Background & Research Interests

Since joining Newcastle as an academic in 2016, my role has been to co-ordinate the research activities of the National Green Infrastructure Facility (NGIF), part of the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC) network, situated at Newcastle Helix.

Completed in September 2017, the National Green Infrastructure Facility is a ‘living lab’ for exploring how Green features such as planting and soils (natural and amended) help mitigate the effects of climate change in urban areas, making them more resilient and sustainable. This is a world-class facility hosting collaborative, full-scale, multi-disciplinary research into Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS), Green Infrastructure performance and fundamental soil-plant-atmosphere interactions.

Prior to my involvement in the NGIF, I completed a PhD in numerical modelling of desiccation cracking in unsaturated, compacted clay fill in the field of infrastructure slope stability. I then worked simultaneously on two large EPSRC funded projects –iSMART and Assessing The Underworld - as an experimentalist (laboratory and full-scale). I continue to manage the BIONICS research facility - a trial infrastructure embankment which hosts a number of innovative techniques to monitor the slope asset condition (e.g. Electrical Resistivity Tomography and Acoustic Emission) as well as a comprehensive suite of buried and meteorological sensors and associated extensive dataset.

My laboratory interests centre on the cyclic wetting-drying behaviour of clays - specifically geotechnical properties (e.g. Soil-Water Retention Curves (SWRC), tensile and shear strength testing and small-large strain stiffness testing), geophysical techniques (i.e. resistivity) and imaging (Digital Image Correlation, Environmental-SEM and XRCT). My work also centres on understanding geotechnical deterioration mechanisms across the scales of infrastructure performance, from the soil element up to the network, strategic level. Through my involvement with a number of large projects (e.g. ACHILLES, iSMART and ATU), I have helped to develop ideas of progressive asset deterioration in the context of infrastructure slopes and buried utilities, assets upon which the future resilience of our cities relies.

The National Green Infrastructure Facility: @NGIF_UK |UKCRIC NGIF

Consultancy

I am actively engaged in geotechnical design consultancy and have worked with Electrokinetic Ltd on several slope stabilisation sites for Highways England. Electrokinetic Ltd provides solutions for remediating unstable slopes and dewatering slurries and sludges based on patented electrokinetic geosynthetic technology. They are recipients of numerous ICE awards owing to the outstanding sustainability credentials that electro-osmotic remediation brings.

Together with the Environment Agency, I have supervised bank stability monitoring and analysis on the River Tyne. The purpose of this work is to identify sustainable remediation methods that exploit coupled hydro-mechanical mechanisms to provide green, aesthetic solutions.

Qualifications

• BSc (Hons) - Geology - Durham University 2008
• MSc - Geotechnical Engineering - Newcastle University 2009
• PhD - Multiphase modelling of desiccation cracking in compacted soils - Newcastle University 2014 (available here)

PhD: Development of a pseudo-discrete continuum finite difference model (FLAC) capable of capturing two-phase flow within a porous media subject to mechanical and hydrological boundary conditions and a tension failure criterion. Additionally, this work saw the design and development of an apparatus to establish the variable (un)saturated soil tensile strength.

External Memberships & Esteem Indicators

• Fellow of the Geological Society of London (GSL)
• Member of the British Geotechnical Association
• EU COST Action TU1202 member
• Editorial Board Member - Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology (GSL)
• CIRIA Steering Group member - RP1090 Improving performance of linear assets through green infrastructure

Invited lectures:

• ICE Northern Geotechnical Group 2019 Annual Seminar series “Green Geotechnics”
• Smart Cities Alliance (EU) 2019 Heating and Cooling Smart City Initiative
• Environment Agency NE H&T Briefing Day 2017
• Landscape Institute & Royal Town Planning Institute NE 2017
• Urban Flood Resilience - Learning and Action Alliance 2017 - NGIF
• Addressing the impacts of climate change on engineered slopes for infrastructure: COST TU1202 2016 Dissemination symposium (École des Ponts ParisTech)
• EU COST TU1202 - The Vadose Zone Workshop 2015, Durham University

External Grants & Awards

• “From Roots to Leaves: Linking vegetation to natural hazards” Incubator workshop (EPSRC Inclusion Matters project: Reimagining Recruitment @University of Bath EP/S012168/1), Date TBC (£15,000)
  
