Mehrdad Mooselu started working at NORSUS in August after successfully defending his Ph.D., with the title Sustainable Approaches for Highway Runoff Management During Construction and Operation, at the University of Agder in May. The Ph.D. was part of the MEERC project (More Efficient and Environmentally-friendly Road Construction), funded by the Research Council of Norway.
This PhD project focused on the effects of road runoff on water quality and investigated sustainable measures to manage highway runoff during construction and operation. Mehrdad worked on field data on the vulnerability of water quality to road construction in the new highway E18 between Arendal and Tvedestrand. Then he explored two different approaches to optimize the water quality monitoring network during road construction and assessed the water quality monitoring through remote sensing techniques. Finally, he studied the characterization and treatment of tunneling wastewater. This is an important competence for NORSUS, especially related to our research area transport.