Prof Dmitri Kavetski
Professor
School of Civil Engineering and Construction
College of Engineering and Information Technology
Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.
One of the main contributions of Dmitri's research work has been the development of Bayesian Total Error Analysis (BATEA) - a comprehensive framework for parameter estimation and probabilistic prediction accounting for data and model uncertainties. BATEA has been used in research and practice, including in the operational seasonal forecasting system of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Additional applications have taken place in river system modelling, irrigation modelling and other areas of environmental engineering.Dmitri's broader interests include mathematical modelling of surface and subsurface hydrological systems, development of numerically robust rainfall-runoff models, and more generally the design of robust and computationally efficient numerical algorithms for environmental model implementation, calibration and prediction.Dmitri's international collaborations include the Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG), CEMAGREF (Paris and Lyon, France), US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Environmental Hydraulics Institute of Cantabria (Santander, Spain), and other institutions worldwide.
Research Interests
Bayesian inference and prediction in hydrology and environmental modelling. Development of novel Bayesian and Monte Carlo techniques for parameter estimation, uncertainty analysis and predictive applications. Areas of application focus on hydrological models and river system models.
Modelling in hydrology and environmental engineering. Selection of governing equations and process representations in hydrological and snow models, including scientifically defensible hypothesis testing. Model development, optimisation and testing.
Applied numerical and statistical analysis in environmental engineering. Design and implementation of accurate, robust and computationally efficient numerical algorithms and software. Solution of nonlinear differential equations, numerical integration, nonlinear optimisation problems, and others. Areas of application have included Richards equation for groundwater simulations, rainfall-runoff models, CO2 geosequestration models, and others.
| Date | Position | Institution name |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 - ongoing | Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering | University of Adelaide |
| 2010 - 2012 | Senior Research Fellow | University of Newcastle Australia |
| 2007 - 2010 | Research Fellow | University of Newcastle Australia |
| 2004 - 2007 | Postdoctoral Research | Princeton University |
| Date | Type | Title | Institution Name | Country | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Award | Outstanding Publication in Hydrological Modeling | US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) | United States | - |
| 2014 | Award | Research Spotlight Award from American Geophysical Union (top 5% of papers in AGU) for Westra et al (2014) | American Geophysical Union | United States | - |
| 2014 | Award | Editors Highlight Award from Water Resources Research (top 5% of papers in WRR) for Evin et al (2014) | Water Resources Research | United States | - |
| 2012 | Award | South Australia Young Tall Poppy Science Award | Australian Institute of Policy and Science | Australia | - |
| 2011 | Award | Editors’ Choice Award in Water Resources Research | American Geophysical Union | United States | - |
| 2011 | Award | Editors’ Citation for Excellence in Refereeing for Water Resources Research | American Geophysical Union | United States | - |
| 2011 | Award | 2011 Researcher of the Year Award | http://www.newcastle.edu.au | Australia | - |
| 2011 | Award | Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence | University of Newcastle | Australia | - |
| 2010 | Award | Pro Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment | University of Newcastle | Australia | - |
| Date | Institution name | Country | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | University of Newcastle Australia | Australia | Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering (Environmental) |
| 2000 | University of Newcastle Australia | Australia | Bachelor of Engineering (Environmental) |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Kavetski, D. (2018). Parameter estimation and predictive uncertainty quantification in hydrological modelling. In Q. Duan, F. Pappenberger, A. Wood, H. L. Cloke, & J. C. Schaake (Eds.), Handbook of hydrometeorological ensemble forecasting (pp. 481-522). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. DOI Scopus6 |
