub-divisions using infiltration systems and rainwater tanks? The layout of a contemporary residential sub-division in Strathalbyn, South Australia, was selected for a case study to answer this question. The sub-division consists of 56 developed allotments varying in size from 491 m2 to 2787 m2. Flood management performances of the sub-division is compared on the basis of 10 year and 20 year ARIs. Three soil types - sandy clay and two grades of medium clay are employed in the modelling. Clearance distance criteria to footings and boundaries are recognised for the three soils. Three infiltration systems - leaky wells, infiltration trenches and soakaways are considered. The emptying time crit...

World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2019, 2019

Water Conservation Science and Engineering, 2021

Pumping stations in a wastewater network use predetermined high and low sump elevations to manage... more Pumping stations in a wastewater network use predetermined high and low sump elevations to manage overflow and spills of the system, but the operation protocol, generally, does not consider energy costs related to pumps. For wastewater pumping, the largest segment of the operating cost is spent on electricity charges. Therefore, management of electricity use in wastewater operations is crucial. The purpose of this study is to develop a tool to assist asset operators to reduce electricity costs by improving and optimizing the pump control switching. With the consideration of the wholesale electricity prices from the spot market, there is an opportunity to improve efficiency and save costs by intelligent and smart scheduling control. A novel concept of utilizing the existing wastewater network hydraulic model to simulate the operations of the pump controller was undertaken. The sump elevation/wet well level and electricity spot prices were used as the two inputs of the smart controller to operate the pumps. Simulated results show that this smart controller could be a practical solution in terms of energy optimization and cost reduction to improve conventional pump switching models with up to 13% savings across the entire network under different dry and wet weather flow conditions.

Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters, 2020

The empirical relationship between annual daily maximum temperature (ADMT) and annual daily maxim... more The empirical relationship between annual daily maximum temperature (ADMT) and annual daily maximum rainfall (ADMR) was investigated. The data were collected from four weather stations located in Adelaide, South Australia, from 1988 to 2017. Due to the influence of sea surface temperature on rainfall and temperature, the distance from the weather station to the sea was considered in the selection of weather stations. Two weather stations near the sea and two inland weather stations were selected. Three non-parametric statistical tests (Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney, and correlation) were applied to perform statistical analysis on the ADMT and ADMR data. It was revealed that the temperature and rainfall in South Australia varies according to weather station location. The distance from the sea to the weather station was found to have limited influence on temperature and rainfall. Meanwhile, with the 0.05 level of significance, the association between ADMT and ADMR near sea stations is not as significant as the association between the two inland weather stations. It is relatively unrealistic to use ADMR to predict ADMT, or vice versa, since their correlation is not statistically significant (Spearman's rank correlation coefficient: −0.106).

International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 2020

The existing drainage systems consider storm water as a waste product and its main focus is on co... more The existing drainage systems consider storm water as a waste product and its main focus is on collecting the runoff from urban catchments as quickly as possible and discharging it into the nearby outlets. These traditional drainage systems cannot consider important utilisation of storm water. Therefore, a decentralised storm water management option, known as, Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) technologies, can be implemented in the urban catchments to minimise the negative hydrological impacts due to urbanisation. Hydraulic designs of three different types of infiltration-based WSUD technologies (leaky wells, soakaways and infiltration trenches) were designed for South Australian contexts. Modelling equations to estimate optimum numbering of infiltration systems were developed using SPSS and six different independent variables, such as soil hydraulic conductivity, size of the device, average recurrence interval of rainfall events, critical storm duration, rainfall intensity and roof size, were considered. The developed modelling equations were statistically significant and were applied in the real-case scenarios of South Australian catchments.

Water, 2020

The contribution of this paper is a comparison of the installation cost of a conventional drainag... more The contribution of this paper is a comparison of the installation cost of a conventional drainage system consisting of a network of pits and pipes, with that of a hybrid drainage system comprising a network of pits and pipes, supported by allotment scale infiltration measures in a modern greenfield residential development. The case study site is located in Pipers Crest, near Strathalbyn, South Australia. This as-built site consists of 56 allotments, 42 pits (hence 42 sub-catchments), one detention basin and over 1000 m of drainage pipes. In this study, conventional and hybrid (combination of conventional and Water Sensitive Urban Design, WSUD systems) drainage systems were designed to convey minor storm events of 10% annual exceedance probability (AEP), and checked for major storm events of 5% AEP, using the DRAINS model and/or source control principles. The installation costs of the conventional and hybrid drainage systems were estimated and compared based upon cost estimates deri...

