Contact Dr Gabriela Dotro

Areas of expertise

  • Water Science and Engineering

Background

Dr Gabriela Dotro joined Cranfield University in October 2009 as a postdoctoral researcher and was promoted to Senior Research Fellow in April 2012. She holds an Ecological Engineering degree from Universidad de Flores (Argentina), a Masters degree in Environmental Design from the University of Calgary (Canada), and a PhD in Engineering from the University of Memphis (USA).

Dr Dotro started her work on nature-based solutions (NbS) for wastewater treatment during her Masters studies in Canada in 2001. She was awarded a Detomasi Award in recognition of the quality of her proposal for her Masters studies, and received a merit-based Herff Fellowship for her PhD studies, among several other fellowships and scholarships during her formal training.

After completing her PhD, Dr Dotro was awarded a Herff Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue her work on implementing constructed wetlands for tannery wastewater treatment in Argentina. She also served briefly as a lecturer on biological wastewater treatment processes at the Universidad Nacional del Litoral in Argentina before relocating to the UK in September 2009.

Research opportunities

Understand the underlying processes that can enable a novel bioreactor recover iron salts from sludge for reuse within the water industry, thus contributing to the circular economy with applied research: 

https://www.cranfield.ac.uk/research/phd/swee-biological-coagulant-recovery

Current activities

Dr Gabriela Dotro's main area of expertise are nature based solutions for wastewater treatment and understanding biogeochemical transformation of phosphorus, iron and nitrate in natural and engineered systems. She is currently working on the development and improvement of nature based solutions to deliver multiple benefits including greenhouse gas accounting and carbon sequestration with treatment wetlands, intensification of wetland technology for small wastewater treatment plant discharges, phosphorus cycling in surface flow wetlands as well as developing a novel biological reactor for metal recovery. 

Dr Dotro co-created the Wastewater Network, a network of water companies and universities that meets regularly to address some of the key challenges and research gaps in wastewater treatment in the UK. Together with a team of internationally-renowned academics and practitioners, she developed a fully-online short course on nature based solutions (www.cranfield.ac.uk/nbs) that runs annually. She has also delivered targeted in-company training on topics like treatment wetlands and low energy wastewater treatment. 

Dr Dotro serves in the Committee of the Constructed Wetland Association (UK) and is a member of the Management Committee for the IWA Specialist Group on Wetland Systems for Water Pollution Control and the IWA Working Group on NbS for Water and Sanitation. Whilst chairing the IWA Task Group on Mainstreaming the Use of Treatment Wetlands, she co-authored an Open Access textbook on Treatment Wetlands, edited and co-authored specific chapters within the IWA Scientific and Technical Report on Wetland Technology. She is also a member of the EBNet working group  on N2O emissions from environmental biotechnologies (https://ebnet.ac.uk/about/wg-details/wg-nox/).

Clients

  • Severn Trent Water
  • United Utilities
  • Scottish Water
  • Anglian Water
  • Southern Water
  • Wessex Water
  • Thames Water
  • Welsh Water
  • Northumbrian Water
  • Yorkshire Water
  • Irish Water
  • Environment Agency
  • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
  • Natural Environment Research Council
  • Mott MacDonald
  • Abydoz

Publications

Articles In Journals

Books

  • Langergraber G, Dotro G, Nivala J, Stein OR, Rizzo A (eds), (2019) Wetland Technology: Practical information on the design and application of treatment wetlands, London: IWA.
  • Gabriela Dotro, Guenter Langergraber, Pascal Molle, Jaime Nivala, Jaume Puigagut, Otto Stein & Marcos Von Sperling (2017) Treatment Wetlands: Biological Wastewater Treatment Volume 7. IWAP, ed. Volume 7.
  • Dotro G, Fort RP, Barak J, Jones M, Vale P & Jefferson B (2014) Long-Term Performance of Constructed Wetlands with Chemical Dosing for Phosphorus Removal. In: The Role of Natural and Constructed Wetlands in Nutrient Cycling and Retention on the Landscape, Springer International Publishing, p. 273-292.