Hydraulic, Water & Wastewater Engineering

Hydraulic, water and wastewater engineering are key to societal development, environmental protection and climate mitigation and adaption. Despite the growth in digital, healthcare and other technology over 2.2 billion people use unsafe potable water annually and 3.5 billion live without safety managed sanitation.

Water-related disasters dominate over the last 50 years and account for 70% of all deaths due to natural disasters (UN-Water, 2024, Work Programme 2024 - 2025). Thus the development of new hydraulic, water and wastewater engineering, technology and infrastructure solutions is essential.

Research in Water, Wastewater and Hydraulic Engineering focuses on areas including anaerobic digestion, nutrient and energy recovery from wastewater, nature-based solutions for wastewater treatment, advanced process control and engineering, emissions monitoring and mitigation, modelling and technology development.

The hydraulic, water and wastewater engineering groups work with leading national and international research partners from across the EU, Africa, China, India, UK, USA, South America, India and other regions. 

The Research area has attracted over €50 million through leading/participating in large EU-funded projects (Horizon Europe, H2020, InterReg, FP7 etc), national research projects (SFI, EPA, SEAI, Enterprise Ireland) and attracting direct industry funding.  Research outputs include more than 400 journal papers in top subject, policy and white papers, conference publications and technical reports. Commercial outputs include numerous patents, commercial-licenses, company spin-outs and other activities.