Crina Oltean-Dumbrava
Professor in Sustainable Built Environme
- Area
- School of BEACIFaculty of Eng & Digital Technologies
- Phone

Biography
I am an international academic with over 44 years’ professional experience of which 40 years have been in academia with teaching and research experience in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Greece and Romania. I have an MSc qualification in civil and building engineering and an MA in economics, and am a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB).
I am a member of the Joint Board of Moderators (JBM) Visiting Accreditation Panel and a Past Chair of the UK’s Association of Civil Engineering Departments. At the University of Bradford I am a member of University’s Court and a Past Chair of the Standing Committee of the University’s Assembly. I have been a member of the University’s Senate and Council.
My research expertise lies in the area of the sustainability assessment of the built environment, (buildings, water and waste water infrastructure, transport infrastructure and noise reducing devices); decision support systems based on multi-criteria analysis; and construction economics with special expertise in cost modelling, cost benefit analysis and whole life cycle costing. I am an international expert on the evidence-based sustainability assessment framework based on multi-criteria analysis and was selected by European Commission's Environment Directorate-General independent scientific advisors to assist the development of effective, evidence-based policies. In the last 40 years, I am or have been Principal Investigator (18 grants), Co-Investigator (18 grants) and Collaborator (2 grants) of 42 research and teaching grants including four Personal grants. My research activity generated in the UK a total of £7,499,160 equivalent, (£1,714,269 for my employers) and £17,302 of consultancy activity in the last 25 years. The value of the grants to which I contributed to either as a Principal Investigator, Co-investigator and Personal grants in the first 15 years of my academic career in Romania was approximately $7million (at the exchange rate at the time).
In my time as an academic I have authored or contributed to 17 books, and published over 120 journal and conference papers. In addition, I have made 25 keynote presentations. I have also led multi-national research projects and contributed to course development in several countries.
In 2013 I was appointed the BSI (UK) expert, ISO and European Committee for Standardisation Road Traffic Noise Reducing Devices (RTNRD), and CEN/TC 226/WG6 TG4 Convenor to implement sustainability in RTNRD standards. In 2014 I was appointed as a Liaison Officer between CEN/TC 226 and CEN/TC 350 Sustainability of Construction Works. I am a Visiting Professor of the Technical University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania since 2009, an External Expert Evaluator for the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research since 2002, EU FP5, FP6, FP7 and Horizon 2020 Programmes since 1996 and for the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education since 2006. I have represented my native country, Romania, in the European Council of Construction Economists since 1994.
In 2017, as part of a team of five, I have been awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Achievement for my contribution to the EU FP7 GENOVATE Grant (2013-2017 June) and I have been invited as a Partner and Expert of the UN Sustainable Buildings and Construction (SBC) Programme of the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10YFP). In 2019 I have been nominated by BSI for one of the prestigious BSI Standards Makers Awards for Representing the UK and leading the development of the first European product sustainability standard: Road Traffic Noise Reducing Devices - Sustainability: Key Sustainability Performance Indicators (KSPI) Declaration. In 2017 I have been nominated for membership of the REF 2021 and in 2020 I was appointed as a REF 2021 member of the Sub-panel 12: Engineering as an Output Assessor. In 2020 I was also appointed on the Board of the Joint Board of Moderators Accreditation Body.
Research
Teaching
Publications
Audiovisual material (1)
GENOVATE conference digital stories - 8
Oltean-Dumbrava, Crina (2016)
Book chapter (3)
The Achievement of Sustainability in the Built Environment
Crina Oltean-Dumbrava, Margherita Finamore (2022) EcoMechatronics: Challenges for Evolution, Development and Sustainability (Hardback). In Peter Hehenberger, Maki Habib, David Bradley editor(s) Springer International Publishing AG.
Business Intelligence and Cultural Change in Social Housing (2017), C. Duvier and C. Oltean-Dumbrava, 13th International Postgraduate Research Conference 2017, Proceedings, Salford, Emerald Publishing, September 2017, pages 332-342, ISBN 978-1-912337-05-7.
C. Duvier and C. Oltean-Dumbrava (2017) 13th International Postgraduate Research Conference 2017, Proceedings. Emerald Publishing.
"Moving closer" maximising benefits to university courses, students and employers through undergraduate civil enginering placements.
