1. Home
2. Academic
3. Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
4. People
5. Dr Páraic Ryan

Dr Páraic Ryan

Biography

Dr Paraic Ryan is a Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering at University College Cork and a Conjunct Research Fellow at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Prior to joining UCC Paraic was a Lecturer in Civil Engineering at NUI Galway for two years, where he was nominated by his students for the President’s Award for Teaching Excellence. Before this he held the position of Research Academic at the word-renowned Centre for Infrastructure Performance and Reliability (CIPR), at the University of Newcastle Australia, where he worked in climate adaptation engineering for three years. Paraic also has a number of years industry experience, having worked in Civil Engineering Consultancy. 

Paraic holds an undergraduate Degree in Civil Engineering from NUIG, and a PhD, an MSc and a PGD form Trinity College Dublin. His main research interests are in risk and uncertainty modelling, material deterioration, applications of IT in civil engineering, and climate change vulnerability and adaptation. He is currently UCC lead on the €16 million SFI sponsored NexSys project, which is focused on the defining pathways to a net zero energy transition. He also leads the UCC component EPA sponsored PESTMAN project, where he is responsible for co-ordinating a quantitative environmental health risk assessment, and the Translate project, which is focused on the provision of climate services for Ireland. Paraic is one of the 17 international members of IABSE Task Group 6.1: Effects of Climate Change on Infrastructure

Research Interests

• Risk and uncertainty modelling across a range of applications
• Climate change impacts and adaptation
• Long term material and structural performance
• Environmental health risk modelling
• Water-energy nexus
• Probabilistic cost benefit analysis and life cycle cost
• Modelling critical infrastructure vulnerability to extreme events and multiple hazards

Publications

Selected Publications 

1. O’Driscoll, J.H., Siggins, A., Healy, M., McGinley, Mellander, P.E., Morrison, Ryan, P.C. (2022) A Risk Ranking of Pesticides in Irish Drinking Water Considering Chronic Health Effects. Science of the Total Environment (STOTEN).
2. Ryan, P.C., Stewart, M.G., Spencer, N & Li, Y. (2014). Reliability Assessment of Power Pole Infrastructure Incorporating Deterioration and Network Maintenance. Journal of Reliability Engineering and System Safety 132:(December 2014).
3. Hafiz, H, Clifford, E, Ryan, P.C. (2022) False alarm moderation for performance monitoring in industrial water distribution systems. Advanced Engineering Informatics.
4. Ryan, P.C., & Stewart, M.G. (2017) Cost-benefit Analysis of Climate Change Adaptation for Power Pole Networks. Climatic Change V143:519–533 (August 2017)
5. Hawchar, L., Naughton, O., Nolan, P., Stewart, M.G. & Ryan, P.C., (2020). A GIS-based framework for high-level climate change risk assessment of critical infrastructure. Climate Risk Management, 29, 100235.
6. Ryan, P. C. & O’ Connor A. (2016). Comparing the Durability of Self-Compacting Concretes and Conventionally Vibrated Concretes in Chloride Rich Environments. Construction and Building Materials. Vol. 120
7. Stewart, M.G., Ginger, J., Henderson, D, Ryan, P.C. (2018) Fragility and climate impact assessment of contemporary housing roof sheeting failure due to extreme wind. Engineering Structures, 171, 464-475.

See Paraic’s Google Scholar Profile for full details of publications.

Professional Activity

Dr Paraic Ryan is an active member of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE), sitting on IABSE Task Group 6.1: Effects of Climate Change on Infrastructure, and acts as the UCC Student Liaison Officer for the Institute of Structural Engineering. He is an on the editorial board of the Journal of Bridge Engineering for Frontiers of the Built Environment, in addition to acting as a reviewer for a range of other international journals (Construction and Building Materials, Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Climatic Change etc.). Paraic also works closely with industry partners such as the ESB, TII, Irish Water, etc. on the majority of his research projects, ensuring the practical grounding of his research. In this context, Paraic was invited to give a talk on “Quantifying Climate Change Risks for Critical Infrastructure” to national critical infrastructure stakeholders and managers at the DCCAE Cross Sectoral Seminar on Critical Infrastructure and Water Resources last year.  

Teaching Activity

Teaching Activity 

Dr Ryan delivers the following modules 

CE2005            Surveying – Theory and Practice

CE2007            Design Studio I

CE2009            BIM: Modelling and Visualisation

CE3002            Solid and Structural Mechanics III

Paraic also co-ordinates and the Engineering Transition Year Programme at UCC.