PODDS in the pipeline

Prof. Boxall's discolouration project is showing clear results.

Professor Joby Boxall

In a recent article in Scottish Water's communications magazine Graeme Moore, Senior Project Manager at Scottish Water explains: "Prevention of Discolouration in Distribution Systems" - PODDS - started life as a collaborative research project, led by Professor Joby Boxall at the University of Sheffield.


The PODDS project has helped us to understand why discolouration occurs, how to predict it and more importantly how to condition our trunk mains to prevent it.

Prof. Joby Boxall

Professor of Water Infrastructure Engineering


Scottish Water also reported that "the capital programme is forecasting a £15m saving, in this regulatory period, by moving to PODDS and away from swabbing and other invasive mains-cleaning interventions."

Key to the successful delivery and roll out of PODDS research into Scottish Water is the team of researchers involved. These include Dr Stewart Husband based at The University of Sheffield; Iftekhar Sunny, a University of Sheffield PhD student based with Scottish Water; and Nick Drake, a Scottish Water employee undertaking a part-time MPhil.

Our league table rankings

Top 100 Civil & Structural Engineering department in the world and 9th in the UK according to the QS World University rankings by subject (2023).

10th in the UK according to the Times University League Table (2024).

12th in the UK according to the Complete University Guide (2024).