Mott MacDonald
Mott MacDonald is a diverse and innovative company that works on high profile projects across the world, addressing climate change, infrastructure, health and more.
Event organised by ICE
With the growing concerns about climate change, flooding and water quality in the Yorkshire and Humber regions, the ICE Yorkshire and Humber Committee, in collaboration with the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) Tyne and Humber Branch, will host the third annual conference on flooding and water quality in the region.
ICE YH Committee member Roger Falconer has headed up the conference planning panel and cultivated an interesting and comprehensive programme for the day with expert speakers and panelists. He will chair the conference, the main aim being to bring together all key stakeholders engaged in flood risk management and water quality, to discuss a range of solutions to reduce risk, enhance resilience and adapt for future climate change impacts.
Yorkshire Water and the Environment Agency are once again our strategic partners, as we continue to grow this successful and important annual conference.
The conference will end with a panel question and answer session, with senior representatives from key organisations and institutions responding to questions from delegates.
The aim is to work together to deliver the best solutions for residents and business communities within the region to reduce the impacts of flooding in the future, with more resilient solutions, adapted for climate change.
Bookings
Bookings are now open for conference delegates. The standard price is £120 with a reduced fee for students and government and local authority attendees. Exhibitor slots can be reserved at a cost of £750.
Get in touch with any queries at [email protected]
Sponsorship
A range of sponsorship opportunities exist, please get in touch with the regional team at [email protected] for more information.
Mott MacDonald is a diverse and innovative company that works on high profile projects across the world, addressing climate change, infrastructure, health and more.
We look after communities, protect the environment and plan ahead to look after Yorkshire's water, today, tomorrow, always.
The Environment Agency works to create better places for people and wildlife, and support sustainable development.
Membership organisation to thousands of members and organisations in over 89 countries with a dedication to improving water and environmental management.
Registration, coffee and exhibition viewing
Welcome by Roger Falconer, Flooding Conference committee chair
A word from headline sponsor Mott MacDonald with Jon Akers, civils and infrastructure account lead - Yorkshire
Opening remarks by Richard Crowder, CIWEM branch representative and head of revenue and strategy - water platform, Jacobs
Introduction by ICE Yorkshire and Humber chair Chris Campbell
Session 1 - Holistic approach to river basin management, chaired by Chris Campbell, ICE YH regional chair
with speakers Jenny Longley from the Environment Agency, Adam Ashman from Yorkshire Water and Vicky Murray from City of York Council.
Q&A with Chris Campbell and session speakers
Coffee and exhibition viewing
Session 2 - Navigating climate change for adaptive planning chaired by Richard Crowder
with speakers Helen Todd from the Environment Agency, Lucy Dowley from Jacobs, Elliot Gill from Stantec and David Harris from Siemens.
Q&A with Richard Crowder and session speakers
Introduction to workshop sessions by Richard Crowder
Lunch and exhibition viewing
Session 3 - Workshop sessions.
Workshop session 1 - Urban flood and water quality challenges with chaired by Mike Dugher from the Environment Agency. With speakers Fiona Barbour from Mott MacDonald, Mike Woolgar from WSP, Steve Wragg from City of York Council and Will McBain from Arup.
Workshop session 2 - Planning for flood resilience chaired by Roger Falconer. With speakers Colin Mellors from Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee, Derek Bell from Watertight International, Emma Brown from Yorkshire Water and Mary Long-Dhonau from FloodMary.
Tea and exhibition viewing
Session 4 - Nature based solutions and land management chaired by ICE Yorkshire & Humber regional director Steena Nasapen-Watson
with speakers Barry Hankin from JBA Consulting, Rachel Glossop from Hull City Council, Rosa Foster from Yorkshire & Humber Climate Commission and James Brown from Pollybell Farming.
Q&A with Steena Nasapen-Watson and session speakers
Closure by Roger Falconer
ICE Yorkshire and Humber Region Committee
conference committee chair and independent water consultant
Roger is Emeritus professor of Water and Environmental Engineering at Cardiff University, chair professor at Hohai University, China, and an independent water and environmental engineering consultant. He has held academic posts at the universities of Birmingham, Bradford, and Cardiff and has led large research teams on a wide range of research projects on flood and water quality modelling.
He has been involved in over 100 EIA studies worldwide and has published extensively in the field. He regularly advises the water industry and UK and international government agencies on flooding and water quality issues, and regularly participates in media and TV interviews on these topics.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Chinese Academy of Engineering (Foreign Member), Institution of Civil Engineers and Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management. He is an Honorary Member and Past-President of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering & Research (2011-15).
