Doctor Rebecca Sharpe BSc, PGCert, MSc and PhD

About

Dr Rebecca Sharpe is a Senior Lecturer in Geography at Sheffield Hallam University and Programme Lead for the BA/BSc Geography degree. With over a decade of academic and industry experience, her expertise spans urban water quality, GIS, and spatial analysis. Dr Sharpe’s teaching and research lie at the intersection of environmental science, infrastructure systems, and data-driven analysis.

She has led and taught a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules across Geography, Environment, and GIS programmes. Her teaching portfolio includes leadership of more than 15 modules and involvement in over 50, alongside academic advising and supervision at both BSc and MSc levels. She currently supervises multiple PhD projects focusing on water management and environmental equity.

Before entering academia, Dr Sharpe held industry roles at Severn Trent Water and Kingfisher PLC, where she applied geospatial and data analysis to support energy efficiency and water infrastructure strategies. She also collaborated with Anglian Water and the University of Sheffield on research into drinking water quality.

Her research focuses on the microbial ecology and hydraulic processes affecting drinking water and river systems. She has published extensively in international journals, including PLOS Water, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, and the Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning. Dr Sharpe is also actively engaged in externally funded research projects and industry collaborations.

Beyond academia, she contributes to public outreach on water sustainability and has supported exhibitions and community engagement initiatives across South Yorkshire. Dr Sharpe is a committed advocate for environmental education and collaborative research that fosters both social and ecological impact.

Teaching

Sheffield Institute of Social Sciences

College of Social Sciences and Arts

Geography, Environment and Planning

BA/BSc Geography

MSc GIS

BSc Climate Change, Sustainability and Environmental Management

MSc Environmental Management

Advances in GIS

Climate Change and Sustainability for Geographers

Climate Change and Sustainability in Research and Practice

Contemporary Issues in Social Science

Dissertation, Employability and Communication

Geographies for a Just Future

Geographies of Everyday Life and GIS

GIS and Spatial Analysis

GIS Professional

Living with Hazards and Risk

Open Source and Online GIS

Planet Earth

Professional Geographer

Skills and Tools for Tackling Global Environmental Change

Spatial and Environmental Skills

Research

• Social and Economic Research Institute

Selected Publications:
Douterelo, I., Sharpe, R. L., Husband, S., Fish, K. E., & Boxall, J. B. (2019). Understanding microbial ecology to improve management of drinking water distribution systems. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, 6(1), e01325.

Hawkins, A., Sharpe, R., Spence, K., & Holmes, N. (2018). Inappropriate flushing of menstrual sanitary products. In Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers-Water Management (pp. 1-18). Thomas Telford Ltd.

Goodchild, B., Sharpe, R., & Hanson, C. (2018). Between resistance and resilience: a study of flood risk management in the Don catchment area (UK). Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 20(4), 434-449.

Sharpe, R., Biggs, C., & Boxall, J. (2017). Hydraulic conditioning to manage potable water discolouration. In Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers-Water Management. Institution of Civil Engineers.

Fish, K., Collins, R., Green, N., Sharpe, R., Douterelo, I., Osborn, A., & Boxall, J. (2015). Characterisation of the physical composition and microbial community structure of biofilms within a model full-scale drinking water distribution system. PLoS ONE, 10(2), 3209-3212.

Mounce, S. R., Sharpe, R., Speight, V., Holden, B., & Boxall, J. (2014). Self-Organizing Maps For Knowledge Discovery From Corporate Databases To Develop Risk Based Prioritization For Stagnation.

Mounce, S. R., Sharpe, R. L., Speight, V & Boxall J. B. (2014). Knowledge discovery from large disparate corporate databases using self-organising maps to help ensure supply of high quality potable water. 11th International Conference on Hydroinformatics, HIC 2014, New York City, US

Douterelo, I., Sharpe, R., & Boxall, J. (2014). Bacterial community dynamics during the early stages of biofilm formation in a chlorinated experimental drinking water distribution system: implications for drinking water discolouration. Journal of applied microbiology, 117(1), 286-301.

Furnass, W. R., Collins, R. P., Husband, P. S., Sharpe, R. L., Mounce, S. R., & Boxall, J. B. (2014). Modelling both the continual erosion and regeneration of discolouration material in drinking water distribution systems. Water Science and Technology: Water Supply, 14(1), 81-90.

Douterelo, I., Sharpe, R. L., & Boxall, J. B. (2013). Influence of hydraulic regimes on bacterial community structure and composition in an experimental drinking water distribution system. Water research.

Mounce, S. R., Douterelo, I., Sharpe, R. L. and Boxall, J. B. (2012). A bio-hydroinformatics application of self-organizing map neural networks for assessing microbial and physico-chemical water quality in distribution systems. Proceedings of the 10th HydroInformatics conference Hamburg, Germany, July.

Fish, K. E., Sharpe, R. L., Green, N. H., Osborn, A. M. and Boxall, J. B. (2011). Visualising and Quantifying the Matrix of Drinking Water Biofilms. Proceedings of IWA Biofilm2011: Processes in Biofilms Shanghai, China, 27-30 October

Publications

Other activities

Northampton University BSc Geography External Examiner

Postgraduate supervision

Karuna Pimprasan, ‘Flood modelling using limited data’, 2022 to present.

Mia Rafalowicz-Campbell, White Rose Studentship. ‘Equity in Walking and Cycling: South Yorkshire case study'. 2023 to present.

Ruth Frankin, ‘Blue Spaces in Urban Spaces: Lipidomics underpinning community empowerment', 2024 to present.