Education Sciences, 2019

An association between students’ learn-online engagement and academic performance was investigate... more An association between students’ learn-online engagement and academic performance was investigated for a third-year Water Resources Systems Design course at the University of South Australia in 2017. As the patterns of data were non-parametric, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were performed using SPSS. It was revealed from the test results that distributions of students’ logins to learn-online site for all categories and sub-categories including gender, international/domestic students and grades were almost similar. Therefore, it is relatively unrealistic to use lean-online engagement data to predict students’ performances. A correlation test was further performed to validate the hypothesis testing results and a weak relationship (Pearson’s r = 0.29) between login to learn-online site and grade was observed. The smaller F ratios of one way ANOVA also validated the test results. Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests can be applied to course analytics data for face-to-face and o...

International Journal of Environmental Science and Development, 2017

show that HDS is also capable of reducing the flooding risk. Therefore, HDS could be the solution... more show that HDS is also capable of reducing the flooding risk. Therefore, HDS could be the solution of everyday problems of stormwater managementquantity control (flood management), quality control (pollution management) and stormwater harvesting. Index Terms-Hybrid drainage system, technical analysis, economic benefits, flood management, stormwater management. Faisal Ahammed is currently working as a lecturer of civil engineering at the University of South Australia (UniSA). He obtained his PhD degree on water engineering from UniSA in 2014. His current research focuses on infrastructure compliant stormwater management strategies for developed and developing countries.

Sustainable Water Resources Management, 2017

of underground pipes and linear engineered overland flow paths to nearby streams and rivers. (Sey... more of underground pipes and linear engineered overland flow paths to nearby streams and rivers. (Seybert 2006; Wong 2006). Although the prime objective was flood management in the upstream of catchments, they ignored the natural hydrological cycle of urban catchments leading to major socioeconomic issues for urban planners (Pahl-Wostl et al. 2007). These systems concentrate pollutants resulting in the degradation of waterway ecosystems (Brown 2005; Roy et al. 2008). Newman (2001) termed this traditional stormwater management approach as a "19th century solution", where stormwater was treated as a waste product. An approach which takes account of long-term socioenvironmental sustainability was initiated in the early 1990s in Australia; it is presently termed as water-sensitive urban design (WSUD) (Coombes et al. 1999). The first guideline of WSUD was released in Western Australia in 1994 (Whelans et al. 1994). Argue (2004) edited and published a book which covered the concept, design approach and technologies of WSUD in the Australian context; "Water Sensitive Urban Design: Basic Procedure for Source Control" is one of the most significant documents. Thereafter, some cities in Australia started to adopt watersensitive practices relating in particular to treatment and control of pollution conveyed in stormwater (Wong et al. 2008). These technical and cultural changes in urban planning were intended to be additional to traditional engineering flood control approaches, and were focussed on pollution treatment in the built environment. Collectively, these initiatives have resulted in technologies that can capture and temporarily retain stormwater and divert it away from the drainage channel: possible diversions include rainwater tank storage and re-use, in-ground soakage (increasing soil moisture) and aquifer recharge. This paradigm shift is an aid for solving the everyday problems of small-scale

International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 2017

Solid waste disposal poses a significant problem, as it leads to land pollution if openly dumped,... more Solid waste disposal poses a significant problem, as it leads to land pollution if openly dumped, water pollution if dumped in low lands and air pollution if burnt. Moreover, the scarcity of land and increase in land prices especially in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh create the problems of developing new landfill sites. Realising the existing and future impacts of waste disposal issues, the analytic hierarchy process model was applied to select an appropriate Waste-to-Energy (WTE) conversion technology for household waste of Dhaka-Mirpur Cantonment area. Three alternatives, namely, anaerobic digestion, pyrolysis and plasma gasification (PG) technologies and nine criteria under three aspects (technological, environmental and financial) were chosen for comparison. The analysis revealed that PG is the most appropriate WTE conversion technology in the study area. The selected PG technology has a relatively small footprint; it can treat unsorted waste and can produce good-quality synthetic gas without generating extremely toxic by-products.

