Professor Richard Ashley
University of Sheffield
Emeritus Professor of Urban Water
Professor Richard Ashley
A Professional Chartered Civil and Environmental Engineer and former MD of the Pennine Water Group (PWG), with a research career spanning more than 50 years in the design and science of urban water systems.
Highlights include: Member of the UK’s (Defra & DTI) Foresight Future Flooding research team in the early 2000s then to Sir Michael Pitt in 2007, Scientific Adviser to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee inquiry into Water Management in England in 2006; Scientific adviser to OECD for flood risk in the Loire Basin (2009); Greater Paris (2012). OECD consultant for future need for water and wastewater infrastructure in 2004 and in 2018.Research leader in the UK Building Knowledge for a Changing Climate programme on adapting local drainage to climate change 2002-2006.
Various international projects, including in the Netherlands (e.g. the Room for the River programme review) and Australia, for example as part of the Cooperative Research Programme on Water Sensitive Cities on flood resilience (2014-2017). Recent activities include co-developing the CIRIA economic assessment tool for blue-green infrastructure (B£ST) and application to various projects.
Adjunct Professor at Lulea Technical University, Sweden. Recipient of the IWA/IAHR Joint Committee on Urban Drainage 2014 triennial Career achievement award and 2008 IWA award for research into sustainable water systems. Richard has some 600 publications, mainly for adapting urban drainage and water systems to cope with future uncertainties.