Oltean-Dumbrava, Crina; Galloway, K. (2012)
Conference publication (16)
Green Public Procurement and the circularity of the built environment
M Finamore, C Oltean-Dumbrava (2022) SBEfin 2022 Conference 23-25 Nov 2022 . 1
Green Public Procurement and the circularity of the built environment
Finamore M.;Oltean-Dumbrava C. (2022) IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. 1122
Understanding Sustainability in Social Housing
Duvier, C and Oltean-Dumbrava, C. (2021) 4th Annual Innovative Engineering Research Conference (AIERC). N/A
The Sustainability Assessment of Acoustic Materials
Crina Oltean-Dumbrava, Mark Richards, Giovanni Brero, Massimo Garai; Amir Khan (2017) INTERNOISE Congress 2017. 1
The Assessment of Sustainability of Road Noise Reducing Devices”
Crina Oltean-Dumbrava, Mark Richards (2017) INTERNOISE Congress 2017. 1
Assessing the relative sustainability of long parallel noise barriers and related noise reducing devices for a motorway in Italy
Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Richards M. (2016) Proceedings of the INTER-NOISE 2016 - 45th International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering: Towards a Quieter Future., 4253-4260.
Sustainability criteria for standardisation of noise reducing devices
Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Clairbois J. (2014) INTERNOISE 2014 - 43rd International Congress on Noise Control Engineering: Improving the World Through Noise Control.
The sustainability assessment of noise barriers for EU project QUIESST: A case study
Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Watts G.;Miah A. (2013) 42nd International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering 2013, INTER-NOISE 2013: Noise Control for Quality of Life. 3, 2566-2575.
QUIESST: Third-term progress report
Clairbois J.;De Roo F.;Garai M.;Conter M.;Defrance J.;Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Fusco I. (2012) 41st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering 2012, INTER-NOISE 2012. 10, 8089-8098.
QUIESST: Third-term progress report
Clairbois J.;De Roo F.;Garai M.;Conter M.;Defrance J.;Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Fusco I. (2012) Proceedings - European Conference on Noise Control., 1294-1299.
Generic database of sustainability criteria values per main noise reducing device type for EU project QUIESST
Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Watts G.;Miah A. (2012) 41st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering 2012, INTER-NOISE 2012. 10, 8163-8174.
Defining sustainability key performance indicators for measuring, monitoring, and reporting the sustainability performances of noise reducing devices for EU project QUIESST
Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Watts G.;Miah A. (2012) Proceedings - European Conference on Noise Control., 1300-1308.
QUIESST: Mid-term progress report
Clairbois J.;De Roo F.;Garai M.;Conter M.;Defrance J.;Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Fusco I. (2011) 40th International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering 2011, INTER-NOISE 2011. 4, 2843-2850.
Primary sustainability criteria for assessing the sustainability of noise reducing devices for EU Project QUIESST
Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Watts G.;Miah A. (2011) 40th International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering 2011, INTER-NOISE 2011. 4, 2836-2842.
Quiesst: Toward a better knowledge and understanding of how efficient noise barriers could actually be
Clairbois J.;De Roo F.;Garai M.;Conter M.;Defrance J.;Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Fusco I. (2010) 39th International Congress on Noise Control Engineering 2010, INTER-NOISE 2010. 5, 3665-3672.
Making more sustainable decisions for asset investment in the water industry - Sustainable water industry asset resource decisions - The SWARD project
Ashley R.;Blackwood D.;Butler D.;Jowitt P.;Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Davies J.;McIlkenny G.;Foxon T.;Gilmour D.;Smith H.;Cavill S.;Leach M.;Pearson P.;Gouda H.;Samson W.;Souter N.;Hendry S.;Moir J.;Bouchart F. (2002) Global Solutions for Urban Drainage., 1-16.
Peer reviewed journal (21)
Data quality challenges in the UK social housing sector
Duvier, Caroline; Neagu, Daniel; Oltean-Dumbrava, Crina; Dickens, D. (2018)
Data quality and governance in a UK social housing initiative: Implications for smart sustainable cities
Duvier, C., Anand, P. B., Oltean-Dumbrava, C. (2018). “Data quality and governance in a UK social housing initiative: Implications for smart sustainable cities”, International Journal of Sustainable Cities and Society, Special Issue on Smart and Sustainable Cities: Policy, Urban Public Services & Social Issues, October 2017, Vol 39, pages 358–365, http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2018.02.015, ISSN 2210-6707 (2018) Sustainable Cities and Society. 39
Data quality and governance in a UK social housing initiative: Implications for smart sustainable cities
Duvier, Caroline; Anand, Prathivadi B.; Oltean-Dumbrava, Crina (2018)
Understanding sustainability through bradford affordable housing lens
Abuzeinab A.;Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Dickens D. (2016) International Journal for Housing Science and Its Applications. 40, 291-303.