Yorkshire Water
Head of Strategic Planning
Adam has 20 years experience working across infrastructure asset management, operations, maintenance and engineering. A chartered engineer, he is head of strategic planning at Yorkshire Water, focussing on important topics such as the climate, the transition to Net Zero, the adaptation to a changing climate, and the protection of our natural environment through the creation and implementation of long term sustainable improvements such as the Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans.
Adam is a huge advocate of solving problems through innovation and the multiple benefits that come from working and learning together within diverse partnerships.
JBA and Lancaster University
chief of environmental modelling and honorary researcher
Barry is JBA’s chief of environmental modelling and an honorary researcher at Lancaster University, specialising in modelling and management of whole-catchment resilience, advancing techniques for fully distributed modelling of nature-based flood risk and diffuse pollution measures to improve our understanding of resilience.
He led the winning team of the Defra Flood Modelling Competition in 2016, demonstrating advanced approaches to testing the resilience of Natural Flood Management (NFM) measures under a range of extreme rainfall scenarios. Since 2018 he has helped the Environment Agency (EA) build their first national unsteady, process-based water quality ‘HYPE’ model to investigate the effectiveness of Defra’s Catchment Sensitive Farming programme.
Barry has led significant science projects for EA/Defra, including a review of approaches for modelling and mapping wider catchment processes and contributed significantly to the EA Working with Natural Processes (WwNP) Directory. He led the development of the new Potential Areas for WwNP maps for England and Wales as part of the new Evidence Directory and went on to be a Co-I on Q-NFM, the Lancaster University UKRI / NERC project testing the effectiveness of NFM.
Skanska UK
Preconstruction director and committee regional chair
Chris is a chartered civil engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He is currently serving as chair of the ICE Yorkshire and Humber Regional Committee.
Having commenced his civil engineering career as a student trainee in 2004 on a Yorkshire Water AMP3 project in Leeds, Chris has since performed a number of varied engineering, commercial and leadership roles, and is currently business development and preconstruction director at Skanska UK, focussed on the specialist geotechnical contracting business Cementation Skanska. In this role he is engaged with varied customers and stakeholders across sectors throughout the UK civil engineering and construction markets.
In addition, Chris is a supervising civil engineer and ICE reviewer, supporting civil engineers and young professionals in their journey to academic and professional qualification at all levels.
Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee
chair
Professor Colin Mellors has been chair of the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee since 2015.
He has worked at the universities of Southampton, Sheffield, Bradford and York, and is Emeritus professor of politics at the University of York, where he served for eight years as pro-vice-chancellor having previously held a similar position at the University of Bradford.
Whilst a career academic, he has devoted time to roles in the public sector focusing on local government, growth, and capacity building with private sector and community partners. He was a founding board member of the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding Local Enterprise Partnership and chair of the area’s ESIF Committee (and previously the region’s ERDF performance management committees).
Previous roles include: non-executive director of the Government Office for Yorkshire & Humber, chair of the Executive Board of Yorkshire Universities, and HE strategic advisor to the Y&H Regional Development Agency.
He has been chair of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England since 2016.
Siemens Mobility Ltd
senior project manager
David graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Liverpool and, following a brief period in a design office, decided he was better suited to working on site.
For the next 30 years he worked for civil engineering contractors on a variety of projects, more than half spent overseas, in Ethiopia, the Middle East, Malaysia and the Caribbean. The projects spanned several sectors and included earth fill dams, roads, railways, power stations, petrochemical plants, airports and buildings, progressing from “peg bashing” to project management.
During this period, David married and had four children, who provided sufficient excuse to procrastinate on his Institution of Civil Engineers membership application. The past 13 years he has worked as a project manager for Siemens Mobility Limited leading their construction projects, including the new Train Manufacturing Facility in Goole.
Mott MacDonald
technical director
Fiona Barbour is a chartered civil engineer with more than 22 years’ experience, predominantly in the UK water sector, where she started as a hydraulic modeller specialising in urban flooding.
In her current role as business development manager at Mott MacDonald, she is working to expand the firm’s advisory services across Scotland and Ireland, having led its global water resources and flooding practice for five years.
Notable projects that Barbour has led include a review of the Grangemouth flood protection scheme for the Scottish government and an analysis of inland flood risks for Sefton Council, Merseyside, as part of an appraisal of its plan to safeguard the coastal town of Crosby.
She was also technical lead on the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office’s Global Future Cities Programme in Vietnam, which helped to improve Ho Chi Minh City’s flood resilience by creating a database of drainage assets.
Barbour co-chairs the ICE’s Community Advisory Board on Sustainable, Resilient Infrastructure, advocating for resilience to become an integral design consideration for all engineers, not just specialists in the field.
