IWM

Academic Chronology

Mr. Sadbir Rahman embarked on his academic journey with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET), Bangladesh, completed in May 2010. In 2016, he was awarded the prestigious Erasmus Mundus scholarship by the European Union to pursue a joint Master of Science in Water Science and Engineering with specialization in “Groundwater and Global Change – Impacts & Adaptations,” which he completed in September 2018 under a collaborative program involving UNESCO-IHE (Delft, Netherlands), Technische Universität Dresden (Germany), and Instituto Superior Técnico (Portugal).

Additionally, as part of this joint program, Mr. Rahman earned a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisboa, Portugal, in the same year.

Professional Track Record

Mr. Sadbir Rahman has a professional career of more than 12 years in the field of Water Science & Environmental Engineering. Since joining the Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) in June 2011, he has played a pivotal role in the successful delivery of more than 30 high-impact projects across Bangladesh, funded by prestigious agencies such as the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, EDCF, UNICEF, and the Government of Bangladesh.

Mr. Rahman possesses excellent competencies in leading and managing both industrial as well as applied research projects. His areas of specialization include hydrologic and hydraulic modelling related to the analysis & design of stormwater drainage systems, sewerage systems, and water supply systems; development of water and sanitation master plans; water quality investigations; and project management & supervision. Besides, is proficient in the development and application of groundwater models, water planning and management models, flood inundation and duration mapping, analysis of country-scale hydrologic datasets, environmental impact assessment, climate & disaster risk analysis, institutional analysis, and preparation of tender documents (both national and international) for project implementation. Mr. Rahman’s technical leadership has been instrumental in the development of comprehensive water and sanitation master plans for megacities like Dhaka, along with feasibility studies for key infrastructure projects across the country. He is highly skilled in a wide range of modeling and drafting/mapping tools, including MIKE+, MIKE URBAN, MIKE11, SewerGEMS, WaterGEMS, MODFLOW, GMS, WEAP, Brook90, AutoCAD, Civil 3D, ArcGIS, QGis, Surfer etc.

Training/Membership/Workshop/Seminar/Publication etc.

Mr. Rahman has participated in an extensive array of professional trainings, spanning a remarkable range of topics in water supply engineering, urban sanitation, environmental science, hydrologic & hydraulic modelling, water quality modelling, and groundwater modelling conducted by institutions such as DHI, Australian Water School, ITN-BUET and IWM. These trainings include the application of a wide range of modelling tools like MIKE+, MIKE URBAN, MIKE11, MIKE SHE, MODFLOW, FEFLOW, and WEST. His expertise is further enhanced by courses in Civil 3D, ArcGIS, QGIS, and Python-based data science, along with programs on climate vulnerability, flood management, remote sensing, and scientific communication. These diverse learning experiences reflect his commitment to interdisciplinary knowledge and practical application in diverse sectors related to water resources and environmental engineering.

Mr. Rahman has consistently contributed to capacity building by delivering targeted trainings and expert lectures to national agencies, utility providers, and city corporations. His training sessions on water supply & sanitary sewer system modelling, sanitation technologies, urban drainage modelling, groundwater modelling, and integrated water resources management reflects both technical depth and practical insight.

Training (as a Trainer):

• Lecture presented on “Delineation of Sewered & Non-sewered Area in City Landscape and Urban Sanitation Technologies”, as part of IWM training Program on “City Wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS)”, provided at the IWM Training Center, Dhaka, Bangladesh, in April 2025.
• Training to the Junior Professionals of IWM on “Basics of Groundwater Model Development”, provided at the IWM Training Center, Dhaka, Bangladesh, in January 2025.
• Lecture presented on “Adaptive Planning for Urban Water Systems”, as part of IWM training Program on “Water Resources Management”, provided at the IWM Training Center, Dhaka, Bangladesh, in January 2025.
• Training to the officials of DWASA on “Basics of Groundwater Model Development”, provided at the IWM Training Center, Dhaka, Bangladesh, in May 2024.
• Training to the officials of DWASA and RWASA on “Water Supply Network Modelling”. Provided at IWM Training Center, Dhaka, Bangladesh, in February 2024 and September 2024, respectively.
• Lecture presented on “Water Quality Linkages to Land Use and Sanitation”, at the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) conference hall, December 07, 2023.
• Lecture presented on “Assessing Waterbodies in Dhaka: Methods, Results and Implications for Restoration & Selection of Waterbodies with High Restoration Potential”, at the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) conference hall, on May 29, 2023.
• Training to Sylhet City Corporation Officials on “Modelling and design of Urban Drainage System”. Provided at Sylhet City Corporation conference hall, Sylhet, Bangladesh, on March 22, 2023.
• Water Quality Linkage to Land-use and Sanitation, Lecture presented at the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) conference hall, December 07, 2022.
• Training to DWASA Officials on “Introduction to modelling of sanitary sewer network”. Provided at IWM training center, Dhaka, Bangladesh on 16-18 July, 2019.
• Training to DWASA Officials on “Modelling and design of Urban Drainage System.” Provided at IWM training centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh on 25-27 October, 2015.
• Training to Water Resource Planning Organization (WARPO) Officials on “Rainfall data analysis”. Provided at the IWM training center, Dhaka, Bangladesh, in February 2015.