Universal Journal of Public Health, 2016

This article presents the description of changes in terms of maternal, neonatal and child health ... more This article presents the description of changes in terms of maternal, neonatal and child health due to the initiatives of Manoshi Project by Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). Analysis of changes is also highlighted here. BRAC started the Manoshi Project to bring skilled care into the informal settlement of six major cities in Bangladesh in 2007. Three core methods including social mapping, census tacking and community engagement were adopted to achieve the aims of Manoshi project. This project has successfully reached to the most vulnerable women and children with very low cost and minimum infrastructure. The Manoshi Project has empowered the community through social mobilization, advocacy and communication.

Rainfall Intensity-Frequency-Duration (IFD) relationships are widely used for water resources pla... more Rainfall Intensity-Frequency-Duration (IFD) relationships are widely used for water resources planning and management. Preparations of IFD relationships using traditional approaches are difficult tasks due to lack of short duration (< 24 hours) rainfall data C1265 in many developing countries including Bangladesh. Hence, several alternative approaches have been applied to determine sub-daily rainfall intensities from daily rainfall data. Rana et at. (2013) applied random cascade modelling to develop IFD relationships for Mumbai, a tropical Indian City. These results were compared with the corresponding values of Dhaka, another tropical city of Bangladesh. Comparison results validated the findings of Rana et al. (2013).

The existing drainage system of Dhaka City, the capital of Bangladesh, considers stormwater as a ... more The existing drainage system of Dhaka City, the capital of Bangladesh, considers stormwater as a nuisance to be disposed of as completely and as quickly as possible. It is discharged directly to the nearest waterway. The existing stormwater infrastructure overflows nearly every year; serious flooding is experienced after all medium to heavy rainfall events. This leads to flooding during the monsoon season and stagnant waters become breeding grounds for mosquitoes. The concepts and principles which underpin Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) can transform unsatisfactory stormwater management situation into one which is safe and sustainable. During the design process, it was taken that the existing drainage system of Dhaka City has the capacity to deal with 1 year ARI storms. Rainfall beyond this capacity is responsible for flooding; this can be managed by installing infiltration based WSUD technologies covering storm frequencies up to and including ARI, Y = 100 years. We proposed 'Infrastructure Compliant Stormwater Management' strategy to deliver the total flood security in Dhaka City; i.e., runoff volume discharged from roofs could be manageable by WSUD technologies and the existing drainage systems can be used to manage runoff generated from paved and pervious areas. Emptying (drain out) time, groundwater table, soil hydraulic conductivity and topographic slope of Dhaka were considered in the design process. The outcomes of this study can also be applicable to other South Asian countries for providing effective solutions of flooding problems.

2009 1st International Conference on the Developements in Renewable Energy Technology (ICDRET), 2009

Solar PV Micro-Utility is the concept of Solar PV extension where power rather than the solar ele... more Solar PV Micro-Utility is the concept of Solar PV extension where power rather than the solar electric systems are offered to the rural poor. In this system, one will never be the owner of the system, but one can use the Solar PV system by paying a daily tariff. Several rural markets have already been electrified through Solar PV under

Applied Water Science, 2012

Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh with rapid and unplanned urbanization, is subjected to annu... more Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh with rapid and unplanned urbanization, is subjected to annual average rainfall of 2,076 mm. The intensity of rainfall during 10 years recurrence interval and 1 h duration of the city is 98 mm/h. The stormwater drainage systems of the city are often unable to manage peak runoff volume and hence urban flooding is common after medium to heavy rainfall events. A proposal to introduce leaky-wells using water sensitive urban design (WSUD) principles was investigated for Dhaka's drainage network to transfer the present unsatisfactory situation into one which is sustainable. The regime in balance strategy was considered to control the stormwater for 100 years recurrence interval. We applied scaling theory to 57 years (1953-2009) daily rainfall data for the estimation of sub-daily rainfall intensity values. It was found that two leaky-wells; each with depth H = 2.0 m and diameter D = 2.0 m, in 500 m 2 allotment can improve the situation. The emptying (drain) time of the proposed device is around 1.25 days, which meets the standard criterion. Groundwater table, soil hydraulic conductivity and topographic slope of Dhaka also support for installations of leaky-wells.