Adaptation of infrastructure to climate change: the end user’s perspective

Paula Hewitt

Paula Hewitt is the chair of the South West Infrastructure Partnership. She was deputy chief executive, lead director for Economic and Community Infrastructure and also the director of commissioning at Somerset County Council, where she had a diverse mix of responsibilities including economic development, highways and transport, waste, planning, property, environment, registration services and libraries. Paula was acting CEO at Somerset County Council during 2022.

She has led a number of high-profile programmes, delivering innovation and partnerships. Paula’s led the Council’s work in relation to accommodating and securing a legacy from the largest construction project in Western Europe, the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. Other notable achievements securing significant Government and private sector investment in regeneration, environmental and transport schemes and the development of a network of innovation and enterprise centres to deliver increased productivity and prosperity.

Paula was heavily involved in co-ordinating the Local Authority response to the devastating Somerset winter 2014/15 floods and led the work to minimise future flooding in the county through the establishment of the Somerset Rivers Authority. As a result, she was asked to be an expert advisor to the European Committee of the Regions in relation to disaster resilience. Paula is a past president of the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT).

Professor Richard Betts MBE

Richard Betts is professor of climate impacts at the University of Exeter and head of climate impacts research at the Met Office Hadley Centre. He is acknowledged as one of the world’s leading climate scientists, with a research career spanning over 30 years. He has published more than 100 scientific papers on a diverse range of topics including numerous aspects of climate change impacts and the role of land ecosystem changes in the Earth system.

Richard was a lead author on the fourth, fifth and sixth assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and technical lead for the UK’s third national climate change risk sssessment (CCRA3).

He is currently serving as expert advisor to the UK’s Climate Change Committee for the fourth risk assessment.

In the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours List he was awarded an MBE for services to understanding climate change.

Professor Colin Taylor

Colin is emeritus professor of earthquake engineering at the University of Bristol. He is an ICE policy Fellow for sub-national infrastructure decarbonisation, and is champion of the South West Infrastructure Partnership’s net zero route mapping activities. He has over 40 years' research and practice experience on the impacts of natural hazards on all kinds of infrastructure systems.

Dr Christina Demski

Dr Christina Demski is a reader in environmental psychology at the University of Bath, specialising in research on public perceptions and engagement with climate and energy issues. She is also deputy director of the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST), leading theme one of the research programme, which investigates the feasibility and social desirability of low-carbon futures.

Christina has also researched the design and impact of climate assemblies and has recently completed a secondment with the (former) UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as net zero public engagement advisor.

Dame Janet Trotter DBE CVO

Educated in Kent, Janet began her working life as a teacher and then lectured in a range of higher education colleges. She was the founding vice chancellor of the University of Gloucestershire.

She was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Gloucestershire in 2010, a role she relinquished in 2018. Among other charitable roles she is chair of the Chamwell Centre, a hydrotherapy facility primarily for people with additional needs, and the Coalition for the Wellbeing of Children and Young People in Gloucestershire. 

Janet has a particular interest in building developments as an end user and has been involved in a range if infrastructure projects at the university, in the NHS and at the Chamwell Centre, particularly in relation to accessibility.

She is a member of the advisory board of GWR.

Peter von Lany

Peter von Lany is a director at Jacobs with responsibilities for climate change adaptation. He is an ICE Fellow  with extensive national and international experience in strategic decision-making relating to water resources planning, flood risk management and climate change adaptation. 

Peter is currently involved in a pilot project for the UK Environment Agency to develop and test a framework for applying adaptation pathways to help plan responses to long-term flood and erosion risks at a regional scale. He also advises water utilities on embedding adaptation to climate change within their water resources and investment plans.

He contributed to the peer review of the third UK National Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3). In 2018, he developed a set of outline adaptation pathways to help explore strategic policies for flood and erosion management in the face of climate change at selected UK coastal sites. 

Peter chairs the Climate Change Adaptation panel at the British Standards Institution. He helped draft a British Standard (BS 8631:2021) on the application of adaptation pathways within adaptive planning for climate change, having earlier contributed to the drafting of ISO 14090:2019 on climate change adaptation.