Training (as a Trainee):

• Training and Experiential Learning on Fecal Sludge Management in Cities: An Element of City-Wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS),  International Training Network Centre (ITN-BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh, May 2025.
• Training on Civil 3D, IWM Training Centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh, April 2025.
• Training on Bangladesh Flood: Variability and Predictability, IWM Training Centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh, February 2025.
• Training on Climate Resilient Sanitation Safety Planning, by International Training Network Centre (ITN-BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh, December 2024.
• Training on Groundwater Modelling for Dhaka Region (using MODFLOW in ModelMuse interface) under ADB TA BAN 6675, at Department of Geology, Dhaka University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, November 2024.
• Training on Organizational Behavior, IWM Training Centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh, September 2024.
• Training on Experiential Learning on City Wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS), by International Training Network Centre (ITN-BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 2024.
• Online training by DHI on WEST - Modelling and simulating wastewater treatment plants, December 2023.
• Online Training on Groundwater Modelling using MODFLOW 6 and FloPy, by Australian Water School (AWS), September 2023.
• Online Course on Introduction to Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage, Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST), Calgary, Canada, August-September 2023.
• Online Training (32 hours) on Data Science with Python: Beginner to Advance, by NOAMI, Bangladesh, from September 2022 to September 2023.
• Online training by DHI on Modelling of water hammer using MIKE+ Water Distribution (WD), May 2022.
• Online training by DHI on modelling of urban drainage, urban flooding, and water distribution using MIKE+, seawater intrusion using FEEFLOW, sediment transport using MIKE 21 and 21C, and three-dimensional hydrodynamic modelling using MIKE 3, March 2021 to June 2021.
• Online Training on Computational Hydraulics, Hydrology and Hydraulics and Statistics (by BUET), December 2020 to February 2021, IWM, Bangladesh.
• Online Training on Building Capacity on Coping with Climate Vulnerability and Climate Change, November 2020, IWM, Bangladesh.
• Training on Water Quality Modelling using Ecolab, by Danish Hydraulic Institute (DHI), IWM Training Centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh (November 2019).
• Training on Proposal Writing and Presentation Skills by British Council, Dhaka, Bangladesh (April-May, 2019).
• Training on Introduction to QGIS for Hydrology at TU Dresden, Germany (October 2017).
• Training on Scientific Writing at TU Dresden, Germany (September 2017).
• Training on Remote Sensing, at IST, Lisbon, Portugal (January 2017).
• Impact2C Summer School-Regional Climate Change Impacts, Bergen, Norway (2014).
• Training on Hydrodynamic and Rainfall-runoff Module with MIKE 11, IWM, Bangladesh (2014).
• Training on Advanced Arc-GIS at IWM, Bangladesh (2014).
• Training on Surface & Groundwater Quality: Monitoring & Analyses, IWM, Bangladesh (2014).
• Training on Eco LAB Modelling (basic) with MIKE 11, IWM, Bangladesh (2013).
• Training on Basin Modelling using MIKE Basin at IWM, Bangladesh (2012).
• Training on Basic Arc-GIS at IWM, Bangladesh (2012).
• Training on Open Channel Hydraulics, Hydrology, and Mathematical Modelling at BUET, Bangladesh (2011).
• Training by ITN, BUET on Community Participation and Management of Water Supply & Sanitation, RUET, Bangladesh (2010)

Membership:

• Member, Institution of Engineers Bangladesh (M/40669)
• Member, The International Water Association (IWA), (M/0015739)
• Member, International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS)
• Member, Groundwater Relief (UK)
• Member, South Asia Rainwater Network (SARNET)

Publications:

Rahman, M.S.¹, Neha, M.I.², Dutt, D.P.³, Ahmed, R.⁴ and Chaki, T.⁵(2025). Investigating The Causes and Vulnerabilities of Floods and Waterlogging in Sylhet, Bangladesh: A Participatory Approach Integrating Local Perspectives for Effective Flood Risk Management. Journal of Engineering and Technology (JET),  Vol. 19, No. 3, Special Issue (IUT-ICCET), pp 298-308.