• UGDaMS - Urban Green Design and Modelling of SuDS) (EP/S005862/1) Co-Investigator, March 2018 - Feb 2021 (£800,000)
• ACHILLES - Assessment, Costing and enHancement of long lIfe, Long Linear assEtS (EP/R034575/1) Co-Investigator, July 2018 - Dec 2022 (£4,872,904)
• CACTUS - Climate Adaptation Control Technologies for Urban Spaces (EP/R005834/1) Co-Investigator, Jan 2018 - Dec 2021 (£1,761,592)
• PLEXUS - Priming Laboratory EXperiments on infrastructure and Urban Systems (EP/R013535/1) Co-Investigator, Jan 2018 -  Feb 2021 (£1,013,092)
• UKCRIC - UK Collaboratorium for Research in Infrastructure & Cities: Newcastle Laboratories (EP/R010102/1) Co-Investigator, April 2016 - March 2021 (£9,671,332)
• Organiser of the International Training School ‘The Vadose Zone Workshop’.  An event for European Early Stage Researchers convened between Newcastle University and Durham University, July 2015 (15,000EUR)
• ‘Short Term Scientific Mission’ travel grant to École des Ponts ParisTech, February 2015 - COST Action TU1202 (Report) (2,500EUR)
• CEGS Newcastle internal conference - Oral Presentation Prize 2011
• CEGS Newcastle internal conference - Poster Prize 2010

Journal Reviewer

• Canadian Geotechnical Journal
• Journal of Geotechnical and Geological Engineering
• International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences
• Engineering Geology
• Geotechnique Letters
• Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology
• Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment
• Applied Clay Science
• Computers and Geotechnics
• Transportation Geotechnics 
• Geosciences
• Geotechnical Testing Journal
  
  

Figshare (publically available publication data): Click here.

Researcher Profile: Click here.

Google Scholar: Click here.

SCOPUS: Click here.

PhD Studentships

I supervise PhD candidates in the fields of Geotechnical Engineering and Hydrology with a particular focus on environmental geotechnics (soil-plant-atmosphere interaction, hydro-thermal energy and climate change impacts), slope and buried infrastructure, sensing and monitoring, Green Infrastructure and Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS). 

PhD Supervision:

• Narryn Thaman - Investigating moisture dynamics in vegetated soil using novel geophysical tools (2020 – present)
• Elena Mugarza - Infrastructure slope drainage design (2020 – present)
• Emma McConnel – Desiccation cracking on Infrastructure slopes (2020 – present)
• Alethea Walker - Understanding connectivity, maintenance and vegetation specification in Green Infrastructure (2019 – present)
• Inga Sirbu - Medical imaging of soil-water processes (2019 – present)
• Sam Hall - Digital Twins for Resilient Geo-Infrastructure (2019 – present)
• Rixia Zan - Activated carbon amended materials for permeable pavements (2018 – present)
• Oboho Eminue - Environmental and Material Controls on Desiccation Cracking in Engineered Clay Embankments (Completed 2018)

Undergraduate Teaching

• CEG1201 Geotechnical Properties of Soils and Rock
• CEG3004 Sustainable Engineering Systems Design Project
• CEG3099 Individual Design Project
  

Project supervision:

• CEG3099 Individual Design Project (BEng)
• CEG8099 Investigative Research Project (MEng)

Postgraduate Teaching

• CEG8207 Field Class (Alpes de Haute Provence - France)
• CEG8211 Ground Engineering Practice and Professional Skills

Project supervision:

• CEG8296 Project and Dissertation in Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology (MSc)

