Elena obtained her diploma as an environmental engineer in 2009 from Ghent University (Belgium).

Climate change has an effect on the operation of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP): the more intense rain events, or the longer draughts between rain events, make WWTPs overloaded both hydraulically and in terms of pollutant load. We therefore need to address these impacts by adapting our infrastructures and their operational strategy to these new conditions.

In this project, detailed CFD models will allow acquiring new knowledge, which will be implemented in state-of-the-art mathematical models. The latter will then be used to develop real-time control strategies to deal with adaptation and mitigation of hydraulic peak loads at WWTP infrastructures.