Pollybell Farming
managing director
James is the 5th generation of the family to run The Lapwing Estate group. The Brown family have a strong history in farming for the past 120 years and immense passion for growing healthy, affordable food whilst enhancing the land and surrounding environment. Pollybell Farm now leads the way in sustainable farming practice in the UK.
Within the Farm there are three Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). These depict what a unique environment there is and highlight the work Pollybell does to tirelessly preserve and manage these.
The Lapwing Estate sits on lowland peat which has been historically drained for agricultural activities. This land however emits vast quantities of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. The Estate has developed a new model for “Rethinking peatlands”, which both sequesters and abates significant quantities of carbon, and also produces food with measurable positive environmental and social impact.
Enbvironment Agency
area flood risk manager, South Yorkshire
Jenny Longley (MCIWEM, CWEM) is the South Yorkshire flood risk manager at the Environment Agency having worked there for ten years. Prior to joining the agency, Jenny was a consultant at AECOM. Flood risk management has always been the focus of Jenny’s career and is a topic she is passionate about. From flood defence project management, strategic flood risk planning, partnership working with Risk Management Authorities, leading response and recovery to flood events, developing flood risk schemes and working with local communities to promote flood resilience, Jenny has had a varied career.
In response to the 2019 floods, Jenny played a pivotal role in creating the Connected by Water partnership which transformed flood risk management in South Yorkshire. Jenny is incredibly proud of Connected by Waters’ achievements to date and is excited to be part of the future growth and development of this partnership.
FloodMary
Owner and author
Mary has extensive experience in supporting and advising the victims of flooding. Having been flooded herself on many occasions, she champions the effective use of Property Flood Resilience (PFR) measures and is vocally passionate about raising awareness of flood risk and PFR /Build Back Better to homeowners, communities, local authorities, government and relevant industries, including insurance and construction. Mary spends much of her time travelling around flood effected parts of the country in a ‘Floodmobile’ (a house on wheels packed full of resilience produce) supporting those newly flooded in their recovery.
Mary runs her own consultancy FloodMary.com specialising in PFR, has represented the ‘voice of the flood victim’ at government level, appears on national TV and radio and speaks at many flood risk management national and international conferences. She is the author of an eBook ‘Property Flood Resilience, Stories from homes and businesses who have made adaptations to help them recover more quickly after a flood’, a co- author of the Household Guide to PFR, & the Household Guide to Flood Recovery as well as a member of the Defra PRF round table and spearheaded the award-winning Cumbria Property Resilience round table.
WSP
water strategy director
Mike Woolgar has over 35 years’ practical experience in the water, urban development and water management sectors in the UK, Europe and the lesser developed world. In the UK he has worked on regulation, policy, advisory services, assurance, monitoring, due diligence and expert services, and project preparation in the regulated utilities, flood risk management, and resources sectors.
He has extensive experience of infrastructure development in regulated/private sector water and waste systems, water resource planning, water systems development engineering and climate change resilience. He was recently chair of the Expert Panel for the London Flood Review, examining causes and potential solutions following the 2021 floods, is an independent member of the Thames RFCC and has been supporting Ofwat and some water companies on the promotion and development of some of the new Strategic Resource Options for improving water supply resilience.
Hull City Council
flood risk planning manager
Rachel Glossop is the flood risk planning manager for Hull City Council, having joined the organisation in June 2014. The role is to ensure that the statutory duties of the Lead Local Flood Authority are fulfilled to ensure that the city can face the challenge of flood risk and can continue to thrive and grow.
Prior to this, she had over 20-years’ experience in the water industry both in the private sector in consultancy and public sector at the Environment Agency. The roles included flood risk regulation through the planning and permitting process, working with Defra on policy around surface water flooding and guiding Local Authorities through the funding systems to create capital programmes of investment for flood mitigation and resilience.
Rachel has also been involved in visiting Freetown, Sierra Leone to advise and offer guidance to various government departments on managing flood risk in the city as the city is particularly vulnerable to flooding and the challenges of climate change.
Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission and Leeds Climate Commission, University of Leeds
climate commissions director
Rosa is passionate about climate adaptation, nature, people, equity, and collaborating to rapidly reduce carbon emissions. With a BSC (Hons) in Applied Geology, and a MSc in Water Management, Rosa has 21 years experience of operational delivery leadership across a range of environmental disciplines for the Environment Agency.
Rosa has been involved in the Leeds and Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commissions since their inceptions and formally became climate commissions director at the University of Leeds in May 2024. Rosa is also a member of the Yorkshire and Humber Forestry and Woodland Advisory Committee.