• Yildiz A, Stirling RA. Thermo-hydrological behaviour of green infrastructure: a comparative field and laboratory study. Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment 2021, 25, 1-11.
• Isidoro J, Pattison I, Iserloh T, de Lima J, Green D, Marzen M, de Lima I, Silveira A, Stirling R. A (small) step towards standardisation in rainfall simulation experiments. In: European Geophysical Union General Assembly. 2020, Vienna, Austria: Copernicus GmbH.
• Yu Z, Stirling RA, Davie CT, Eminue O. BIONICS Cracking Data. 2020. Newcastle Data Repository: Newcastle University.
• Kennard N, Stirling R, Prashar A, Lopez-Capel E. Evaluation of Recycled Materials as Hydroponic Growing Media. Agronomy 2020, 10(8), 1-27.
• Loveridge F, Shepley P, Stirling R, Yildiz A. Harvesting Energy from Buried Infrastructure: current UKCRIC research. In: European Geophysical Union General Assembly. 2020, Online: Copernicus Publications.
• Yildiz A, Stirling RA. Investigating green infrastructure as potential medium for ground heat exchangers. In: 2nd International Conference on Energy Geotechnics (ICEGT 2020). 2020, La Jolla, California, USA: EDP Sciences.
• Yildiz A, Stirling RA, Glendinning S. Monitoring of thermo-hydrological behaviour in Green Infrastructure. In: 4th European Conference on Unsaturated Soils (E-UNSAT 2020). 2020, Lisboa, Portugal: E3S Web of Conferences.
• Yildiz A, Stirling RA. PLEXUS @ NGIF - Field and laboratory measurements. 2020. Newcastle University.
• Stirling RA, Toll DG, Glendinning S, Helm PR, Yildiz A, Hughes PN, Asquith JD. Weather-driven deterioration processes affecting the performance of embankment slopes. Géotechnique 2020, n/a, n/a.
• Dixon N, Crosby CJ, Stirling R, Hughes PN, Smethurst J, Briggs K, Hughes D, Gunn D, Hobbs P, Loveridge F, Glendinning S, Dijkstra T, Hudson A. In situ measurements of near-surface hydraulic conductivity in engineered clay slopes. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology 2019, 52(1), 123-135.
• Hughes PN, Margrave-Jones S, Huang C, Dobson K, Toll DG, Stirling RA, Glendinning S. Laboratory Assessment of the Impact of Freeze-Thaw-Cycling on Sandy-Clay Soil. In: XVII European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 2019. 2019, Reykjavik, Iceland.
• Pembele W, Gui Y, Stirling R. Laboratory Tensile Strength Testing of Clay Soils using Direct Measurement. In: 7th Asia-Pacific Conference on Unsaturated Soils (AP-UNSAT 2019). 2019, Nagoya: Japanese Geotechnical Society.
• Yildiz A, Stirling RA, Walsh C, Starkey E, Glendinning S. Monitoring capabilities at the National Green Infrastructure Facility. In: Multi-scale Analysis of Slopes under Climate Change. 2019, Barcelona, Spain.
• Tang AM, Hughes PN, Dijkstra TA, Askarinejad A, Brencic M, Cui YJ, Diez JJ, Firgi T, Gajewska B, Gentile F, Grossi G, Jommi C, Kehagia F, Koda E, ter-Maat HW, Lenart S, Lourenco S, Oliveira M, Osinski P, Springman SM, Stirling R, Toll DG, Van-Beek V. Atmosphere–vegetation–soil interactions in a climate change context; impact of changing conditions on engineered transport infrastructure slopes in Europe. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology 2018, 51(2), 156-168.
• Glendinning S, Helm PR, Rouainia M, Stirling RA, Asquith JD, Hughes PN, Toll DG, Clarke D, Hudson A, Powrie W, Smethurst J, Woodman N, Hughes D, Harley R, Karim R, Dixon N, Crosby C, Dijkstra T, Postill H, Chambers J, Dashwood B, Gunn D, Uhlemann S, Briggs K, Muddle D, Loveridge F. Infrastructure Slopes: Sustainable Management And Resilience Assessment: iSMART Final report. iSMART Consortium, 2018.
• Walsh C, Stirling R, Stott K, Cherry B. Putting green infrastructure to the test for urban catchments. Water Industry Journal 2018, (8), 48-49.
• Stirling RA, Glendinning S, Davie CT, Hen-Jones R, Hughes PN. The Behaviour and Influence of Desiccation Cracking on a Full-Scale, Vegetated Infrastructure Embankment. In: 7th International Conference on Unsaturated Soils (UNSAT2018). 2018, Hong Kong, China: UNSAT.
• Clarke BG, Magee D, Dimitrova V, Cohn AG, Du H, Mahesar Q, Sadeghioon AM, Rogers CDF, Gunn D, Entwisle D, Reeves H, Collins R, Stirling R, Glendinning S. A decision support system to proactively manage subsurface utilities. In: International Symposium for Next Generation Infrastructure. 2017, London: ISNGI.
• Stirling RA, Glendinning S, Hughes PN, Hen-Jones R, Asquith JD, Helm P. Deterioration of geotechnical infrastructure: the influence of asset aging through environmental cycling. In: 19th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. 2017, Seoul, Korea.
