Flood & Coast 2024 Show Report by Syon Media

SHOWCASE 2024

Welcome

AS THE NEW Chief Executive at CIWEM, I was delighted to open my first Flood and Coast 2024 this past June - a really special one so close to a general election.

CIWEM is all about People, Planet, Possibility. We look forward to this conference all year long, as it is the chance to exchange with so many of our members, to learn from each and every one of you, and to share ideas and solutions to address flood risks in a forward-thinking, sustainable way.

Flooding in the news again

Flooding has once again affected Britain massively this past winter. During Storm Babet, over 150 rivers had record water levels and 2,200 homes were flooded. We are already seeing the effect of climate change, with storms increasing in both frequency and intensity,

causing devastating flash floods, and with sea-level rise threatening more of our coastline each year.

More than ever we need to come together, to collaborate and partner to bring about solutions to these threats and risks. It felt so important to sit in the same room, listen to one another, network and connect. We heard some wonderful innovations and solutions, with case studies of good practice implemented on the ground which yielded results we can take inspiration from.

Ushering in a new generation of talent

We were not trained on these challenges we are facing and only now are we able to discern what these situations require. But we need to continue learning throughout our professional careers. This also means questioning the way

we have worked until today, and challenging ourselves to continually improve.

Part of this challenge is answered by new generations coming into our industry. Young professionals are quick to learn, but are also able to ask the right questions and to bring their understanding of new technologies and of environmental challenges to help us develop innovative solutions. That’s why the early career zone, gratefully sponsored by Aecom, was so exciting, as it’s all about welcoming new people to our industry, providing the space to share ideas and support learning of new skills to take that forward-thinking role in our businesses.

Conference highlights

On Day 1, we got to hear about future challenges in flood and coastal risk management, resilience and integrated water management. It was the opportunity for everyone to discover and discuss CIWEM’s Coastal Change report: Postcards From the Edge, highlighting perspectives from across Britain and the world, and the challenges to come regarding coastal flooding and erosion.

The awards dinner, in conjunction with our sponsor WSP Binnies, is important in recognising and awarding excellence in our sector, and the Spotlight Awards delivered on this front. It was wonderful to see a packed room support the leading lights of this community, and celebrating success.

And with the Women in FCERM networking event, we have a burgeoning movement that plays a key role in gender parity – something that encourages new perspectives and an important shift towards a level playing field based on skill, experience, knowledge and leadership.

Members at the heart of CIWEM Collaboration is important as we bring our voices together within the sector to government. By identifying collaborative solutions that are proven and tested in flood management, coastal erosion and preservation of our watercourses and natural environment, you are all part of the solution.

Being part of the CIWEM family strengthens your water and environmental career and brings a host of opportunities. No matter where you are in life, we are the go-to hub at all stages of your career, whether student or seasoned professional.

CIWEM membership is a chance to:

⬛ Enhance your expertise: Access a comprehensive programme of training workshops aligned with your specific field.

⬛ Connect with specialists: Participate in targeted industry groups and panels to collaborate with fellow professionals.

⬛ Shape policy development: Contribute to impactful community projects that influence policy.

⬛ Expand your network: Build valuable connections and access mentorship opportunities.

With exclusive access to:

⬛ Expert-led webinars: Gain insights from industry leaders and stay current on critical trends.

“Being part of the CIWEM family strengthens your water and environmental career and brings

a host of opportunities. No matter where you are in life, we are the go-to hub at all stages of your career, whether student or seasoned professional”

⬛ Regular industry events: Network with colleagues and gain valuable knowledge through year-round events.

⬛ Extensive publications: Stay informed with access to esteemed magazines, journals, newsletters and podcasts.

CIWEM membership equips you with the resources and connections to excel. Explore the membership section within this magazine to learn more.

Gratitude to all our leading lights

Thanks to the Environment Agency, The Rivers Trust, the Rivers & Coastal Group and the Urban Drainage Group for being our strategic partners this year, and to AtkinsRéalis, Jacobs and Van Oord, our gold sponsors. Flood & Coast would not be possible without you.

I’d also like to thank our presidential team, Bushra Hussain, Hannah Burgess and Emily Clarke, for pitching in, speaking up and contributing to this great edition.

Finally, big congratulations to the CIWEM team for organising this conference, particularly to Darren Eckford, Olga Nielsen, Natalia Jurkun, Hilary Robinson, Elroy Marques, Marieke Muller, Diana Hunt and Maria Jesipova, who have done most of the heavy lifting regarding the logistics of this event.

And a massive thank you to all of you for your continued participation in this truly unique occasion.

We look forward to bringing you more exciting events, both in person and online.

Anna Daroy Chief executive, CIWEM

Strategic partners

Environment Agency (EA)

The Environment Agency, established in 1996, is a non-departmental public body in England responsible for protecting and improving the environment. Funded by the government, it works to ensure clean air, water and land. The EA manages flood risks, issues environmental permits, and promotes sustainable development. They also monitor pollution levels, maintain waterways and raise public awareness about environmental issues.

The Rivers Trust

The Rivers Trust is an umbrella organisation for a network of independent charities across England and Wales, each focused on a specific river catchment. These charities work to improve the health of their local rivers through conservation projects, habitat restoration and public awareness campaigns. They might work on removing invasive species, improving water quality or promoting sustainable river use by businesses and individuals. The Rivers Trust provides support and coordination to these local charities, promoting collaboration and knowledge sharing across river systems.

CIWEM Rivers & Coastal Group (RCG)

CIWEM’s Rivers & Coastal Group (RCG) is another professional network within the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM). RCG’s area of expertise lies in the management and protection of rivers and coastlines. This includes flood risk management for rivers, coastal erosion control and maintaining healthy river ecosystems. RCG members are involved in projects like river restoration, planning for sustainable flood management infrastructure and promoting good practice for managing waterways.

CIWEM’s Urban Drainage Group (UDG)

Similar to the RCG, CIWEM’s Urban Drainage Group (UDG) is a professional network within CIWEM. UDG focuses on promoting good practice and knowledge sharing in urban drainage management. This includes rainwater runoff control, stormwater overflows, surface water flood risk management in urban areas, designing and retrofitting sustainable drainage systems. UDG facilitates collaboration between professionals, publishes guidance documents and organises events for education and training.

Interested in partnering with CIWEM events?

CHOOSING TO BE a strategic partner for one of our flagship events, like Flood & Coast or the Urbain Drainage Group conference, allows you to better understand the overarching themes and direction that everyone will engage with. It also demonstrates your organisation’s commitment to sustainability, advancing your industry and

advocating for the most pressing issues. The events team will work with you to create the profile your organisation needs to build your place in the industry as a responsible and sustainable operation. If you would like to know more about the programme for our upcoming events, please contact olga.nielsen@ciwem.org.

Our sponsors

GOLD SPONSORS

Setting the gold standard

FLOOD & COAST would not be possible without the support and collaboration of all our Gold, Silver, and Bronze sponsors. We ensure that each sponsor can bring their own expertise and passion to our delegates’ experience, whether it’s inspiring new generations, sharing their industry-leading projects on stage in front of hundreds,

recognising the achievements of their peers, helping to create interactive workshops and roundtables that engage people in new and novel ways or raising brand awareness. We caught up with our gold sponsors to find out why they continue to support our sector-leading event and what flood and coast does for their organisation.

Van Oord shares its experience…

VAN OORD UK was delighted to support the 2024 Flood and Coast Conference as Gold Sponsor. As one of the UK’s leading dredging and marine contractors we understand the importance of meeting together face to face to discuss and share current challenges and successes in flood and coastal erosion risk management. At this year’s event it was great to see Women in FCERM gain momentum and we are proud to be a part of this initiative.

Our company has been established in the UK since 1924 and specialises in capital and maintenance dredging, coastal protection, port development, land reclamation and outfall installation. In addition, Van Oord’s fully owned subsidiary company, JT Mackley Construction, has been established for over 90 years and specialises in the delivery of civil engineering projects in the coastal,

fluvial, waste, water, ports, harbour, energy and infrastructure sectors.

Our skilled professionals have an unrivalled experience and deep understanding of coastal and marine construction projects in the UK. We are able to draw upon the expertise of over 5000 dedicated employees and a state of the art fleet of marine equipment. This ensures flexibility to provide appropriate resources for the variety of projects encountered in the dredging and marine contracting sphere. Our operations are supported by our internal Engineering Department, who develop cost effective and environmentally sensitive solutions for our projects.

We understand collaboration is essential to achieving best results. We work closely with our clients, supply chain and stakeholders to ensure we deliver value solutions and exceed expectations.

Van Oord was one of the first contractors to partner with the Environment Agency for the delivery of their coastal infrastructure projects and continues to do so on their Marine and Coastal Framework (MCF).

To date Van Oord has been successful in delivering 100% of the MCF programme. Major coastal protection schemes executed by Van Oord include:

⬛ Saltfleet to Gibraltar Point Beach Management;

⬛ Lincolnshire Beach Management;

⬛ Hythe Ranges Sea Defence;

⬛ Lydd Ranges Sea Defence;

⬛ Bacton to Walcott Sandscaping;

⬛ Shoreham Adur Tidal Walls Scheme;

⬛ Broomhill Sands Coastal Defence Scheme; and

⬛ Happisburgh to Winterton.

Our focus is always on identifying and delivering sustainable solutions for our clients and we are committed to ensuring that sustainability is a prime consideration at every stage of the project. We are committed to achieving Net Zero Carbon and are proactively putting forwards lower carbon solutions. We play an active role in caring for the planet by focusing on solutions that enhance the environment both now and in the future. Through working in partnership with renowned research institutes and universities, Van Oord continues to develop environmental innovations, for instance the Van Oord Guards programme. We encourage and support our teams to be innovative and develop work methods that are sympathetic to the environment and deliver net biodiversity gain and community benefit.

Marine ingenuity is what sets Van Oord apart. Thanks to the ingenious mind and passionate hearts of our employees, we develop smart solutions that both protect and enhance the environment and communities during our work.