| 2016 | Kuczera, G., Kavetski, D., Renard, B., & Thyer, M. (2016). Bayesian Methods. In V. Singh (Ed.), Handbook of Applied Hydrology, Second Edition (Second ed., pp. 10 pages). New York, USA: McGraw-Hill. |
| 2003 | Kavetski, D., Franks, S. W., & Kuczera, G. (2003). Confronting Input Uncertainty in Environmental Modelling. In Q. Duan, H. V. Gupta, S. Sorooshian, A. N. Rousseau, & R. Turcotte (Eds.), Calibration of Watershed Models (pp. 49-68). American Geophysical Union. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2021 | McInerney, D., Thyer, M., Kavetski, D., & Kuczera, G. (2021). Technical note on producing spatially correlated daily streamflow forecasts at semi-gauged sites. |
| 2020 | McInerney, D. J., Thyer, M., Kavetski, D., & Kuczera, G. (2020). Technical note on producing spatially correlated streamflow forecasts at multiple gauged sites. |
| 2019 | McInerney, D. J., Thyer, M. A., & Kavetski, D. (2019). Technical Note on Improving Seamless Streamflow Forecasting using Multi-time scale Hydrological Residual Error Modelling. Australian Bureau of Meteorology. |
| 2018 | McInerney, D., Thyer, M. A., & Kavetski, D. (2018). Assessment of DEW Surface Water Team Modelling Approaches. South Australian Department of Environment and Water (DEW). |
| 2011 | Tuteja, N. K., Shin, D., Laugesen, R., Khan, U., Shao, Q., Wang, E., . . . Le, B. (2011). Experimental evaluation of the dynamic seasonal streamflow forecasting approach. Melbourne, Victoria: Commonwealth of Australia (Bureau of Meteorology). |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| - | Thyer, M., McInerney, D., Kavetski, D., Kuczera, G., Lerat, J., Tuteja, N., . . . Shin, D. (n.d.). Seasonal Streamflow Forecasting for Water Management: Advances and Opportunities. DOI |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2022 | Laugesen, R., Thyer, M., McInerney, D., & Kavetski, D. (2022). Supplementary material to "Flexible forecast value metric suitable for a wide range of decisions: application using probabilistic subseasonal streamflow forecasts". DOI |
| - | Laugesen, R., Thyer, M., McInerney, D., & Kavetski, D. (n.d.). Supporting data for "Flexible forecast value metric suitable for a wide range of decisions: application using probabilistic subseasonal streamflow forecasts" by Laugesen et.al. (2023). DOI |
| - | McInerney, D., Thyer, M., & Kavetski, D. (n.d.). Supporting data for "Improving the reliability of sub-seasonal forecasts of high and low flows by using a flow-dependent non-parametric model" by McInerney et al. (2021). DOI |
| - | McInerney, D., Thyer, M., Kavetski, D., Githui, F., Thayalakumaran, T., Liu, M., & Kuczera, G. (n.d.). The importance of Spatiotemporal Variability in irrigation inputs for hydrological modelling of irrigated catchments - Datasets. DOI |
| - | Laugesen, R., Thyer, M., McInerney, D., & Kavetski, D. (n.d.). Supporting data for "Software library to quantify the value of forecasts for decision-making: Case study on sensitivity to damages" by Laugesen et al. (2025). DOI |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2017 | McInerney, D., Bennett, B. S., Thyer, M., & Kavetski, D. (2017). Interactive Probabilistic Predictions [Computer Software]. http://www.probabilisticpredictions.org/. DOI |
| - | McInerney, D., Westra, S., Leonard, M., Kavetski, D., Thyer, M., & Maier, H. (n.d.). Code and data for 'Tailored Calibration of Stochastic Weather Generators for Enhanced Hydrological System Evaluation' by McInerney et al [Computer Software]. DOI |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| - | McInerney, D., Thyer, M., & Kavetski, D. (n.d.). Supporting data for "Benefits of explicit treatment of zero flows in probabilistic hydrological modelling of ephemeral catchments" by McInerney et al. (2019). DOI |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| - | Thyer, M., Kavetski, D., & McInerney, D. (n.d.). Introduction to Evaluating Probabilistic Predictions. DOI |
| - | Thyer, M., Kavetski, D., McInerney, D., & Renard, B. (n.d.). Introduction to Residual Diagnostics. DOI |
| - | Thyer, M., Kavetski, D., McInerney, D., & Hunter, J. (n.d.). Guidance on Enhancing Probabilistic Predictions. DOI |
| - | Thyer, M., McInerney, D., Kavetski, D., Laugesen, R., & Tuteja, N. (n.d.). Do you want high quality subseasonal streamflow forecasts? Ask MuTHRE! vEGU 2021 Conference Presentation. DOI |
| - | Thyer, M., Hunter, J., McInerney, D., & Kavetski, D. (n.d.). High-quality probabilistic predictions for existing hydrological models with common objective functions: EGU2022 Conference Presentation. DOI |