Both the Leeds and Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commissions are independent with cross party support. They convene leaders from across all sectors to support, guide and mobilise ambitious, fair and integrated action on climate and nature across city and regional scales. The Commissions’ are evidence led, and focus on creating the well informed spaces needed to explore the difficult issues that we face constructively, seeking shared solutions, catalysing new ideas and celebrating success.
City of York Council
head of highway asset management
Steve Wragg is the head of highway asset management at City of York Council responsible for all highway asset management services, maintenance and improvement programmes and bridges and structures management. The service is also responsible for winter, drainage, flood and wider emergency response across the network, the delivery of flood risk management programmes and the management of the city walls and other heritage assets.
Prior to this Steve worked in flood risk management for more than 25 years and has experienced the industry and its changes from a range of roles across this time. After initial employment as a consultant engineer, Steve worked for the Environment Agency, Hull City Council and City of York Council leading Flood Risk Management programmes and teams. He has been involved in all of the significant flood events across the Yorkshire and Humber region during this time.
Arup
director
Will leads Arup’s work related to adaptation and resilience (water environment) in the UK, India, Middle East and Africa. A director of Arup, he is a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management and a leading proponent of integrated solutions to water and environmental challenges of all kinds.
Will is Arup’s framework director on the Environment Agency’s (EA’s) Collaborative Delivery Framework, on which Arup is Lot 1 Consultant in the Northeast/Yorkshire and Midlands hubs. He is on the Board of the EA’s Decarbonisation Accelerator Programme and is Arup’s project director for three of the EA’s Adaptation Pathway Pilots.
He is also Arup’s topic lead for the water environment aspects of the Development Consent Order for Thames Water’s South East Strategic Reservoir Option (SESRO). He lives in Ilkley and has strong views about the need for a more joined-up approach to addressing urban flooding and river water quality issues.
Jacobs
CIWEM branch representative and head of revenue and strategy - water platform
Richard is a seasoned business leader with 30 years of experience in digital technology and innovation, project and programme delivery, framework management, client management, sales, and operational management. He is a Fellow of both the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management and is internationally recognised as a flood risk management professional who drives innovation and change to deliver sustainable solutions and operational efficiency.
Since joining Halcrow (now Jacobs) in 2002, Richard has held senior leadership roles including regional director (Europe), responsible for growth across the water sector, framework manager, delivering engineering and environmental services to the UK’s Environment Agency, and Jacobs’ framework director delivering the Environment Agency’s programme of flood risk mapping and modelling work.
Currently, Richard is Head of Strategy and Revenue for Jacobs Water Platform of products and is also the Solution Director for Jacobs Flood family of products, which includes Flood Modeller, an industry standard software application for flood risk modelling and flood forecasting, and Flood Platform a data management, simulation, analysis and collaboration platform for modellers and stakeholders.
Richard is known for taking on challenging projects and using innovation and digital delivery to solve problems and deliver projects in new and more efficient ways. This covers the full range of flood risk management disciplines including scheme appraisal, environmental services, engineering design, asset management, flood modelling and flood forecasting and warning.
Institution of Civil Engineers
regional director North East and Yorkshire & Humber
Steena is the Regional Director for the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), for the North East and Yorkshire and Humber. Steena has spent 12 years as a Chartered Civil Engineer in the water sector predominantly in flood risk management and in partnership working championing the implementation of sustainable drainage. She has worked for the Environment Agency and Northumbrian Water, before joining the ICE in January 2020. In her current role, she leads the Regional Support Team and supports around 6,000 members across both regions, in delivering the business objectives of the ICE in the North East, Yorkshire and Humber.
Yorkshire Water
manager of strategic partnerships
Emma is strategic partnerships manager for Yorkshire Water, leading a highly skilled management team to support partnership working across the region. The portfolio of partnerships include key collaborations which focus on delivering holistic solutions to complex solutions such as flood resilience and bathing water quality. The team has a key focus on nature based solutions, education and engagement with our communities alongside investment priorities.
Joining the water industry through the companies graduate programme over ten years ago, she has gained a wealth of experience across flood resilience and waste water operations.
Stantec
market sector lead urban drainage and flooding
Elliot Gill works with utilities, regulators and governments, advising on the management of urban flooding and pollution. In a career spanning more than 30 years, he has worked for research and consultancy organisations and now holds the post of market sector lead for urban drainage at Stantec in the UK and Ireland.
Elliot authored the Storm Overflows Evidence Project for the government’s storm overflows task force, providing a first-of-its-kind assessment of the costs and benefits of different storm overflow control policies. This work has informed the proposed near-£60bn, 25-year programme of wastewater improvements in England. He has also advised the Welsh government on its policy options and works with a number of water companies throughout the UK to help them plan for and implement storm overflow improvement programmes.