Exhibition news

Showcase Magazine sponsors enjoy debut Flood & Coast

A E YATES LTD is a Bolton-based £100m turnover civil engineering and tunnelling contractor, established in 1870, with a long-standing reputation for successfully delivering works of general civil engineering construction. Sister company SPI Piling also joined them to exhibit

at Flood & Coast this year, where they spoke with other organisations and individuals about how they can collectively protect communities from flooding and find new solutions to innovate the water sector.

A spokesperson for A E Yates added: “Thank you to everyone

who visited our exhibition stand! A E Yates Ltd. look forward to meeting new and existing partners at Flood & Coast 2025. We are delighted to sponsor this year’s Showcase Magazine and we thank CIWEM for the opportunity to discover new projects in this sector”.

Waterman Aspen lead on career development in sector

ATTENDING THEIR THIRD Flood & Coast, Waterman Aspen welcomes engineers and technical specialists to make their mark on some of the

biggest infrastructure projects across the UK on a secondment basis. They are experts in building careers and providing technical expertise to their clients for the past 30 years.

“Put simply, we provide the right people, with the right skills for the job, at the right time – for as long as our clients need them”, said Hayley Sharp, marketing and communications director at Waterman Aspen.

“We really enjoy this event, it’s one

of our favourite events of the year. The venue is amazing – it’s a really good one for us to be at,” she added.

When quizzed on what she most enjoyed about being here, Sharp said: “It’s the people. Everyone is so nice. We also really like the environmental sustainability of the event, around how people get here, the location, and everyone’s stands are sustainable concepts, so that’s really important.”

Nature positive outcomes in critical infrastructure

THE WORLD ECONOMIC Forum identifies nature-positive approaches as a ‘real paradigm shift in how nations, businesses, investors and consumers view nature’. A nature positive approach enriches biodiversity, stores carbon, purifies water and reduces pandemic risk, and enhances the resilience of our planet and our societies.

Nature-positive infrastructure, including where we use nature-based solutions, is crucial for sustainable development. It provides:

Biodiversity enhancement: Naturepositive infrastructure focuses on integrating natural ecosystems into design rather than merely minimising environmental impact. By building with nature instead of around it, we can protect and even enhance biodiversity.

Climate change mitigation and resilience: Nature-based infrastructure solutions contribute to climate adaptation by safeguarding communities and infrastructure from climate change impacts, for example by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. By incorporating natural elements, we also enhance the infrastructure’s ability to withstand shocks and adapt

to changing conditions.

Social benefits, including health, recreational and economic: Naturebased infrastructure delivers costeffective, climate-resilient services while providing additional benefits for people. These benefits include reduced air pollution, improved well-being and a more sustainable environment. The economic benefits also include unlocking new business opportunities and creating new revenue streams.

At Jacobs, we see that climate change, biodiversity loss and social inequality are among the biggest global crises today. How we respond to them requires all of us to work together – governments, businesses, communities and individuals. We are fully committed and have a pivotal role to play – both in how we operate our business and in the climate action, decarbonization and sustainability solutions we implement in partnership with our clients to benefit people and the planet.

Nature-positive outcomes, including those deriving from nature-based solutions are a key part of this. We see every day as an opportunity to create

a more connected, sustainable world.

As part of the Council for Sustainable Business’ Get Nature Positive campaign, Jacobs was invited to author the Building and Infrastructure: Design chapter of the Nature Positive Handbook, shining a light on the impact of business on nature and the actions to help reverse biodiversity loss.

In the handbook we outline the importance of considering how future building and infrastructure projects limit further degradation of the environment. For buildings and infrastructure to be produced more sustainably, designers must plan for this from the inception of a project. They need to consider the types of materials used and how they can be recycled, reused, repaired and maintained.

You can view and download our chapter here: https://www.jacobs. com/nature-positive-handbookbuildings-and-infrastructure-design

Award winning Tetra Tech on importance of brand awareness

ROBERT BRAMWELL-CARR, Tetra Tech’s head of flood risk management, enthused: “We are really excited to be here. Tetra Tech is globally renowned for its capability in flood risk, sustainability and climate resilience, and has been hugely successful in the UK over the past few years. This event is about brand awareness and showing what we can offer in adapting and responding to the risks we face from climate change.”

Recently, the Climate Change Business Journal (CCBJ) and Environmental Business Journal (EBJ) recognised Tetra Tech for

outstanding business and project achievement advancing climate resilience, innovation, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in 2023. The awards continued to come in 2024 for project achievement in emerging contaminants, forest conversation, energy efficiency, and sustainable building design at the Environmental Industry Summit XXII in California.

For over 50 years, they have been Leading with Science ® in the flood sector, covering flood risk management and mitigation, including nature-based solutions and sustainable urban drainage.

AR Sandbox brings new dimensions to natural flood management

British construction experts Kier crucial partners to EA

BACK AT THEIR popular stand this year, which served up delicious, barista-brewed coffees to thirsty delegates, Kier are proud to also be part of a major Environment Agency framework. Kier are joined by contractors including Bam Nuttall and consultancies such as Jacobs, Arup, and AtkinsRéalis, as they unite on the collaborativedelivery framework through to 2027 as part of the EA’s £5.2bn capital investment programme.

The four-year commitment enables the EA and delivery partners to further invest in future skills and technologies, and continue to deliver additional levels of floodrisk protection to an increasing number of vulnerable communities.

Site agent/chartered engineer (CEng) with Kier, Jack Walker, who works in the south-west hub with the collaborative framework, added, on the aims of the conference: “We’re also looking at other partners, in terms of suppliers and also other products that are available.”

THE AUGMENTED REALITY Sandbox is a visualisation tool that shows how topography affects water moving through a catchment. By shaping real sand, people create their own catchments which are then ‘augmented’ in real time by a projector which shows a coloured elevation map and contour lines.

People can then ‘make it rain’ and watch how the virtual water flows through the catchment in real time, exploring how changes in land use affect flooding.

JBA Trust and The Rivers Trust are exploring how the AR Sandbox can be used to show natural flood management concepts, including the impact of woodland, storage ponds and river restoration.

Celebrating success at Flood and Coast

IT WAS GREAT to be involved again as Gold Sponsor in another successful Flood and Coast Conference in Telford. AtkinsRéalis continue to promote and support what we feel is the premier conference and exhibition in the sector. In addition to our Gold Sponsor role, we jointly sponsor the networking lounge with our South West Hub partner Kier and supported Aecom with the Early Careers and Education Zone.

The AtkinsRéalis main stand content reflected the different themes across the 3 days – Environment Agency: Flood and Coast Futures (Day 1) Rivers and Nature Based Solutions (Day 2) and Surface Water and Integrated

Catchment Management (Day 3). We focused on projects we were delivering across the flood and coastal sector including showcasing the work we are delivering on the Bridgwater Tidal Barrier on 3D aspects of design coordination, spatial planning and crane lift simulation, and also virtual site access. Details of our RATS digital tool, which delivers efficiencies by automatically generating sewer and drain pipeline rehabilitation schemes, were also presented through an interactive culvert assessment quiz. We also covered the important area of water quality looking at bathing water modelling and an impact of storm overflows on bathing water animation.

Details of the Water Quality Stocktake project were presented along with an emerging chemicals quiz, as well as Sustainable River Management issues. We also shared the work we have been doing with UK water companies to retrofit green blue infrastructure and sustainable drainage systems across the country through our trailblazing SUDs for Schools initiative. This year, we had a strong contingent from our early careers professionals, who made a significant contribution to the conference. They kicked off the first workshop of the conference by sharing flood risk and river management knowledge for graduates and young professionals. They were also available to talk to early career professionals at the AtkinsRéalis stand in the Early Careers and Education Zone and additionally, participated in four presentations.

One of the highlights of the conference is always the gala dinner on the Wednesday evening. This was a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the collective achievements of the flood and coastal family. It was great to recognise the contribution of those selected for the Women in FCRM awards and the new Spotlight Awards. We were delighted that our AtkinsRéalis colleagues Vera Jones – in the People Category – and Paul Canning in the Planet Category were highly commended!

THE PLAYFUL PROBLEM-SOLVER: creative solutions for real-world challenges

DR ED BARSLEY of the Environmetal Design Studio entertained attendees of the CIWEM Spotlight Awards with the story behind the Flood Re: Flood Resilient Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. Author of the pioneering book Retrofitting for Flood Resilience:

A Guide to Building & Community Design, Barsley is also supporting the Lego Flood House campaign and the Climate Creatives Challenge, a global initiative serving as a catalyst for innovation in climate communication. This international design competition supports new and novel approaches for communicating the impacts of climate change and the benefits of mitigation, adaptation and resilience.

Blossoming with ideas

Flooding is a major concern in the UK, about five million homes are at risk of flooding causing significant distress, damage and disruption.

Barsley and Naomi Slade joined forces at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show to design a stunning garden that offers a perfect blend of beauty, functionality and flood resilience. Ideal for families, it provides an enjoyable space while also being prepared for heavy rainfall. This garden aims to inspire and empower homeowners with practical, attractive solutions to futureproof their gardens and mitigate the disruptions caused by flooding.

Supported by Flood Re, the Flood Resilient Garden won a silver medal for ‘Best Show Garden’, with its lush green features and pops of vibrant colour, blended with toughness and adaptability to different soil conditions. A large apple tree exemplifies the use of slopes for improved drainage, while a variety of pond and bog plants thrive in varying water levels.

Happy camper

Climate Campers is a social venture on a mission to champion low-carbon, eco-friendly exploration. Their flagship, FLO, is a fully electric campervan built from the award-winning VW ID Buzz platform. Demonstrating how FLO embodies the vision of a future where camping and expeditions are free from fossil fuels, Barsley exhibited the vehicle within Flood & Coast’s exhibition space this year.

These innovative electric campers seamlessly blend cutting-edge technology with sustainable materials, creating a one-of-a-kind experience for adventurers who care about our planet. Climate Campers goes beyond offering unique rentals – they actively support the environmental movement. Each year, a portion of their campervan fleet is dedicated to climate-focused charities and initiatives, amplifying their critical work.