• Stirling RA, Glendinning S, Davie CT. Modelling the deterioration of the near surface caused by drying induced cracking. Applied Clay Sciences 2017, 146, 176-185.
• Elia G, Cotecchia F, Pedone P, Vaunat J, Vardon PJ, Pereira C, Springman SM, Rouainia M, Esch JV, Koda E, Josifovski J, Nocilla A, Askarinejad A, Stirling R, Helm P, Lollino P, Osinski P. Numerical modelling of slope-vegetation-atmosphere interaction: an overview. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology 2017, 50(3), 249-270.
• Hen-Jones RM, Hughes PN, Stirling RA, Glendinning S, Chambers JE, Gunn DA, Cui Y-J. Seasonal effects on geophysical-geotechnical relationships and their implications for electrical resistivity tomography monitoring of slopes. Acta Geotechnica 2017, 12(5), 1159-1173.
• Du H, Dimitrova V, Magee D, Cohn A, Stirling R, Curioni G, Clarke B, Reeves H. An Ontology of Soil Properties and Processes. In: 15th International Semantic Web Conference. 2016, Kobe, Japan.
• Hughes PN, Hen-Jones R, Stirling RA, Glendinnning S, Gunn DA, Chambers JE, Dijkstra TA, Smethurst J, Flesjo K. Challenges in monitoring and managing engineered slopes in a changing climate. In: 3rd European Conference on Unsaturated Soils E-UNSAT 2016. 2016, Paris, France: EDP Sciences.
• Helm P, Stirling RA, Glendinning S. The Implications of Using Estimated Solar Radiation on the Derivation of Potential Evapotranspiration and Soil Moisture Deficit within an Embankment. In: 3rd International Conference on Transportation Geotechnics. 2016, Guimaraes, Portugal: Elsevier.
• Hen-Jones R, Chambers J, Gunn D, Hughes PN, Glendinning S, Stirling RA. Development of a landslide monitoring system using electrical resistivity tomography. In: American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. 2015, San Francisco, CA, USA.
• Uhlemann S, Chambers J, Wilkinson P, Gunn D, Stirling R, Hen-Jones R. Geoelectrical Imaging of Moisture Dynamics in Engineered Slopes. In: 3rd International Workshop on Geoelectrical Monitoring (GELMON,2015). 2015, Vienna, Austria: Geologische Bundesanstalt.
• Stirling RA, Davie CT, Glendinning S. Multiphase modelling of desiccation cracking in the near-surface of compacted soils. In: XVI European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering for Infrastructure and Development. 2015, Edinburgh, UK: ICE Publishing.
• Stirling RA, Davie CT, Glendinning S. Multiphase modelling of desiccation cracking in the near-surface of compacted soils. In: XVI European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. 2015, Edinburgh, UK: ICE Publishing.
• Glendinning S, Helm PR, Rouainia M, Stirling RA, Asquith JD, Hughes PN, Toll DG, Clarke D, Powrie W, Smethurst J, Hughes D, Harley R, Karim R, Dixon N, Crosby C, Chambers J, Dijkstra T, Gunn D, Briggs K, Muddle D. Research-informed design, management and maintenance of infrastructure slopes: development of a multi-scalar approach. In: International Symposium on Geohazards and Geomechanics. 2015, Warwick, UK: IOP Publishing.
• Stirling RA, Hughes P, Davie CT, Glendinning S. Tensile behaviour of unsaturated compacted clay soils — A direct assessment method. Applied Clay Science 2015, 112-113, 123-133.
• Toll DG, Asquith JD, Fraser A, Hassan AA, Liu G, Lourenço SDN, Mendes J, Noguchi T, Osinski P, Stirling RA. Tensiometer techniques for determining soil water retention curves. In: 6th Asia Pacific Conference on Unsaturated Soils. 2015, Guilin, China: CRC Press.
• Stirling RA, Hughes PN, Davie CT, Glendinning S. Cyclic relationship between saturation and tensile strength in the near-surface zone of infrastructure embankments. In: Khalili K, Russell A, Koshghalb A, ed. Unsaturated Soils: Research and Applications. London: CRC Press, 2014, pp.1501-1505.
• Stirling RA, Hughes PN, Davie CT, Glendinning S. Cyclic relationship between saturation and tensile strength in the near-surface zone of infrastructure embankments. In: Sixth International Conference on Unsaturdated Soils, UNSAT 2014. 2014, Sydney, Australia: CRC Press.
• Stirling RA, Davie CT, Glendinning S. Numerical modelling of desiccation crack induced permeability. In: 18th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. 2013, Paris, France.
• Stirling RA, Simpson DJ, Davie CT. The application of digital image correlation to Brazilian testing of sandstone. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences 2013, 60, 1-11.