Rahman, M.S.¹, De Melo, M.T.C.² (2022). Application of Numerical Model Coupled with Field Sampling to Investigate Increased Salinity in a Coastal Aquifer at Aveiro, Portugal. In: Arthur, S., Saitoh, M., Pal, S.K. (eds) Advances in Civil Engineering. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 184. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5547-0_41

Rahman, M. S.¹, Alam, K. M.², Abdullah, M.³, & Chaki, T⁴. (2024). Identification of Key Performance Indicators and Assessment of Water Network Performance in Rohingya Refugee Camps In Bangladesh. 7^th International Conference on Advances in Civil Engineering (ICACE 2024), Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology (CUET), Chattogram, Bangladesh, 12-14 December 2024, pp 481 – 488.

Rahman, M. S.¹, Shuvo, S. I. G.², Rahman, M.³, Prince, M. S. R.⁴, Neha, M. I.⁵, & Haque, M. M.⁶ (2024). Securing Dhaka's Water Future: A Holistic Assessment Using Dependable Flow Analysis, Environmental Flow Analysis, And Water Quality Index. 7^th International Conference on Advances in Civil Engineering (ICACE 2024), Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology (CUET), Chattogram, Bangladesh, 12-14 December 2024, pp 3277 – 3284.

Dutt, D. P.¹, Rahman, M. S.², Ahmed, R.³, & Chaki, T.⁴ (2024). Modelling the Urban Water Balance: Quantifying the Effects of Land Use Change on Runoff and Recharge in Sylhet City of Bangladesh. 7^th International Conference on Advances in Civil Engineering (ICACE 2024), Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology (CUET), Chattogram, Bangladesh, 12-14 December 2024, pp 3224 – 3231.

Shuvo, S. I. G.¹, Rahman, M. S.², Dutt, D. P.³, Prince, M. S. R.⁴, & Masud, M. S.⁵ (2024). Variability of Rainfall in The North-Eastern Region of Bangladesh: Trends and Probable Impacts. 7^th International Conference on Advances in Civil Engineering (ICACE 2024), Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology (CUET), Chattogram, Bangladesh, 12-14 December 2024, pp 3261 – 3268.

Neha, M. I.¹, Roy, S.², Rahman, S³. (2024). Renewable Energy Integration In Water Treatment Plants For Environmental Impact Reduction. 7^th International Conference on Advances in Civil Engineering (ICACE 2024), Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology (CUET), Chattogram, Bangladesh, 12-14 December 2024, pp 933-940.

Rahman, M. S.¹, Pervin, I. A.², Chaki, T.³, Masud, M. S.⁴, & Rahman, S. M⁵ (2024. Impact of Kaptai Reservoir Discharge on Fresh Water Flow Availability In Halda River. 7^th International Conference on Civil Engineering for Sustainable Development (ICCESD 2024), Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET), Khulna, Bangladesh, 7-9 February 2024, pp 0416 (1)-0416 (13).

http://www.iccesd.com/proc_2024/Papers/416.pdf

Prince, M. S. R.¹, Rahman, M. S.², Mohiuddin, F. A.³, Chaki, T.⁴, & Masud, M. S.⁵ (2024). Water Availability and Quality in Musapur Reservoir: Analyzing the Current Situation and Identifying Challenges. 7^th International Conference on Civil Engineering for Sustainable Development (ICCESD 2024), Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET), Khulna, Bangladesh, 7-9 February 2024, pp 1066 (1)-1066 (12). http://www.iccesd.com/proc_2024/Papers/1066.pdf

Neha, M. I.¹, Rahman, M. S.², & Islam, M. F.³ (2023). Application of Remote Sensing to Investigate the Impact of Musapur Reservoir on the Morphology of Little Feni River and Local Agricultural Production. In International Conference on Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering (ICPACE 2023), Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology (RUET), Rajshahi, Bangladesh (pp. 1270-1275).

https://icceiruet.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/CE-0429.pdf

Rahman, M.S.¹, Mostafa, M.B.², Saminur, R.², Dutt, D.P.², Bhuiyan, A.R.³, Chaki, T.⁴, 2021. Hydraulic Analysis of Sewer Network to Formulate Future Replacement Strategy: A case study of Pagla Catchment in Dhaka city. International Conference on Advances in Civil Engineering, Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology (CUET), Chattogram, Bangladesh, 4-6 March 2021, pp EE-116 – EE-123.