The LEGO Flood House: Building Flood Resilience Together

The LEGO Flood House is a groundbreaking concept that uses the power of play to educate communities about flood resilience. It features two side-by-side houses: one susceptible to flood damage, the other demonstrating a variety of flood-resistant features. These resilient elements are clearly shown, allowing families to visualise how they can better protect their homes from flooding.

This innovative project seeks 10,000 supporters on the LEGO Ideas platform to become a real LEGO set. This would create a widely accessible, fun and educational tool for everyone, from families to flood risk management (FCERM) professionals.

“Fantastic idea! Would love one for SuDS and NBS in a development or catchment”

The LEGO Flood House is designed to be a versatile, user-friendly, and cost-effective solution for FCERM projects. It empowers professionals to explain flood resilience concepts in a clear and portable way, facilitating discussions within communities.

This initiative is a collaborative effort between Blue Heart, the Environmental Design Studio, and the Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme. Funding is provided by Defra’s £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programmes, managed by the Environment Agency. This programme aims to drive innovation in climate adaptation and build resilience against floods and coastal threats.

CIWEM’s director of innovation and delivery, Paul Shaffer, is a big fan, stating: “Fantastic idea! Would love one for SuDS and NBS in a development or catchment. Please show your support for the LEGO Flood House and help raise awareness of flood resilience.

A

E Yates Group – delivering in construction since 1870

A E Yates Group are experienced in the water sector; as a contractor we aim to give back to the environment and the local community through social value and sustainable methods

A E YATES GROUP is an environmentally friendly principal contractor; our mission to Net Zero 2030 involves finding innovative methods and new technologies to reduce carbon emissions and protect wildlife on all our projects.

For example, our A595 Moresby major project is now a carbon neutral scheme. We achieved this through planting 13,028 trees, reusing 22,040T of inert material on site, we saved 1,520 litres of fuel by using solar power and we ensured a reduction of 6F5 by 10,000T through redesign. Where possible, we aim to make all our projects carbon neutral.

With the ever-increasing challenge of climate change, flooding is becoming a prevalent issue for communities. At A E Yates Group, our workforce is highly skilled in flood prevention and during and after our works, we ensure that properties, wildlife and people are protected.

The health and safety of people is important to us, and we understand that clean water supply keeps people healthy and plays a huge part in our local economies. We are collaborating with partners such as United Utilities to keep your water quality the best it can be.

A E Yates Group have extensive experience in piling, civil engineering and infrastructure works which enables us to build resilient structures and places that will last and withstand drastic weather conditions caused by climate change.

Waterworks that our skilled workforce have completed are eel passageways, reservoirs/spillways, repairing canals and rivers, building attenuation ponds, constructing and maintaining debris screens, reconstructing water courses and more. All these projects protect the local environment, and some prevent the threat of flooding.

Our industry leading social value involves improving public spaces and giving back to charities, schools and community groups around our projects. At A E Yates Group, we are a contractor that cares, and we constantly try to improve the local areas in which we work. As a principal contractor, we try to use local contractors and employ local people to boost local economies.

A E Yates Group will exhibit at Flood & Coast 2025, and we are eager to discuss with partners how we implement new innovative methods to improve the water sector and the environment.

SUSTAINABILITY EXAMPLES

https://aeyates.co.uk/ sustainability/a-e-yates-andpartners-planted-2361-trees-atmoresby-cumbria/

https://aeyates.co.uk/ sustainability/aey-group-carbonreduction-plan/

https://aeyates.co.uk/ sustainability/building-today-fora-better-tomorrow/

https://aeyates.co.uk/ sustainability/playing-a-part-toimprove-our-environment/

https://aeyates.co.uk/ sustainability/paving-the-way/

https://aeyates.co.uk/ sustainability/investing-in-thefuture/

Event highlights

The John O’Neill Otter Trophy: New Generations Competition

THE JOHN O’NEILL Otter Trophy: New Generations Competition is hosted by the CIWEM Tyne and Humber Branch. Graduate hydrologist and hydraulic modeller, Clover Misra, presented on a flood alleviation scheme, displaying some highly innovative flood management that earned her a free

ticket to the conference and the John Otter Trophy.

A delighted Clover stated: “I had a wonderful time meeting professionals from across the water industry. It was a great opportunity to attend the various workshops and talks and network with industry

AND THE AWARD GOES TO…

EVERY YEAR THE CIWEM Rivers & Coastal Group (RCG) committee present the Jack Lewin prize to someone who has made a significant contribution to the rivers and coastal sector. Chair of the RCG, David Mould, presented the prize to Women in FCERM founder and general Flood & Coast legend, Clare Dinnis, who joined the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) at the start of 2024 after spending pretty most of her career to date working for the Environment Agency.

Clare has had a stellar career and Shropshire locals may recognise her from 2022’s floods at Ironbridge, where she characteristically spent time on the

experts. I also had the pleasure to meet the CEO of CIWEM, Anna Daroy, and chatted to her about my experience. I am especially thankful to CIWEM, Rob Berry and Richard Whiteley for organising the competition and giving me this fantastic opportunity!”

frontline to assist the safety of residents and to protect properties at risk.

See the videos to hear from David and Clare:

BUILDING TOWARDS A CONFERENCE INCLUSIVE AND ACCESSIBLE FOR ALL

ONE OF CIWEM’S core themes of the conference was around the inclusivity and accessibility of the venue choice.

CIWEM junior president Emily Clarke is a big advocate of bringing a quiet zone, or space, to this conference from next year: “This would be a dedicated area for neurodivergent people, and anyone else in need of time away from the melee of the conference, to take some time to unwind. A quiet zone would enable people like me to spend energy on networking, knowing there is a quiet and calm spot away from it all, where they can go to recharge their batteries. I believe this would help to ensure that Flood & Coast is even more accessible and welcoming of the needs of neurodivergent individuals.

For those interested in sponsoring such a space, you can get in touch with anyone on the CIWEM executive team.

Dr Jessica Fox of Hull University attended the conference after recently returning from maternity leave and had concerns initially around the accessibility for her as a wheelchair user. Her mind was changed at the event itself, however. “I was pleasantly surprised how well the space worked for me,” she said. “I’d like to encourage other wheelchair users to come in future and I am keen to work with CIWEM to promote this.”

CIWEM GOES CINEMATIC WITH NEW DIGITAL SERIES

CIWEM IS PARTNERING with Content With Purpose (CWP) to produce a wide-ranging digital series championing the profound role of water and environment professionals in developing widespread, impactful solutions for our changing world.

The announcement marks four years from CIWEM’s debut series with CWP, Adapting For Tomorrow, which has attracted 847,000 views and 8.3 million impressions since its release.

Through a combination of inspiring, future-focused content, including interviews and short films, The Ripple Effect: Inspiring a Resilient Environment will showcase the guardians of our environment and the solutions unlocking a more resilient, thriving future for all life on Earth.

Putting people at its core, the series will meet the communities bearing the impacts of our changing climate. This is changemakers across business, local authorities, academia and government creating possibilities for a better world, as well as educators and young people who are shaping a workforce fit for the future.

CIWEM and CWP were delighted to preview the film at Flood & Coast in June 2024, as part of CIWEM’s strategic shift towards a storytelling focus. This approach is crucial to creating the awareness required to

deliver real change and encourage a collaborative approach from the sector, as well as motivate and inspire the sizeable membership of nearly 11,500 currently within CIWEM.

Alex Tuck, head of content at CIWEM said: “We’re hugely proud of our members’ bold and ambitious resolve in tackling the climate and ecological crises, but the challenges facing our planet are a force to be reckoned with, and this shared crisis demands collective solutions. It is vital that we take this defining moment in history to seize every ounce of possibility to secure a positive future for our planet. We are delighted to be partnering with CWP to inspire action among our members and beyond for a safer, more sustainable world.”

On the purpose behind the series, Max Smith, founder and managing director of CWP, said: “Water and environmental professionals hold the key to solutions to major vulnerabilities threatening our existence. It is a privilege to create this series which we hope will demonstrate the power of possibility and remind every corner of this sector and all those who play into it that a better future is within our grasp.”

‘The Ripple Effect: Inspiring a Resilient Environment’ is due for launch on 23 September 2024. Watch the film here.

Groundbreaking new documentary airs at conference

WE WERE ALSO delighted to host a special screening of groundbreaking new documentary Our Blue World. From the creators of the Netflix documentary Brave Blue World, this latest film explores humanity’s profound relationship with water and reveal how human agency can help rebalance the planet’s water systems.

By taking a deep dive into the lives of dynamic and visionary people around the world, this beautiful, eyeopening and moving film sets out to reveal our profound relationship with water and its role as the nourishing life force for all that lives on this planet.

The documentary explores how water acts as the vehicle through which the effects of climate change

will be felt. Extreme droughts, floods, fires, loss of biodiversity, pollution and global warming are on the increase. Our Blue World will show that through a small shift in consciousness and practice, we can all effect enormous positive change, and rebalance and regenerate life on earth.

The goal is to demonstrate how by relearning the wisdom of our ancestors and fusing it with modern science and technology, we can transform this world for the better.

This film was supported by partners Water Environment Federation, World Wildlife Fund, AB InBev, Procter and Gamble, Sciens Capital, UNFAO, Imagine H20 and water.org. Watch the film here.

CIWEM trustee reflections

By Annie Shepperd OBE, CIWEM chair of the trustee board

IT WAS A real pleasure to open Day 2 of Flood & Coast 2024.

I have worked on climate change for many years, and I’m always appreciative of the dedication and energy that everyone working on such risks brings to event like this one.

At CIWEM, we believe in a world in which professionalism and excellence build connections to inspire widespread, impactful water and environmental solutions. Flood & Coast is the perfect illustration of that world we went to build and see thrive.

