Dr Buddhi Wijesiri Mahappu Kankanamalage
Faculty of Engineering,
Office of the Executive Dean, Engineering
Biography
I am an early career researcher and sessional lecturer, aspiring to ensure access to adequate and safe water for ever-increasing populations. The fundamental purpose of my research is safeguarding water resources by mitigating water pollution. As such, I create knowledge and mathematical tools to understand the terrestrial processes that degrade water resources, essential for designing effective pollution mitigation measures.
I possess expertise and experience in applying physically-based and statistical modelling techniques in multiple computing platforms together with locally-sourced field data and data extracted from global databases to understand mechanisms of hydrological and pollution processes. In particular, I have successfully applied Bayesian Networks (BNs) and geospatial analysis to understand complex non-linear relationships among variables that determine pollutant behaviours in water environments.
My long-term research investigates how environmental changes and urbanisation influence degradation of water resources.
Personal details
Positions
- Research Associate
Faculty of Engineering,
Office of the Executive Dean, Engineering
Keywords
Water Quality, Water and Climate Change, Stormwater, Water and Urbanisation, Environmental Modelling
Discipline
Environmental Engineering, Environmental Science and Management
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
- PhD (Water and Environmental Engineering) (Queensland University of Technology)
- BSc (Hons) (Mining and Minerals Engineering) (University of Moratuwa)
Professional memberships and associations
- Member International Water Association (IWA)
- Member Australian Water Association (AWA)
- Member Institute of Engineers Australia
Teaching
- EGH471 Advanced Water Engineering
- ENB378 Water Engineering
- EGB100 Engineering Sustainability and Professional Practice
- EGB274 Environmentally Sustainable Design
- ENN544 Sustainable Practice in Engineering
Selected publications
- Wijesiri B, Liu A, Goonetilleke A, (2020) Impact of global warming on urban stormwater quality: From the perspective of an alternative water resource, Journal of Cleaner Production, 262, pp. 1-12.
- Mahappu Kankanamalage B, Liu A, He B, Yang B, Zhao X, Ayoko G, Goonetilleke A, (2019) Behaviour of metals in an urban river and the pollution of estuarine environment, Water Research, 164, pp. 1-11.
- Mahappu Kankanamalage B, Egodawatta P, McGree J, Goonetilleke A, (2016) Assessing uncertainty in stormwater quality modelling, Water Research, 103, pp. 10-20.
- Mahappu Kankanamalage B, Deilami K, McGree J, Goonetilleke A, (2018) Use of surrogate indicators for the evaluation of potential health risks due to poor urban water quality: A Bayesian Network approach, Environmental Pollution, 233, pp. 655-661.
- Mahappu Kankanamalage B, Deilami K, Goonetilleke A, (2018) Evaluating the relationship between temporal changes in land use and resulting water quality, Environmental Pollution, 234, pp. 480-486.
- Wijesiri B, Liu A, Jayarathne A, Duodu G, Ayoko G, Chen L, Goonetilleke A, (2021) Influence of the hierarchical structure of land use on metals, nutrients and organochlorine pesticides in urban river sediments, Ecological Engineering, 159.
- He B, Mahappu Kankanamalage B, Ayoko G, Egodawatta P, Rintoul L, Goonetilleke A, (2020) Influential factors on microplastics occurrence in river sediments, Science of the Total Environment, 738.
- Bonotto D, Mahappu Kankanamalage B, Goonetilleke A, (2019) Nitrate-dependent uranium mobilisation in groundwater, Science of the Total Environment, 693, pp. 1-10.
- Booysen M, Mahappu Kankanamalage B, Ripunda C, Goonetilleke A, (2019) Fees and governance: Towards sustainability in water resources management at schools in post-apartheid South Africa, Sustainable Cities and Society, 51, pp. 1-8.
- Wijesiri B, Hettiarachchi A, (2021) How gender disparities in urban and rural areas influence access to safe drinking water, Utilities Policy, 68.
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Buddhi Wijesiri, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).