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Turner Sean

Post Doc Research Fellow
EMAIL
sean_turner
sutd.edu.sg

Biography

Dr Sean Turner is a postdoctoral research fellow at the SUTD-MIT International Design Centre (IDC). He is currently working on a number of global and regional studies related to climate-resilient design of water resources systems. He earned an EngD degree as a researcher on the STREAM Industrial Doctorate Centre for the Water Sector, where he worked with three industrial sponsors to develop and test methods for introducing stochastic modelling into regulated water resources planning practice in England and Wales. He has worked on a variety of water resources projects in the UK, France, Chile and Australia, and he specialises in the study of large, conjunctive-use, urban water supply systems. He has earned multiple academic accolades and has published in a range of international peer-reviewed journals and water industry magazines. He is also the creator and maintainer of the R packages reservoir and scenario.

Research Interests
  • Water resources systems planning and operation
  • Global analysis of water resources
  • Water system operation informed by seasonal forecasts
  • Applied reservoir storage theory
  • Drought management planning
  • Open source software
Experience
  • Research Engineer, United Utilities PLC, Warrington (UK), 2011 – 2014
  • Visiting researcher, CSIRO and Melbourne Water, Melbourne (Australia), 2013
  • Visiting researcher, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción (Chile), 2010
  • Technical consultant, AEA Technology, Glengarnock (UK), 2009 – 2010
Education
  • EngD in Water Resources Planning, Cranfield University (UK), 2010-2014
  • MSc in Hydrology and Climate Change, University of Newcastle, Newcastle (UK), 2010
  • BSc in Environmental Design, University of Glasgow, Glasgow (UK), 2008
Awards and Recognitions
  • Top Performing Research Engineer– STREAM Industrial Doctorate Centre, 2011
  • Pavel Novak Prize for Best Overall Performance (Water)– Newcastle University, 2010
  • Best Project in Civil Engineering Hydraulics– University of Glasgow, 2008
  • Dean’s List– Faculty of Engineering, University of Glasgow, 2008
Peer-Reviewing
  • Water Resources Research
  • Advances in Water Resources
  • Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
  • Urban Water Journal
  • Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment
Selected Publications

Works in preparation
  • Ng, J. Y., Turner, S. W. and Galelli, S. (in preparation) Impacts of El Niño Southern Oscillation of global hydropower production.
  • Turner, S. W., Galelli, S., Bennett, J., Robertson, D. (in preparation) Assessing the benefits of adopting seasonal ensemble streamflow forecasts in real-time reservoir operating schemes.

Works in review
  • Turner, S. W. and Galelli, S. (in second stage of review). Regime-shifting streamflow time series: Implications for water supply reservoir operations. Water Resources Research.

Journal publications
  • Turner, S. W. and Galelli, S. (2016). Water supply sensitivity to climate change: An R package for implementing reservoir storage analysis in global and regional impact studies. Environmental Modelling and Software. doi: 101016/j.envsoft.2015.11.007.
  • Turner, S. W., and Jeffrey, P. J. (2015). Industry views on water resources planning methods—prospects for change in England and Wales. Water and Environment Journal, 29(2), 161-168.
  • Turner, S. W., Marlow, D., Ekström, M., Rhodes, B. G., Kularathna, U., and Jeffrey, P. J. (2014). Linking climate projections to performance: A yield-based decision scaling assessment of a large urban water resources system. Water Resources Research, 50(4), 3553-3567.
  • Turner, S. W. D., Blackwell, R. J., Smith, M. A., and Jeffrey, P. J. (2014). Risk-based water resources planning in England and Wales: challenges in execution and implementation. Urban Water Journal. doi: 10.1080/1573062X.2014.955856.

Software
  • Turner, S. W. D., Ng, J. Y., Galelli, S. (2015) reservoir: Tools for Analysis, Design, and Operation of Water Supply Storages, R package version 1.1.4, Comprehensive R Archive Network, https://cran.r-project.org/package=reservoir
  • Turner, S. W. D., Ng, J. Y., Galelli, S. (2016) scenario: Construct Reduced Trees with Predefined Nodal Structures, R package version 1.0, Comprehensive R Archive Network, https://cran.r-project.org/package=scenario

Conference presentations
  • Turner, S. W. D. and Galelli, S. (2015). Improved water resources management using seasonal ensemble streamflow forecasts: factors affecting performance in reservoir operations. MODSIM, Gold Coast, Australia. [Oral presentation]
  • Turner, S., Galelli, S., and Wilcox, K. (2015). Incorporating teleconnection information into reservoir operating policies using Stochastic Dynamic Programming and a Hidden Markov Model. In EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts (Vol. 17, p. 3335). [Oral presentation]
  • Turner, S. (2015). Addressing water resources risk in England and Wales: Long term infrastructure planning in a private, regulated industry. In EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts (Vol. 17, p. 4365). [Poster presentation]
  • Turner, S. and Jeffrey, P. (2013). Risk-based water resources planning: Challenges for reaching rational decisions based on quantitative frameworks. In proceedings of the 8th International Conference of the European Water Resources Association, Porto. [Oral presentation]

Invited presentations
  • Turner, S. W. (2013). Bottom-up climate impact assessment of the Melbourne bulk supply system, Invited speaker, Liverpool University Department of Geography and Planning.
  • Industry publications
  • Turner, S. W. (2013) Predicting next season’s weather. Water and sewerage journal. 2013 issue 4, p48.
  • Turner, S.W. (2012) Developments in hydrology. Water and sewerage journal. 2012 issue 4, p35.