Integrated approach key to progress

Day 2 focused on nature-based solutions (NBS) and the importance of collaboration and flexibility to build the right solutions for each unique ecosystem and location. Natural flood management is about protecting our infrastructure and

livelihoods from flood damage while unlocking all the environmental benefits that improve our biodiversity and help our rivers stay clean.

Earlier this year, CIWEM facilitated some research and published a report, A Fresh Water Future, which is all about these approaches. The findings of the report portray the opportunity to approach water management - droughts, drainage and water resources, water quality, pollution and flooding in a holistic way, rather

At CIWEM, we believe in a world in which professionalism and excellence build connections to inspire widespread, impactful water and environmental solutions

than seeing them as separate, or even opposite issues. Combined, sustainable and multi-beneficial approaches are necessary because we cannot manage flooding without acknowledging interactions with climate change, land use and communities.

Day 2 saw some wonderful presentations on the multiple benefits of NBS, their flexibility and their adaptability. It also revealed all we have to gain from embracing ecosystems services and how to identify the opportunities to develop nature-based solutions using the right tools and data.

The afternoon was delivery-oriented, with a session discussing funding opportunities for NBS and one on collaboration with communities to ensure strong local buy-in and maintenance.

New perspectives

I was also delighted hear the point of view of farmer Andrew Metcalfe. In our industry, like in pretty much any work, it’s easy to get caught up in our own ideas and concerns. It is therefore really refreshing and necessary to be able to exchange with the other actors that need to be involved in both local and catchmentlevel green solutions.

Outside of the main plenary sessions, there were also ample opportunities to engage with various topics, from leaky dams to chartership, in workshops throughout the day.

A big thank you to The Rivers Trust – and its chief executive Mark Lloyd – who were Flood & Coast’s strategic partner for the second day. They have been instrumental in finding a wide variety of speakers and in designing the day’s programme. Thanks also to Flood & Coast’s Advisory Group, David Mould, chair of CIWEM’s Rivers & Coastal Group and James Hale, chair of CIWEM’s Urban Drainage Group, for their efforts on the event programme. And to all our CIWEM staff, a huge thank you for your contributions to another record-breaking Flood & Coast!

Conference

DAY 1: FLOOD AND COAST FUTURES

Roundups

BEFORE YOU CAN come up with a solution, you need to understand the scale of the problem. Day 1 of Flood & Coast felt like an attempt to do just that, with experts from across the public, private and charity sector coming together to stress the gravity of the challenges we face – as a sector, a nation and a global community – as we respond to the impacts of the climate and biodiversity crises.

The statistics shared by speakers on the day – whether on record-busting rainfall events, sea level rises or drought – should have been shocking. But we have become almost unshockable these days, so often are we hit with this sort of data. Still, it certainly worked to focus the mind on the task at hand. As CIWEM’s director of policy Alastair Chisolm put it in his opening to the conference: “Never more have we so needed to run together.”

That need for collaboration, partnership and new ways of working came up again and again over the course of the day. Professor Anusha Shah, president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, spoke passionately about bringing business, insurance, energy and finance along for the ride if we’re to succeed in rolling out the nature-based solutions (NBS) required to increase our resilience to climate change. Rob Goodliffe of the Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme (CTAP) talked about the importance of straightforward, honest engagement with communities threatened with

coastal erosion. While Jo Harrison of United Utilities introduced Natural Course, an ambitious multi-partner project to improve rivers and the water environment in the NW of England.

Natural Course and the CTAP, along with several inspiring examples of large-scale NBS that the RSPB has led on, offered a sense of what’s possible when things come together in the right way. These types of projects are transforming landscapes, meeting the needs of communities and ecosystems, and fostering resilience to climate change.

It was clear from the discussions on the day, however, that this type of working is still the exception rather than the rule in the water and wider environmental sector. There was a palpable sense of frustration at the lack of progress: “What is holding us back?” asked Beccy Speight of the RSPB. “What would it take for us to do more? How can we get more of this happening, and faster?”

Various theories were mooted over the course of the day: for Arup’s Will McBain, the issue is a funding and policy

That need for collaboration, partnership and new ways of working came up again and again over the course of the day

by Jo Caird, editor, The Environment

environment that doesn’t match the “energy and dynamism” of the sector. Prof. Shah laid the blame at the door of the frameworks governing how the sector works, calling for an overhaul: “Let’s not be subservient to process,” she suggested. Skills – or rather a lack thereof – came up many times, from both speakers and the floor during Q&As. From the kindness and empathy required (just don’t call them

Fitting then, after all the day’s talk of collaboration and engagement, for CIWEM junior president Emily Clarke to round off proceedings with a call for greater inclusivity in our sector

‘soft skills’, said Prof. Shah) for reaching marginalised communities, to the technical skills missing within overstretched RMAs, to how to embolden ‘rogue’ players with the potential to shake up existing systems and make real change, there’s clearly much to do here, and delegates had plenty of suggestions for where to start. It’s an issue we’ll be exploring in an upcoming issue of The Environment, so do get in touch at theenvironment@ciwem.org if you’re keen to share your views with the membership.

Fitting then, after all the day’s talk of collaboration and engagement, for CIWEM junior president Emily Clarke to round off proceedings with a call for greater inclusivity in our sector. As we rise to meet the challenges we face, we’re going to need as a wide a range of voices as we can find.

IF DAY 1 was largely painting in broad brushstrokes, day two was an opportunity to fill in some more detail on how nature-based solutions (NBS) can, and must, be employed to solve the various crises that we face.

Delegates heard from Mark Lloyd of The Rivers Trust and Nik Perepelov of Water UK about how NBS have the potential to deliver on multiple goals simultaneously – from flood mitigation to carbon capture to water treatment to biodiversity loss to increased community cohesion

and wellness. Having begun my day, alongside 50 other delegates, on an ecology and wellness walk around Telford Town Park led by Emma Stevens of Binnies, those goals were fresh in my mind.

This is a double-edged sword, however, as it’s harder to evaluate the results of a holistic solution than a single engineered solution. How to press ahead with mainstreaming NBS (the fact that delegates have had enough of pilots rang out loud and clear!) while also gathering the evidence

DAY 2: WATER AND US: CHARTING OUR COURSE TO SUCCESS

required to ensure that organisations are able to proceed without incurring excessive risk, felt like a very live debate, and one that will surely continue beyond the conference in the following weeks, months and years.

How to fund NBS at scale was also much discussed, with speakers advocating a tantalising range of solutions. These went from adopting a more dogged approach to utilising existing pots of funding, to overhauling funding frameworks to better suit the holistic nature of NBS, to creating publicprivate partnerships to access investment from business. There are no easy options here, and the sums required for catchment-scale initiatives will be huge – but if all Day 1’s talk of embracing a systems approach comes good, it feels like the funding could and should follow from there.

The final piece of the puzzle is people: the communities who will be living alongside and benefitting from these NBS. Speakers agreed on how engaging local people is key to the success of NBS, from calling on local knowledge early in the design process to ensure that schemes are fit for purpose; to creating momentum that encourages buy-in by landowners; to leaning on community groups for maintenance.

Lia Moutselou of the Consumer Council of Water quoted a survey of water customers that suggested that people are willing to pay up to £40 annually to enable greater investment in NBS. While this data is very encouraging as far as public

Take the time – and spend the money – to get it right, however, and your nature-based project has a much higher chance of success, whichever metric you’re measuring by

perception is concerned in general terms, no one on the day was under any illusion that the argument has been won when it comes to actually getting schemes implemented. Getting people on side is time-consuming, labour-intensive work that can’t be rushed, whether that’s hard-to-reach, marginalised communities distrustful of both the water sector and government, or farmers who feel like they’re being asked to take a leap of faith when parcelling out land for NBS.

Take the time – and spend the money – to get it right, however, and your nature-based project has a much higher chance of success, whichever metric you’re measuring by. This was movingly brought to life in testimony from Aimee Brough of Groundwork Greater Manchester and Habib Khan of Meristem Design about the good that has come from their respective organisations’ engagement with communities. At the end of an intense day of discussion on policy, strategy and funding, it felt fitting to move the focus onto the people at the beginning and end of the process.

DAY 3: COLLABORATING TO DELIVER BETTER SURFACE WATER MANAGEMENT

SURFACE WATER RUNOFF and its management was the core theme of the third and final day of the conference. This meant considering the four core pillars of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS): water quality, water quantity, amenity and biodiversity. Surface water is the fastest growing source of flood risk and links directly to the massive investment in storm overflows management.

The day’s programme was curated for the third time by CIWEM’s Urban Drainage Group (UDG), with input from Jonathan Cutting, Stantec’s technical director, Paul Shaffer, CIWEM’s director of innovation and delivery and James Hale, smart wastewater director at Environmental Monitoring Solutions, who opened the conference as chair. On the content for the day, Cutting said: “Each year, we have a larger audience. What drives that larger audience is that we have a much more integrated programme of content and contributors. It enables us to link up much better between the regulated, large water company urban drainage processes, and the broader, more collaborative picture of modern urban drainage management.”

The first session was on ‘Mainstreaming Better Surface Water Management’. Here a panel representing key stakeholders involved in drainage discussed how the sector can consistently deliver improved surface water management and enable good practice when implementing SuDS.

Vikki Keeble, co-chair of the Association of SuDS Authorities (ASA), wanted to encourage “preparedness in terms of evidence base to improve engagement with the Schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management

Action consultation when it arrives”. She also advocated knowledge sharing across Lead Local Flood Authorities, while the panel agreed that it is critical to get SuDS incorporated early in the master planning stage.

David Faichney, policy advisor for the Scottish government, added that “managing drainage in future will be as much about the design of our places as it will be about the design of drainage systems”. Integrated blue, green and grey municipal drainage networks were identified as priorities, and the climate adaptation planning for drainage and rainwater management at the town/city scale was set as a must-do strategic activity. SuDS as a method to tackle urban pollution and CSO spill was also a popular idea.