Elliot is a fellow of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management and a chartered water and environmental manager.
Jacobs
director of operations/sustainability director
Accomplished leader with a track record of strategy, planning and delivery across the infrastructure asset management lifecycle with a focus on maximising sustainable outcomes.
A sustainability technical specialist unlocking the opportunities across the Water & Environment sectors through optimisation of ecosystem services outcomes, partnership working, innovation and green finance options. Using expertise in environment and sustainability to develop and deliver innovation frameworks and strategic partnerships to address the environmental, climate and affordability trilemma.
Working on behalf of public and private organisations’ executive teams to lead initiatives across innovation, catchment systems thinking, ESG strategy & planning and climate risk & resilience. Leading diverse teams across matrix business models, delivering transformative investment and performance plans including delivery of nature and climate positive outcomes.
Skilled in oversight of multi-£BN and multi-£M investments, including end-to-end delivery of multi-year programmes, managing a complex range of government, regulatory, NGO’s, private and community stakeholders & partnerships.
Environment Agency
Humber strategic manager
Helen Todd has been working for the Environment Agency and involved in managing tidal risk on the Humber for over 25 years. In her role as Humber strategic manager, she focuses on the strategic management of tidal risk on the Humber and tidal rivers.
She provides leadership to the overall Humber team and holds a key role in the development of Humber 2100+ and Humber Adaptation Pathway - setting a new strategy for managing tidal flood risk for the Humber for the next 100 years, working in partnership with local authorities and a wide range of stakeholders from around the Humber area.
Environment Agency
area director - Yorkshire
Mike joined the EA in 2000 and prior to that worked in the private sector as a civil engineering consultant for 9 years on a variety of infrastructure projects.
Most of his early work at the EA was in Flood and Coastal Risk Management across Yorkshire and the North East, the Humber and Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire and he has also undertaken national roles within and with the FCRM Directorate.
In 2014 Mike took on leadership of the EA’s FCRM and Sustainable development function around the Humber, and In 2016 he was area manager in Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire. From 2018 to 2021 he was deputy director for the EA’s Contact Centre Services before re-joining Yorkshire as area director in September 2021. Mike is the account holder for Environment Agency regulation of Yorkshire Water.
He is driven by a future that involves working together to reduce carbon emissions, enabling safe and sustainable growth, managing flood risk, water quality & resources and adapting to become more resilient in the face of a changing climate. He sees the opportunity for us all to come together to work on various aspects such as policy, infrastructure, resilience, and working with nature to create more sustainable places.
He has seen the impact of our changing climate on too many communities and believes it’s vital we stand together to manage and mitigate this for a safe and prosperous future.
Watertight International
client services director
Derek Bell is an accomplished professional in flood risk management and emergency planning, with over 20 years of experience in the field. He currently serves as the client services director at Watertight International, where he is responsible for providing strategic project support, planning, business development and coordinating workshops focused on flood resilience across the country.
Before joining Watertight, Derek spent seven years at the Environment Agency (EA) as a senior advisor for the flood and coastal erosion risk management (FCERM) directorate. In this role, he developed, commissioned, and delivered the CIWEM Code of Practice PFR training programme, led the Property Flood Resilience (PFR) Framework contract, and chaired to the EA’s PFR Community of Practice group of over 200 PFR Project Managers and Flood Risk professionals, where he played a key role towards standardising PFR delivery across the both the EA and the wider industry.
Derek’s career has also included significant hands-on experience in flood response, working with civil contingency teams in Yorkshire and the East Midlands, and participating in local resilience forums. He spent 12 years working in emergency planning roles with local authorities, including Barnsley Council, where he gained a deep understanding of the challenges facing communities during flood events.
Throughout his career, Derek has demonstrated a commitment to supporting communities, advancing industry standards, and driving strategic initiatives that make a tangible impact on flood resilience. At Watertight, he continues this mission, helping to deliver innovative solutions that protect people and properties from the growing threat of flooding.
Derek is a Chartered Member of CIWEM and an active member of the Emergency Planning Society.
City of York Council
innovative flood resilience project manager,
Victoria is an environmental scientist by training, having studied and worked within the UK political and public sector for over 15 years. Her work has focused on river and coastal flooding and erosion, environmental regeneration and climate change mitigation.
Victoria's approach utilises the ability of the natural environment to buffer extreme events of flood and drought in order to support and sustain communities. She is currently working as innovative flood resilience project manager for York and North Yorkshire, leading the Ousewem Natural Flood Management project.
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