Rahman, S.¹, Zaman, A.M.², Parvin, I.A.³, and Rahman, S.M.M⁴, 2015. Climate change impact on the drainage system of Goranchatbari area and recommended adaptation measures, International Conference on Climate Change in relation to Water and Environment, Dhaka University of Engineering & Technology (DUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh, 9-11 April, 2015.

Major Project Assignment

1. Dhaka Sanitation Improvement Project (DSIP)
2. Preparation of Utility Design (water supply, sewerage, drainage, electricity, gas supply) and structural design (roads, bridges etc.) for the Trust Green City Project
3. Technical Assistance-Investment Prioritization for Water Security and Resilience in the Metro Dhaka Region
4. Updating the Sewerage Master Plan for Dhaka City
5. Situational Analysis of Flood and Waterlogging Management of Sylhet City Corporation (under Sustainable Urban Water Cycles Project)
6. Consultancy Services for Design and Construction Supervision for the Establishment of an Offsite Water Intake Facility for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant
7. Feasibility Study for Improvement of Water Supply Network with District Metered Area System
8. Updating the Water Supply Master Plan for Dhaka City
9. Identification of Suitable Sites, Map, Plan, and Design 10 Piped Water Supply Systems Through Community Consultation for the Rohingya Refugee Camps and Adjacent Host Community of Cox’s Bazar District (Contract No. 43383537)
10. Water Network Review in the Rohingya Refugee Camps, Cox’s Bazar (Contract No. 43379197)
11. Feasibility Study for Sewerage System Development in Uttara, Bangladesh (EDCF)
12. Feasibility Study for Flood Management and Reduction of Drainage Congestion in Sylhet Metropolitan Area
13. Rural Water, Sanitation & Hygiene for Human Capital Development Project (RWSHHCDP)
14. Feasibility Study with Design & Drawings for Water Supply in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpa Nagar from Musapur Reservoir at Feni
15. Catchment Study of Dhaka Factory and GLTP-Kushtia
16. Restoration of Waterbodies for Sustainable Water Management in Dhaka Watershed
17. Water Assessment of BATB Factories at Dhaka and Kushtia
18. Independent Engineer’s Service for Implementation of Water Supply System in Purbachal area of Dhaka City by PPP project.
19. Design Supervision and Construction Supervision of Water Treatment Plant, including Intake and Raw & Treated Water Transmission Main and Distribution Networks at BSMSN area
20. Sewerage Master Plan with Detail Design of Priority Works for Sylhet City Corporation
21. Feasibility Study for Construction of Mohara Phase-II Water Treatment Plant and Transmission of Water to the Bangabandhu Shaikh Mujib Shilpanagar at Mirsarai
22. Feasibility Study for expanding a separate sewer network in Pagla catchment and preparation of conceptual design and bidding documents for DBO/DB contract
23. Feasibility Study for Replacement/Construction of Sewage Collection Network in the Dasherkandi Catchment of Dhaka City
24. Flood Modelling of Dhaka City-Part 2: Impact and Resilience of Stormwater Drainage Investments of the Dhaka Water Supply and Sanitation Project (DWSSP)
25. Feasibility Study of Surface Water Treatment Plant at Rajshahi WASA.
26. Consultancy Services for Contract Management, Reviewing of the Design and Construction Supervision, ensuring the qualitative, quantitative, and effective works of Padma (Jashaldia) Water Treatment Plant (Phase-I) Project (450 MLD WTP)
27. Assessment of State of Water Resources in Bangladesh.
28. Feasibility and SEIA Study for Land Acquisition & Development of 5 Primary Drainage Channels of Dhaka City.
29. Urban Flooding of Greater Dhaka Area in a Changing Climate: Vulnerability, Adaptation.
30. Water Supply Master Plan for Dhaka City
31. Sewerage Master Plan of Dhaka City