Looking into delivery in session two, there was a focus on how organisations can and are effectively working in partnership to unlock multiple outcomes. Last year’s winner of UDG’s WaPUG Prize, Martin Osbourne, stated that “engagement is an end-to-end process. It isn’t just in the strategic planning stage. Don’t expect the strategic plan to deliver it all. All stakeholders need to engage with drainage planning”.

With mandatory SuDS, associated standards and adoption routes potentially coming to England, other

“Each

year, we have a larger audience. What drives that larger audience is that we have a much more integrated programme of content and contributors”

government policy objectives are pointing towards a need for extensive SuDS retrofitting. In session three, Ian Russell and Jamie Kukadia of Enfield Borough Council had a great example of a SuDS scheme that pioneered the use of constructed wetlands to mitigate the impact of diffuse urban pollution on local rivers, as well as reducing flood risk and creating improved spaces for people and wildlife.

Adam Boucher of Severn Trent Water also demonstrated how retrofitting SuDS across a catchment at pace is achievable and that “asset ownership and maintenance clarity results in pace in delivery”.

The day rounded off with a focus on ‘Communities, catchments and surface water’ by exploring examples of community projects working at a catchment level to

manage surface water and groundwater flood risk. It was fantastic to hear from Liam Foster, CIWEM Fellow and technical principal at WSP, as he talked about indigenous values in enhancing our waterways. This topic felt fresh despite being rooted in ancient practices and underlined how learnings from New Zealand’s past align so well with the catchment-based approach.

The day was a valuable chance for the UDG to integrate their programme with the wider sector and whetted the appetite for November’s annual conference. We look forward to welcoming many of the captive audience to UDG 2024 in Birmingham on 12-14 November.

You can find out more here (https://www.ciwem.org/events/ ciwem-urban-drainage-group-annual-conference-2024).

Time to deliver

By Alastair Chisholm, director of policy, CIWEM

THIS YEAR’S FLOOD & COAST saw policy discussion silenced by an election. Amidst a general election campaign, policy pronouncements were conspicuous by their absence. Instead the focus for discussion was firmly on delivery and in particular, how to work effectively in partnership and how funding could be made more accessible.

What stood out to me on the programme was the consistent strand across the three days (curated, let’s not forget, by multiple different strategic partners) of partnership and collaboration.

And so it was. This isn’t simply because of CIWEM’s focus on these aspects and role in the programme development. It’s because these are the major delivery challenges being felt in the flood and coastal community.

Next year we’ll have a new government with approaching a year under its belt to do new thinking. Perhaps we’ll see more announcements, but for practitioners the realities

of partnership delivery, community engagement and unlocking funding and investment are likely to remain front and centre of the discussion.

Scaling up multi-stakeholder interventions

The low-hanging fruit of obvious schemes with straightforward business cases have in many instances been widely delivered, to a high standard. Now, there is growing focus on more distributed, multi-stakeholder interventions. Individually small quite often, but adding up to something bigger at catchment scale.

Not only is this potentially more complicated and messy to navigate and deliver, but funding mechanisms

aren’t yet optimised to enabling these kinds of approaches. If it was ever easy to get partnership funding, these days it’s even more challenging. And then there’s the challenge around funding for maintenance, which is potentially less secure than for delivery. It isn’t so much the quantum of funding available for flood and coastal risk management, but its accessibility for often small teams stretched and pulled in many directions.

Working with nature, working with communities aren’t new, but they’re less mature with more limited evidence bases and more complex to hang values off or ascribe outcome certainty to. And risk management authorities, communities and wider stakeholders are still grappling with how to unlock the best progress through such projects.

The message from communities was clear: do it with us, not to us. Time and care is needed to listen, understand and inform; things which all take time. All this in the face of a climate emergency throwing greater extremes of weather at us.

CIWEM facilitates ‘postcards from the edge’ of endangered coastlines

By Catherine Moncrieff, policy & engagement manager, CIWEM

I WAS THRILLED to launch our report, Postcards from the Edge, at Flood & Coast 2024. The report compiles reflections and recommendations on coastal change from a range of coastal practitioners and researchers.

The findings of this report are hugely important in the face of climate change. Earlier this year the EU’s climate service indicated that global warming has for the first time exceeded 1.5C across an entire year; this is translating into rapidly rising sea levels and increases storminess and erosion on our coastlines.

How do we realistically adapt to rising sea levels, coastal erosion and squeeze, and intensifying coastal

storms? CIWEM’s Flood & Coastal Erosion Risk Management specialist panel have sought to answer this question through a series of reflections, or ‘postcards’, from coastal flood and erosion practitioners to offer different geographical and thematic perspectives from Britain’s coast, alongside some international perspectives.

Their answer is a series of challenges facing the sector and recommendations for government. The focus is largely on England and Wales, but many of the recommendations are applicable across the coasts of Britain, and potentially internationally.

Sustainability report

CIWEM DECLARED A climate and ecological emergency in 2019, and we recognise that the environmental and social impact of our events is more important than ever.

At the beginning of 2023, we made a commitment to make the Flood & Coast Conference a carbon neutral event and in 2024 we’ve delivered! We made an important step in 2023, measuring and collecting carbon data to minimize carbon emissions, and in 2024 with support from our Sustainability Partner, Mott MacDonald, and One Tribe we were able to neutralize our carbon emissions.

We implemented a number of sustainable practices, changed some of the ways we operate and partnered with sponsors and suppliers to achieve our sustainability objectives.

Flood & Coast 2024 sustainability goals:

1. Measure, reduce and offset carbon footprint.

2. Responsible consumption and production.

3. Encourage our stakeholders, suppliers, sponsors, and exhibitors to work with us towards these goals.

4. Share sustainability solutions and best practices with our delegates.

5. Increase inclusion and have visible diversity.

Measure, reduce and offset carbon footprint

Action 1: CIWEM & Mott MacDonald & One tribe

This year we have continued working with our Sustainability Partner Mott MacDonald. We’ve started working with One Tribe on measurement, reduction and offsetting measures to protect rainforests, biodiversity and ecosystems in the UK and globally. We are participating in the United Nations Framework for Climate Change to adopt the UN

Sustainability Goals. Working together to help fight climate change together.

With Mott MacDonald and One Tribe’s support we were able to:

⬛ Protect 1800 trees

⬛ Store 499 tonnes of carbon

⬛ Save 8 acres of forest

⬛ Remove 108 car emissions

⬛ Sequester 208 tonnes of carbon

⬛ Support 27 communities

⬛ Fund 2 projects

⬛ Support 11 UN Sustainable Development Goals

Action 2: Post-event Carbon footprint report

This year, we have focused on collecting data from Flood & Coast to measure the overall carbon footprint of the event.

A post event report, delivered by One Tribe, has enabled us to understand where we need to focus our efforts to make the biggest impact. This included: travel, accommodation, exhibition stands, food & beverage, energy, materials, and waste. In total Flood & Coast 2024 produced 212tCO2, please find the full breakdown below.

The report gives us a better understanding of significant variables, as well as the data that will allow us to mitigate the emissions impact of our next event using a more sustainable planning process.

Action 3: Gathering delegate travel data at the registration

We understand the impact of travel to and from our event, which is why we asked our delegates about their form of transportation during registration. This helped us measure our carbon footprint and gave us a better understanding

the transportation modes used by attendees. Please find the breakdown below:

⬛ 53% travelling by train

⬛ 44% travelling by car

⬛ 2% travelling by bus

⬛ 1% travelling by plane

Action 4: Flood & Coast Excellence Awards dinner: locally produced catering

This year’s catering for the Flood & Coast Excellence Awards dinner contained vegetarian and vegan options. We worked with the catering team to deliver a locally and ethically sourced menu.

Action 5: Carbon Offsetting

This year we produced 212 tCo2 that we have offset by funding the Mataven Jungle Indigenous Guardianship Project in Columbia, and the Safe Water Project in Mozambique. We have also supported the restoration of the Celtic Atlantic Rainforest in Cornall in the UK. More information can be found here - https://brands. onetribeglobal.com/ciwem.

Encourage our stakeholders, suppliers, sponsors, and exhibitors to work with us towards these goals

Action 1: Sustainable exhibition stands

We produced an online sustainability manual for our exhibitors which included advice around sustainable stands, measuring emissions, delivery methods and best practices.

Action 2: Working with partners to achieve sustainability goals

We worked closely with our venue, suppliers, sponsors, and exhibitors through different channels to promote the importance of sustainable practices and the tools we were using to support our objectives.

Sharing sustainability solutions and best practices with our delegates

Action 1: Marketing campaign focused on sustainability

We continued to communicate actively with our audience about our sustainability goals through the website, newsletter, and social media.

Increase inclusion and have visible diversity

Action 2: Post-event Carbon footprint report

Responsible consumption and production

Action 1: Event waste management

2: Post-event Carbon footprint report

Action 1: More diverse panels, workshops and gathering data about diversity and inclusion.

This year, we have focused on collecting data from Flood & Coast to measure the overall carbon footprint of the event.

We focused on recycling waste, placing recycling bins in visible and busy places to encourage delegates to recycle. We minimised waste on registration, producing more sustainable badges. We put emphasis on selecting merchandise made from sustainable materials and that could be reused or recycled. Move over, our venue has a zero waste to land field policy that helped us to achieve this goal.

Total breakdown of emissions

year, we have focused on collecting data from Flood & Coast to measure the overall carbon footprint of the event.

Total tonnes CO2e calculated: 212 tCO2e

Action 2: Minimising plastic on site

We supplied our delegates with refillable water bottles, and we used water stations on site to minimise the potential purchase, use and waste of plastic.

event report, delivered by One Tribe, has enabled us to understand where need to focus our efforts to make the biggest impact. This included: travel, accommodation, exhibition stands, food & beverage, energy, materials, and waste.

total Flood & Coast 2024 produced 212tCO2, please ﬁnd the full breakdown

2: Post-event Carbon footprint report

This year, we have focused on collecting data from Flood & Coast to measure the overall carbon footprint of the event.