Assessment and relative sustainability of common types of roadside noise barriers
Oltean-Dumbrava, Crina; Miah, Abdul H.S. (2016)
Towards a more sustainable surface transport infrastructure: A case study of applying multi criteria analysis techniques to assess the sustainability of transport noise reducing devices
Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Watts G.;Miah A. (2016) Journal of Cleaner Production. 112, 2922-2934.
Towards a more sustainable surface transport infrastructure: a case study of applying multi criteria analysis techniques to assess the sustainability of transport noise reducing devices.
Oltean-Dumbrava, Crina; Watts, Gregory R.; Miah, Abdul H.S. (2015)
Individual learning on environmental vocational education and training courses does not always lead to the workplace application of knowledge and skills
Draper, Fiona J.; Oltean-Dumbrava, Crina; Kara-Zaitri, Chakib; Newbury, B. (2014)
"top-down-bottom-up" methodology as a common approach to defining bespoke sets of sustainability assessment criteria for the built environment
Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Watts G.;Miah A. (2014) Journal of Management in Engineering - ASCE. 30, 19-31.
“Top-Down-Bottom-Up” Methodology as a Common Approach to Defining Bespoke Sets of Sustainability Assessment Criteria for the Built Environment
Oltean-Dumbrava, Crina; Watts, Gregory R.; Miah, Abdul H.S. (2014)
Transport infrastructure: making more sustainable decisions for noise reduction
Oltean-Dumbrava, Crina; Watts, Gregory R.; Miah, Abdul H.S. (2013)
Can simplified design methods for domestic rainwater harvesting systems produce realistic water-saving and financial predictions?
Roebuck R.;Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Tait S. (2012) Water and Environment Journal. 26, 352-360.
Procurement of sustainable noise-reducing devices: State-of-the-art review from EU project QUIESST
Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Watts G.;Miah A. (2012) Journal of Management in Engineering - ASCE. 28, 324-329.
Thermal rehabilitation of Romanian housing: a low cost assessment tool
Cobirzan, N.; Oltean-Dumbrava, Crina; Brumaru, M. (2012)
Factors influencing attendance and success on the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment Associate Membership Certificate course
Draper F.;Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Tizaoui C.;Newburyc B. (2011) Journal of Further and Higher Education. 35, 1-23.
Whole life cost performance of domestic rainwater harvesting systems in the United Kingdom
Roebuck, R.M.; Oltean-Dumbrava, Crina; Tait, Simon J. (2011)
Can existing buildings be made environmentally greener?
Oltean-Dumbrava M.C.;Velagala S. (2009) International Journal for Housing Science and Its Applications. 33, 227-236.
Making Asset Investment Decisions for Wastewater Systems That Include Sustainability
Ashley, R.M.; Blackwood, D.; Butler, D.; Jowitt, P.; Davies, J.; Smith, H.; Gilmour, D.; Oltean-Dumbrava, Crina (2008)
Improving housing design performance using ELECTRE III
Oltean-Dumbrava C. (2005) International Journal for Housing Science and Its Applications. 30, 1-17.
SWARD: Decision support processes for the UK water industry
Butler D.;Jowitt P.;Mcilkenny G.;Cavill S.;Ashley R.;Smith H.;Gouda H.;Blackwood D.;Gilmour D.;Davies J.;Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Foxon T.;Leach M.;Pearson P.;Samson W.;Souter N.;Hendry S.;Moir J.;Bouchart F. (2003) Management of Environmental Quality. 14, 444-459.
Making decisions for upgrading wastewater systems
Blackwood D.;Ashley R.;Petrie M.;Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Jones C. (2000) Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Municipal Engineer. 139, 171-180.
Reviews (1)
Data quality challenges in the UK social housing sector
Duvier C.;Neagu D.;Oltean-Dumbrava C.;Dickens D. (2018) International Journal of Information Management.