| - | Thyer, M., McInerney, D., Kavetski, D., Westra, S., Maier, H., Shanafield, M., . . . Leonard, M. (n.d.). Neglecting hydrological errors can severely impact predictions of water resource system performance. DOI |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| - | Mcinerney, D., Thyer, M., Kavetski, D., & Kuzera, G. (n.d.). Practical guidance on representing uncertainty in hydrological predictions. DOI |
| - | Thyer, M., & Kavetski, D. (n.d.). Advances in improving streamflow predictions, with applications in forecasting. DOI |
| - | Thyer, M., McInerney, D., Kavetski, D., Kuczera, G., & Lerat, J. (n.d.). Improving probabilistic prediction of daily streamflow. DOI |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2022 | McInerney, D., Thyer, M., Kavetski, D., Laugesen, R., Woldemeskel, F., Tuteja, N., & Kuczera, G. (2022). Seamless streamflow model provides forecasts at all scales from daily to monthly and matches the performance of non-seamless monthly model. DOI |
| 2016 | Puma, M. J., Celia, M. A., Rodriguez-Iturbe, I., Nordbotten, J. M., Guswa, A. J., & Kavetski, D. (2016). Effects of Spatial Heterogeneity in Rainfall and Vegetation Type on Soil Moisture and Evapotranspiration. |
Research Funding
| Year | Project | Chief Investigators | Funding Body | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-2021 | Delivering robust hydrological predictions for Australia’s water resource challenges | Thyer, Kavetski, Maier, Westra, Simmons, Jakeman, Croke, Gupta |
Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project |
$381k |
| 2018-2020 | Subseasonal streamflow forecasting | Thyer and Kavetski | Australian Bureau of Meteorology | $426k |
| 2014-2017 | A robust integrated streamflow forecasting framework for Australian water information and management agencies | Kavetski, Thyer, Kuczera, Tuteja, Shin, Seed, Lerat, Tibaldi, Clark, Wood | Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project | $270k |
| 2011-2013 | The development of IWWS operating rules project | Kuczera, Kavetski | Water Corporation of Western Australia (WCWA) | $468k |
| 2011-2013 | Robust optimization of urban drought security for an uncertain climate | Kuczera, Kavetski, Kiem |
National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF), Australia |
$217k |
| 2010-2012 | Robust streamflow prediction by improving the identification of hydrological model structure | Kavetski, Kuczera, Thyer, Franks |
Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project |
$240k |
| 2010-2013 | An integrated modelling approach for the efficient management of irrigated landscapes | Kuczera, Kavetski, Thyer, Franks, Selle, Githui, Thayalakumaran |
Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project |
$185k |
| 2010-2012 | Adapting Bayesian Total Error Analysis to river systems modelling | Kuczera, Thyer, Kavetski |
CSIRO, Flagship Project |
$200k |
| 2010-2011 | Supply of Bayesian Total Error Analysis | Kuczera, Thyer, Kavetski | Australian Bureau of Meteorology | $125k |
| 2010-2011 | Improving flood forecasting via robust handling of data and model uncertainties in hydrologic predictions | Thyer, Kavetski, Kuczera, Franks, Renard, Andreassian, Perrin, Lang, Sauquet |
Australian Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR) |
$20k |
| 2008-2010 | Urban water systems project | Kuczera, Thyer, Rodriguez, Kavetski |
eWater CRC, Core project |
$1,911k |
| 2007-2011 | Research Fellowship grant | Kavetski | University of Newcastle, Australia | $491k |
| Date | Role | Research Topic | Program | Degree Type | Student Load | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Principal Supervisor | A Unified Calibration Framework of Statistical Weather Generators for Climate Risk Assessment | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Ling-Wan You |
| 2023 | Principal Supervisor | A Unified Calibration Framework of Statistical Weather Generators for Climate Risk Assessment | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Ling-Wan You |
| 2019 | Co-Supervisor | Improving the value of subseasonal streamflow forecasts for water resource management decisions | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Part Time | Mr Richard Mark Laugesen |
| 2019 | Co-Supervisor | Improving the value of subseasonal streamflow forecasts for water resource management decisions | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Richard Mark Laugesen |
| Date | Role | Editorial Board Name | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 - ongoing | Associate Editor | Water Resources Research | American Geophysical Union | United States |