We encouraged partners to secure more diverse panels. We curated a free workshop about neurodiversity in the workplace, continued with our long-standing Women in FCERM networking event and introduced a guided walk on the wild side with an ecologist as part of workshop programme. We gathered diversity and inclusion data through the registration system that will help us build a more inclusive audience next year through our programming and marketing campaigns to target more diverse participants. We are proud of the steps we have taken towards making Flood & Coast a more sustainable event, and grateful to our partners for their support. We understand that this is just the start of the journey for CIWEM, and we look forward to building upon this excellent progress in 2025 and beyond.

Total breakdown of emissions

Total tonnes CO2e calculated: 212 tCO2e

post event report, delivered by One Tribe, has enabled us to understand where we need to focus our efforts to make the biggest impact. This included: travel, accommodation, exhibition stands, food & beverage, energy, materials, and waste. total Flood & Coast 2024 produced 212tCO2, please ﬁnd the full breakdown below.

Boundaries

Actual consumption as estimated or measured by venue [kWh]

Transported weight of infrastructures, AV, materials, furniture and other

Guest, crew and stafﬁng travel by mode (air, private

Hotel nights for guests, build crew or stand stafﬁng, by star-rating

Includes number of meals (non-vegetarian, vegetarian, vegan) and drinks

build staff for duration of

Printed

Recyclable and residual waste

Early careers zone

AS PART OF the overall conference sub-theme of innovation and skills, CIWEM and AECOM joined forces to host and facilitate inspiring, futurefacing talks alongside the main plenary sessions. These speaking slots were open only to supporters of the Early Careers and Education Zone, powered by AECOM.

We heard about an incredible journey undertaken from a Malaysian hometown to working on exciting international projects, and representatives from local councils and consultancies gave compelling talks on their careers, while imparting words of wisdom to the young and ambitious audience.

The sessions delved into how emerging digital technologies and a data-driven approach are evolving asset management thinking; the highly skilled areas of project management office (PMO) services and how they drive programme success; why the power of collaboration is vital to water projects; and an ever-popular topic among CIWEM members: sustainable drainage systems (SuDS).

Attendees also learned about the benefits of joining professional bodies and heard personal tales of apprenticeships.

A special mention to all the outstanding entrants to the UK Junior Water Prize, and the eventual winners Christopher Whitfield and Wenqi ‘Jonathan’ Zhao, both Year 12 students at Eton College (pictured below).

Their innovative project revolves around tackling a critical environmental challenge—the detection and filtration of PFAS,

commonly known as ‘forever chemicals’, from the Thames basin and throughout the UK.

The prize winners stated this is only the beginning, as they have a burning desire to not only continue refining their ideas, but also to spread their knowledge far and wide.

The Stockholm Junior Water Prize is a competition for students aged 15 to 20 who have developed research projects that can help solve major water challenges. The competition attracts tens of thousands of entries from approximately 35 countries.

Good luck representing the UK in Switzerland, Jonathan and Christopher – and CIWEM will be there as part of World Water Week this August!

Life at AECOM as an early careers professional

One of the world’s most trusted infrastructure consulting firms, AECOM partner with clients to solve the world’s most complex challenges, while committing to supporting their staff to build their career by providing strategically focused learning and development initiatives, encouraging new ideas and providing professional development opportunities at all levels. Coastal Engineer Harriet Ridler is one such recipient of this development pathway.

After completing her degree in civil engineering, Harriet joined AECOM as

an early career professional straight out of university. For the past two and a half years she has worked as a coastal engineer for our engineering design projects that boost flood and coastal erosion risk resilience and environment protection for local communities.

FCERM project

Harriet is currently heavily involved in designing the Langstone Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) project at on the South Coast. Due for completion in 2026/7, the project aims to provide enhanced resilience against tidal flooding for the village of Langstone and A3023, the only road on and off Hayling Island – a small island off the south coast in Hampshire.

Watch the Langstone Detailed Design Exhibition Visualisations here.

“Almost three years into my job as a coastal engineer with AECOM, I’m immersed into the Langstone project, that is genuinely using both my creativity and technical expertise to develop a solution to an issue that is of huge importance to the community it impacts.”

Ten years ago, a huge storm in her native Dawlish, a coastal town nestled in the southwest of England, resulted in the collapse of its seawall— a key structure, originally designed by Brunel, which supports the only railway line

CIWEM Junior President Emily Clarke

into Plymouth and Cornwall.

“As a secondary school student, my daily rail commute was disrupted, and from my replacement bus window I saw the havoc wreaked by the storm firsthand, but also the repairs in action. Looking back, I can see that the emergency repairs and reinforcement efforts, including better fortifying the wall against future climate-related challenges, were a catalyst for my passion in coastal engineering.”

The Langstone site presents significant constraints and difficulties, as it is boarded by Langstone and Chichester Harbours, which are both locally and internationally recognised for their environmental importance.

Harriet adds that “...there is a mandated 10 per cent net increase in biodiversity for any land take across the scheme. Consequently, any new construction must be low impact and coexist with deteriorating existing structures, requiring careful and sympathetic consideration in design and construction scheduling. Moreover, the village holds considerable cultural significance, lying within a conservation zone and featuring eight listed buildings, which have heavily influenced the appearance of the scheme. It’s been a challenging site where creative thinking and innovation have been key.”

Stakeholder engagement is key

In developing the design, one of the most unexpected but rewarding elements of the role has been the stakeholder engagement for Harriet: “It’s not something you’re traditionally taught as part of civil engineering courses, but it’s extremely important. My role has involved presenting and answering queries on the technical design to the community and helping them understand the key drivers for the project. What’s been most rewarding with the community engagement is seeing the level of public support go from below 50 per cent at concept design stage to above 90 per cent at the final stage of design,” she explains.

The scheme design, consisting of 1km of continuous flood defences,

brings the standard of protection up to a 1:200-year protection against still tidal water levels. Alongside the new defences, the scheme also incorporates new drainage and recommends property-level resilience measures to provide additional protection to the front-line properties from overtopping spray and abovedesign flood events.

“What I’ve enjoyed most about the project is seeing the design come together, with a solution that, in my opinion, blends in and respects the unique, historical setting of the village and promotes improved access and public realm design alongside the flood protection. The whole project has been a great experience, and I feel I’ve played a central role in its development. When it’s built, it will make a significant difference to people and businesses within Langstone village and on Hayling Island.”

The Freedom to Grow philosophy

Alongside the project work, starting at AECOM also meant a transition from student life into the workplace. Harriet reveals that the support she has had from her team in this transition has been unparalleled: “Being on the early careers path at AECOM has provided me with the invaluable opportunity to develop softer skills

alongside my technical skillset and connect with similar-minded individuals. My continual professional development has also benefitted from having access to a global network of technical experts and knowledge sharing sessions. What’s also been great is using AECOM’s Freedom to Grow philosophy, which enables me to balance my time between project work, learning opportunities, extracurricular activities such as STEM activities, and home-life commitments.

Powering the Early Careers Zone at Flood & Coast

Harriet played host for the zone this year, sharing her experiences and engaging primarily with university students. On what she enjoyed most about the conference, Harriet said: “It was the opportunity to have face to face conversations with industry experts and learn about emerging methods, products and ideas which may advance the sector and offer better climate resilience. Returning to work and being able to share these ideas amongst peers and incorporate the learning into my designs has been fulfilling.

“Don’t be afraid to step into the unknown. Even if you don’t enjoy that element of work, you will still learn something and it all adds to experience”, she concluded.

with thanks to our sponsor

Workshops

By Darren Eckford, director of learning and organisational development, CIWEM

AT CIWEM WE believe that by engaging, educating and empowering people to aspire to, collaborate for, and lead on solutions for our planet, we will create an evolving world of possibility and a more resilient, sustainable reality.

People

CIWEM is about the people forming communities of informed and inspired individuals, creating environments that foster inclusion, knowledge sharing and discovery of bigger, more inspiring individual realities. This is exemplified through our members, branches, groups and professional communities of practice.

Planet

By facilitating partnerships between individuals and organisations to verify, pool, simplify and distribute knowledge and insights, we help to enable an informed audience with the increased capacity to have a positive impact on our planet. CIWEM fosters extensive and continuously evolving partnerships, training, events and accreditation to grow individual and organisational expertise, credibility and capabilities in the water and environmental field.

Possibility

CIWEM’s unique position enables us to independently convene and highlight the solutions that can create a more

resilient future for our people and planet. And where none yet exist, we can open up a world of possibility where solutions can be imagined, rationalised and made reality. Our policy team, specialist panels and wide-ranging impact projects help spearhead this approach and influence change at the highest level, while helping to shape the outcomes that can be acted upon by you, the professionals who make it all happen.

A new approach to conferences

Our workshops and roundtables signify a shift from the ‘tell and sell’ style of conferences. We’re shifting the focus from ‘how good am I’ to ‘how good can we be’ by helping to inform, educate and enable everyone who attends Flood & Coast. In this way, we ensure that delegates leave the event better connected, wiser and even more impassioned to continue the critical work that you all do in the face of flooding and coastal challenges. All workshops are assessed against their learning outcomes and delivery methods to ensure attendees walk away with tangible knowledge and tools for growth.

We were so happy to be able to shine a light on those making significant contributions to the sector through the CIWEM Spotlight Awards. These torchbearers are a reminder to the rest of us that progress and excellence is real, achievable and happening all around us.

We hope you enjoyed the programme and we look forward to seeing you at Telford for an even bigger event and a few surprises in 2025!

Interactive workshop blends fun with serious outcomes

DEVISED BY THE University of Hull, the ‘Flood Recovery Game’ delivered an interactive session that helps to identify gaps in the flood recovery process and co-devise solutions in facilitated workshops. The game offers a new route for both internal planning activities and stakeholder engagement, and can be applied to other disaster management scenarios

The Energy and Environment Institute (EEI) team had a stand throughout Flood & Coast and hosted an interactive workshop at 8.45am on 6 June, that

explored the use of serious board games in stakeholder engagement around flood response and recovery.

