Roland Price

Roland K Price was awarded a first in Part II of the Mathematics Tripos at the University of Cambridge in 1963, and subsequently completed Part III of the Mathematics Tripos in 1964. He received a PhD in mathematics at the University of Essex in 1969. His PhD focussed on shallow water waves, including breaking.

After a two year appointment as Augustine Courtauld research Fellow at the University of Essex, Dr Price went to the University of Florida, Gainesville in 1969 as Assistant Professor in the Coastal and Oceanographic Engineering Department. There he worked on hurricane surges and recirculation in shallow bays.

He returned to the UK in 1971 and joined HR Wallingford as a Senior Scientific Officer. He developed a new non-linear approach to flood routing in rivers and worked on software for river modelling.

In 1976 Dr Price began the development of software for urban drainage design and analysis within a team of people from the then Hydraulics Research Station, The Institute of Hydrology and the Meteorological Office. This resulted in the Wallingford Storm Sewer Package (WASSP) which was first released in 1981for mainframe computer use. A number of developments were made subsequently to this software resulting in the first PC version in 1984, WALLRUS in 1989, SPIDA in 1989 and eventually HydroWorks in 1992. He was also responsible for a number of other PC-based products including RIBAMAN (1984) (based on an earlier package called FLOUT (1979)) and CHAT (1987) (produced originally by Severn-Trent Water).

In 1987 Dr Price was responsible for setting up Wallingford Software as a commercial software house providing professional software products to the water industry world-wide. This eventually became a separate subsidiary of HR Wallingford (which had been privatised from the Hydraulics Research Station in 1982) in 1994. At that stage Wallingford Software had an annual turnover of about £1.8M.

After standing down as Managing Director of Wallingford Software in 1994, Dr Price went on to start up a new company called InKE Ltd, which focussed on information and knowledge management. This new company focussed on tools for translators.

Dr Price left HR Wallingford in 1997 to take up the Chair of Hydroinformatics at IHE Delft. Since then he has been responsible for the Hydroinformatics Core at the Institute, securing a range of EC projects, and becoming Trekker (leader) of the knowledge management theme in the Delft Cluster. This is major project funded by the Dutch government and carrying out research into different topics affecting the infrastructure in densely populated deltaic areas.

Dr Price is

Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications

and a member of

International Association for Hydraulic ResearchBritish Hydrological Society

He is also an

editor of the Journal of Hydroinformatics.

Dr Price's research interests include

• Urban water systems

Besides having a continuing strong interest in the development of physically-based models for storm and waste-water drainage, he is also developing neural network and nearest neighbour techniques to replicate large physically-based models. Besides modelling he is exploring the use of mapping techniques to identify sewers for rehabilitation, and developing decision support systems for engineers working on sewerage rehabilitation schemes.

• Uncertainty in decision support systems and simulation modelling

This area is important because uncertainty pervades almost all decision making in water management. Here he is looking with research students at making the most of the mismatch between model predictions and observations. In particular he wants to identify the different causes of uncertainty in physically-based modelling, using non-symbolic techniques

• Data-driven, connectionist modelling

Increasingly he is aware that data-driven modelling is an important complement to physically-based modelling, particularly in reducing the uncertainty in predictions. However, the goal is to provide a synergistic relationship between the two forms of modelling such that the advantages of both approaches are fully utilised.

• Knowledge management

If he were to name his primary research interest at the moment, it would be the topic of how to manage knowledge within a research environment such that knowledge sharing, application and creation are improved. he is heading up a team of people who are looking at the whole subject of knowledge management, both from ICT and cultural points of view. This is being done under the Delft Cluster project.

Curriculum Vitae

ROLAND K PRICE

PERSONAL DETAILS

Name: Dr. Roland Kendrick Price

Nationality: British

Date of Birth: 1941

Status: Married, 5 children

Present Position: Professor of Hydroinformatics
International Institute for Infrastructural, Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering, Delft, The Netherlands

Employment address: UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education
Westvest 7
PO Box 3015
2601 DA Delft
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0)15 2151871
Fax: +31 (0)15 2122921
E-mail: rkp@ihe.nl

Specialisations:

Hydroinformatics, Knowledge Management and Urban Water
Management

Affiliations:

• Professional Member of International Association for Hydraulic

• Research Fellow of Institute of Mathematics and its Applications

• Member of the British Hydrological Society

Educational Qualifications:

• BA Mathematics Tripos Part II - University of Cambridge 1963 (Wrangler - 1st Class Honours)

• Mathematics Tripos Part III - University of Cambridge (1964).

• MA - University of Cambridge (1965).

• PhD Mathematics - University of Essex (1969)

CAREER SUMMARY

• Editor of Journal of Hydroinformatics (1999-)

• One of five editors with responsibility for individual issues

• Leader for Knowledge Management in the Delft Cluster (1998-)

• Responsible for research and development into knowledge management as part of a major research project funded by the Dutch government on infrastructure for densely populated deltaic areas

• Professor of Hydroinformatics at IHE, Delft, The Netherlands (1997-)

• Responsible for a section consisting of 14 people carrying out education and research in hydroinformatics, with post-graduate participants from a wide range of countries doing MEng, MSc and PhD degrees

• Research Director of Wallingford Software (1997-1999)

• Responsible for providing research advice to a commercial software house

• Managing Director of Information and Knowledge Environments (InKE) Ltd (1994-1996)

• Responsible for founding and developing a small company concerned with terminology management having contracts to develop translation tools for the EC and to do news filtering

• Technical Director of Wallingford Software (1993-1997)

• Responsible for the technical development of commercial software products to meet the needs of customers in the Water Industry world-wide

• Hydroinformatics consultant to HR Wallingford Ltd (1993-1997)

• Responsible for setting up informatics projects within HR Wallingford and providing consultancy support

• Coordinator, EC project: CALWARE, (1992-1995)

• Responsible for the financial and administrative aspects of an EC project concerning computer assisted learning and involving participants in 6 EC countries

• Manager of Wallingford Software (1987-1993)

• Responsible for initiating, building up and developing a commercial company providing professional simulation modelling products to the Water Industry world-wide, including Far East, Europe and North America

• Deputy Chairman of the UK Water Industry Expert Systems Club (1985-1987)

• Responsible for supporting the work of a UK Water Industry committee, with the University of Surrey as main contractor

• Secretary of the IAHR/IAWPRC Joint Committee on Urban Storm Drainage. (1982-1989)

• Responsible for providing communication between researchers and practicing engineers in urban storm drainage world-wide

• Research and Project Manager at HR Wallingford (1972-1987)

• Responsible for management of research and commercial consultancy applied to the engineering study and mathematical modelling of water-based systems, including rivers, irrigation networks, estuaries and urban drainage systems in the UK and other countries world-wide, including Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and Jordan

• Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Florida, Coastal and Oceanographic Engineering Department, (1969-1970)

• Responsible for undertaking research into hurricane surges and circulation in shallow coastal bays

• Augustine Courtauld Fellow in Oceanography, University of Essex, (1967-1969)

• Responsible for undertaking research into simulation modelling of long waves in coastal waters and breaking waves