The ‘Flood Recovery Game’ was very well received and, thanks to additional funding from the Aviva Foundation, the EEI team is now engaged in further work to boost the impact and enable wider deployment. As a ‘workshop-in-abox’ the game will further understanding on how research opportunities can be realised, as well as developing a sustainable deployment plan for communities, businesses and citizens to benefit throughout the UK and beyond.

A game to get the best for people, place and planet

A WORKSHOP LED by Jacobs gamified collaboration through The Collaboration Game’. This immersive experience equipped participants with stronger problem-solving and teamwork skills.

Participants dove into diverse communication styles, acting as “shy participants” or “loud” advocates. Understanding these contrasting styles became crucial for tackling simulated scenarios.

These scenarios assigned roles like lead local flood authority or community action group representative. The mission? Fiercely advocate for their assigned position.

One participant, typically quiet in groups, found themselves in a fascinating predicament. Collaboration forced them to adapt their communication style, highlighting its importance.

The scenario centred on creating open spaces. Community action group participants passionately argued for these green havens, touting benefits beyond aesthetics: combating rising temperatures, improving air quality and addressing water management.

Throughout the workshop, participants presented various scenarios to strengthen the case for open spaces. Strategic alliances formed across roles, emphasising collaboration over competition to maximise impact.

WALK ON THE WILD SIDE

By Tega Ajogun, marketing operations manager, CIWEM

I CLOSED MY fitness circle (500 kcal) for the first time on the morning of Day 2 during Flood & Coast 2024, when I participated in a nature walk led by Binnies. This wasn’t just a stroll through the park, it was a chance to connect with nature and network with fellow delegates led by Emma Stevens and Hannah Burgess. The event was a refreshing start to the day, taking attendees on a journey through Telford Town Park and setting a positive tone for a series of engaging sessions and workshops happening later in the day.

ROUNDTABLES

FLOOD & COAST 2024 bronze sponsors and leading engineering and design firm Stantec hosted its second Resilience Roundtable at the event, as they led a panel talk discussion around partnership working and the importance of having an integrated

Our walk began on the Telford Veteran’s Trail, an initiative by a nonprofit organisation that supports families and celebrates veterans of all ages. Our guide, Emma Stevens, director of environmental services at Binnies, led us through forests and areas brimming with wildlife, each step revealing something new. We often paused to admire the scenery and discuss the conservation efforts that maintain this thriving ecosystem, with Emma providing insightful commentary.

One of the highlights of the walk was the opportunity to network in

approach to flood and coastal management. The session was well attended, and highly engaging, as unique insights were offered from around the room on best practice for integrated management programmes.

The session was hosted by Stantec’s Ellott Gill, senior technical director; Gwen Rhodes, senior principal engineer,

Scoring points was the objective, but the true value lay in learning. High scores were achieved, but the focus remained on honing collaboration skills through this engaging, gamified workshop. Lynn Chapman, PGN STE(A)M lead at Project Groundwater Northumbria, said afterwards: “The game was a delightful blend of strategy, negotiation and creativity. By embracing our roles and understanding one another, we honed our collaborative skills.”

She went on to add: “The conference was a great opportunity to learn from other projects, meet new people and engage in different workshops. My key takeaways from the conference are that we need to look at the whole water cycle to find equilibrium, and that collaboration with all stakeholders is vital to deliver a successful project.”

a laid-back and casual setting. As we wandered along the trail, conversations flowed, exchanging thoughts and experiences.

Our walk coincided with #WorldEnvironmentDay, giving the occasion even more meaning. It served as a gentle reminder of our shared duty to preserve the environment as we strolled through the park. A reminder of the value of urban green spaces and their crucial role in promoting wellbeing.

“A Walk on the Wild Side” was one of Flood & Coast 2024’s highlights. It provided the ideal balance of learning, networking and leisure, inspiring a renewed connection to nature.

and Scott Peyton, VP, water resources sector leader. They were joined by Innes Thomson, chief executive of the Association Drainage Authorities, Elaine Smith, strategic studies lead project manager at Capital Delivery within the Northumbrian Water Group, and Richard Barnes, strategic client director at Jackson Civil Engineering.

Networking reception

THERE’S NOTHING QUITE like meeting up with familiar faces, sharing ideas, hearing new ways of thinking, and making new connections on a personal note and for your organisation. Arup proudly sponsored the networking reception on Day 1, serving up refreshments for weary conference goers who’d spent the day learning and making new connections. From rising temperatures and unpredictable weather patterns through to the adoption of innovative materials

and sustainable practices, our changing climate demands safer and more resilient solutions. Arup are experts at providing these and has had a long-standing relationship with the conference.

You can see some of Arup’s work in action at Hunter’s Point South in New York City. This former industrial zone is now a beacon of sustainable development, harmonising with nature to guard against floods and rising tides.

with thanks to our sponsor

AWARD WINNING EFFORTS

IN ADDITION TO whetting everyone’s networking appetite at the drinks reception, Arup’s staff also walked away with two Spotlight Awards from Day two’s Awards Dinner ceremony. CIWEM were delighted to recognise the efforts of Matthew Fennel-Fox and Cassia Pikard in the respective categories of ‘Planet’ and ‘People’. Well done to them both!

“Honoured to win the CIWEM Spotlight Planet Category award at the Flood and Coast 2024 awards dinner last night. Thank you to CIWEM (The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management) for organising the event and for all the congratulatory messages from my industry colleagues and friends.

A big thank you to everyone who has worked with me on some truly innovative and inspirational projects over the last few years.

Congratulations also go to Cassia Pickard for winning the People category! Winning 2 out of the 3 Spotlight Awards for Arup is amazing!”

Matthew Fennell-Fox Principal Engineer (Hydraulic Modelling) at Arup

“I am thrilled to have won the CIWEM Spotlight People Category award presented at #FloodandCoast2024.

Thank you to CIWEM (The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management) for recognising our commitment to the water sector and celebrating our work. I am honoured to represent Arup alongside Matthew Fennell-Fox who won the Planet award!

Thank you Jenna Browning for your continued support and for representing me yesterday whilst I was with Wastebusters at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) to celebrate the inaugural Water Week UK 2024.

Thank you to those I work with on a daily basis that share my passion for the water environment, Hannah Spencer Caledonia Bhatia Paul Horton from Future Water and Serena Ashdown Freya Scott from the UKIMEA Panel for Young Water Professionals to name a few. This award is a testament to all Early Career Professionals and their incredible contributions and collective efforts to shape a better future for us all.

I look forward to continuing my focus on key industry themes whilst fostering a collaborative and inclusive environment for peers to actively participate and develop their skills in the water space!”

Cassia Pickard

Graduate Water Consultant - Arup

Networking lounge

AN ESSENTIAL PART of Flood & Coast is its networking opportunities and the chance to expand your professional circle. This year’s dedicated area was kindly sponsored by Kier (who also sponsored our complimentary goodie bags) and AtkinsRéalis.

Providing a comfortable, central space to facilitate meaningful connections amidst the busy humdrum of the exhibition space is an important addition to the event, so we thank both our sponsors for their support.

“Here at Kier, our main clients are the Environment Agency. We’re on the Environment Agency Collaborative Delivery framework in the Southwest hub, but we’re also looking at other partners today for suppliers and also other products that are available at the conference. It’s been really interesting seeing all the different exhibitions out here and they’ve had some great workshops and conferences on today and for the rest of the week.”

“A massive thanks to everyone who joined us for a cuppa and chat. Your donations helped us to raise £1250 for water charity WaterAid. Clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene should be part of everyone’s daily life. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. So, we teamed up again with the brilliant baristas from Barmotion to offer delicious drinks at this year’s show and support WaterAid. Thanks to everyone who came along to our stand – you made a real difference!”

Jack Walker Agent/chartered engineer (CEng), Kier Group

“We really like the Flood & Coast event. It’s a chance for us to meet with all the main players in the sector, so the Environment Agency, local authorities, other consultants and contractors. It’s a great way to make new connections with people, to have conversations with new people and reconnect again.

“The point of difference for Flood & Coast is it’s the biggest event that happens in the sector. Anybody who’s involved in the sector is here so you can have the right conversations - there are other events that take place but they’re not as big or as well supported by client organisations.

“Sometimes you only see consultants and contractors, but this event has a point of difference because there’s fantastic representation from all levels of client organisations, which for suppliers is really important.”

Simon Leek Client director, AtkinsRealis

Awards dinner

IT WAS LIGHTS, camera, action for the CIWEM Awards Dinner at this year’s event – with a packed room of over 60 tables enjoying a wellearned chance to celebrate their peers and form new alliances.

Guests for the annual awards dinner at Flood & Coast were treated to pre-dinner drinks by sponsors WSP | Binnies. The anticipation was palpable as guests raised a glass in toast of their peers hard work and caught up with familiar faces in addition to new ones. We thank our sponsors for helping warm up the crowds before they settled in for a night of relaxation and recognition.

At CIWEM we believe that the right people – engaged, inspired and educated in the right way will be able to turn the impossible into the possible. They will create tangible positive outcomes for people and planet as we seek solutions for the very real challenges we face. This is why CIWEM exists, and why we do what we do.

With people at the heart of CIWEM, we – in partnership with our awards sponsors Binnies, WSP and Jacobs – were celebrating individuals who have gone above and beyond to deliver positive momentum in line with CIWEM’s purpose of People, Planet, Possibility.

The dinner was opened by WSP’s Blair Mitchell, with the WiFCERM Awards presented by Amy Bentley, vice president and head of sector, water and environment Europe at Jacobs.

The ceremony was hosted by Planet Possible’s Niki Roach, director of Blue & Green Consulting, currently working with Southwest Water, and Tony Koodie, head of global processes at Binnies.

with thanks to our sponsor

Stars of the show

THE WINNERS

CATEGORY: PEOPLE Winner

CASSIA PICKARD (Arup)

Highly Commended

KATHERINE WATERS (WSP)

Vera Jones (Atkins Realis)

CATEGORY: PLANET Winner

MATTHEW FENNELL-FOX (Arup)

Highly Commended PAUL CANNING (Arup)

LIAM HOLMES (Jacobs)

CATEGORY: POSSIBILITY Winner MARY LONG-DHONAU OBE (Mary Dhonau Associates)

Highly Commended FRAN MOORE (Binnies)

PETER MAY (JBA)

RISING STAR AWARD Winner PARAM KAUR-KINGSTON (Jacobs)

Highly Commended

CLEMENTINE WALSH (Arcadis)

EQUALITY LEADERSHIP AWARD Winner

JANE TINGAY (Arcadis)

Highly Commended CHRIS BOON (Jacobs)

ELEANOR INGLIS (Volker Stevin)

LAURA BAIRD SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD Winner

SUN YAN EVANS (Mott Macdonald)

Highly Commended

JOANNE BARLOW (Mott MacDonald)

Winner: Mary Long-Dhonau

Equality Leadership Award: Jane Tingay

Winner: Cassia Pickard; Jenna Browning collected the award on Cassia’s behalf

Winner: Matthew Fennell-Fox

Rising Star Award: Param Kaur-Kingston

Laura Baird Special Recognition Award: Sun Yan Evans

wsp.com

TOTAL NUMBER OF REGISTRANTS

2,390

ATTENDANCE BY

Attendance rate for local authorities 99%

DIGITAL Day 1 / June 4 1109 Social Media Sentiment Score 90.4 / 100

TOP 5

HIGHEST ATTENDED CONFERENCE SESSIONS Flood & Coast Futures 401 What nature-based solutions do for us 393 Unlocking the safe: Funding nature-based solutions 326 Innovations in integrated water management 321

The right solutions, in the right place, by the right people 274

2 / June 5 1347

Day 3 / June 6 924

Attendance rate for students 85% Top 5 highest delegate ticket sales by company EA, Mott MacDonald, Jacobs, JBA and AtkinsRealis Awards

TOP 3 WORKSHOPS ATTENDED Women in FCERM networking event 164

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)integrating BNG Policy into Flood and Coastal Management 96

The Collaboration Game: A game to get the best out of people, place and planet 91

Total app downloads 1,114

TOP 3 MOST REGISTERED EARLY CAREERS ZONE WORKSHOPS Digital, Data & Decision Making: How emerging digital technologies and a data-driven approach is evolving Asset Management 67 Early Careers in Flood and Coastal Innovation 54 Sustainable Drainage Systems 38

The importance of silt

Silt shouldn’t be overlooked when carrying out works near or in water, says

Leela O’Dea C.WEM, co-founder and technical director at Frog Environmental

SILT AND CLAY are fractions of our soils which cause environmental damage when in water. When silty water enters a watercourse, lake or reservoir, it causes pollution which impacts the aquatic ecosystem, increases flood risk and is detrimental to water quality. Silt has a tiny particle size of between 0.02 and 0.63 µm (micron). Surface water runoff can erode exposed soils and entrain these tiny, energy-limited particles into water, where they can travel a long distance and remain in suspension.

As well as its damage to our environment, silt pollution brings significant costs and reputational harm to the business doing the polluting. The ‘polluter pays’ principle means businesses can be prosecuted and fined, and are responsible for clean-up costs. But silt pollution can be avoided with forward planning, good onsite surface water management systems and regular monitoring.

What are the primary sources of silt?

Land-based construction activities, such as groundwork that strips soil and creates excavations and stockpiles, are a primary source of silt exposure and disturbance. When it rains, silts become mixed with water and can reach a precious watercourse through pathways such as drainage and

surface water runoff.

Water-based construction activities such as headwall installation, bank protection or realignment of a channel risk disturbing the soils on the bed and bank of the watercourse that can be immediately mobilised by the flow of water. To minimise risk when carrying out construction work, best practice is to minimise silt disturbance.

What are some innovative technologies or approaches for silt management?

Securing new silt control interventions over the past decade has been critical to supporting the industry with improved water management. Using simple and cost-effective products, we have developed techniques to treat and capture silt to separate the solids from water. This results in clean, clear water entering our watercourses, with silt as a byproduct that should be contained on site.

Gel Flocculant has been a game changer for silt and clay impacted sites. Its unique composition treats flowing water, binding together the tiny silt particles so that they are removed from suspension. Gel Flocculant can be deployed into site ditches in a solid block form, using gravity to treat multiple sources of water before it reaches attenuation

ponds. Alternatively, the blocks can be loaded into a Pipe Reactor mobile water treatment dosing unit. This can be used with a pump or under a gravity feed. We manufacture and supply 100 per cent biodegradable mats (FlocMat™ and SiltMat™), which are used to capture and trap silt, as well as for lining ditches and polishing channels.

Water-based construction activities requires further tools to help mitigate pollution. We are the UK’s only supplier of bubble curtains using BubbleTubing® technology, which has won awards for its performance in helping mitigate pollution including sound, silt, oil, litter, weed to name a few. It also provides highly efficient aeration, which is often lacking during water-based operations.

All of our products can be incorporated into a surface water management plan.

How is Frog Environmental’s approach different to tank-based water treatment systems?

Unlike with a tank-based system often installed for a temporary period, our technical team works with a site and makes use of existing surface water management infrastructure such as ditches and ponds to treat silty water before it is discharged from site. Where possible, we work with natural coir products and safe, non-toxic flocculants that are easy to deploy and can be scaled to suit any site size, geology or topography. We also design gravity-fed water treatment solutions where possible, removing the reliance on pumps, thereby saving on energy and associated fuel and hire costs. Our products can be used in isolation or alongside a model using a tank.

Our approach is to encourage sites to adopt a rain-ready system which provides them with year-round protection against wet weather. Because often the damage is done after the rain comes, we offer free CPD training to help upskill the industry, and to encourage proactive planning and product deployment.

Visit frogenvironmental.co.uk for more information or call 0345 057 4040 frog environmental

A new ‘flood hub’ launches

CIWEM HAS LAUNCHED a website for BeFloodReady, its community of practice for property flood resilience (PFR). This initiative aims to improve the competency, confidence and consistency of PFR delivery across the industry.

Created by CIWEM, based on outputs from the South-West PFR pathfinder project and funded by our partners and supporters, the project builds upon the success of various PFR initiatives undertaken through the PFR pathfinder projects and more recently the Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme.

Alan Ryan, programme manager for the Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Project, RAIN for West Northamptonshire Council, manned a stand within the conference under the BeFloodReady brand. As key contributor to this new extension of that brand, he added: “The website is developed for local authorities to signpost their residents towards information around PFR and flood resilience in general.

“The BeFloodReady community of practice is a really important technical and practitioner-focused resource that we need for within the sector. A trusted

website – an independent, centralised portal managed by CIWEM – bringing confidence that you’re getting the right level of information from the right sources instead of just googling it!”

PFR includes a range of propertybased measures to limit flood water entering and damaging a property (resistance measures) and reduce flood damage’s impact should water enter a building (recoverability measures). PFR improves the process and reduces the time required for recovery and reoccupation following a flood.

By implementing effective PFR strategies, property owners and endusers can significantly improve the recovery process following a flood, minimising disruption and financial losses.

Specific objectives of the community of practice include hosting and signposting relevant PFR standards, guidance, research and resources; facilitating events and knowledge sharing; promoting case studies of successful PFR; and linking practitioners to accredited professional development opportunities.

Paul Shaffer, CIWEM’s project director for BeFloodReady, added: “We

aim to support and enable peer-topeer learning for PFR professionals and provide accessible information to others interested in PFR.

“With the recent flooding, we’ve increasingly seen the need for people, communities and property to become more flood-resilient. This community of practice will help support flood resilience. We’re grateful to our many partners and supporters in making this initiative possible.”

Fola Ogunyoye of TJAY Consultancy, chair of the project steering group for BeFloodReady said: “The BeFloodReady community of practice will provide a currently fragile and developing PFR industry with a platform to share good practice and improve competency.

“Its website, events and case studies will enable access to trusted resources and opportunities to collaborate, share and evolve good practice.”

To get involved and stay up-todate, subscribe to the quarterly BeFloodReady newsletter. For more details, please contact paul.shaffer@ ciwem.org for a media pack and to discuss collaborations.

Presidential reflections

Critical to collaborate

THIS YEAR FOR the first time CIWEM joined with leading professional institutions in the UK to convene the first ever Joint Presidential Forum. We collectively recognised the power of collaboration and decided to come together as a single voice for a greater and stronger impact.

During this first forum, all the presidents shared their nature-positive aspirations and in doing so we identified areas in which we could adopt a unified approach. We concurred that we share a common purpose, which is to safeguard our planet.

Thank you to Professor Anusha Shah, president of the ICE,

Early

careers

for being the host of this groundbreaking event, and thank you to all the presidents who participated. This included representation from RICS, RTPI, IMechE, CIHT, CIEEM, IEMA, CIIT, CIOB, IABSE and APM. Whether it is reducing carbon emissions, conserving natural resources or promoting biodiversity, our goals align.

Thanks to Prof. Shah for her wonderful speech at Flood & Coast 2024, where she reminded us all of the responsibility to set higher ethical standards in our sector, and the power of nature-positive thinking.

As we stand at the crossroads of a climate emergency, it is imperative that we recognise the power of collective action. Barriers can be daunting when faced alone, but by collaborating, we accelerate progress.

Thankfully there is no shortage of examples of where things are being done successfully, where innovation is taking place and new ground is being broken – inspiration is a powerful fuel. But we also need to be open and honest about what hasn’t gone well, what challenges have been faced and even mistakes that have been made. And crucially, how these were overcome and what lessons were learned.

Collaboration is not just an opportunity, it is our lifeline and by transcending boundaries, we will ensure a thriving planet for generations to come. Even the longest journey starts with the first step.

CIWEM president and Worley ports practice lead, Bushra Hussain FCIWEM C.WEM CEng FICE

professionals need your support

PART OF MY junior presidency role is to advocate for opportunities and development for early career professionals. I’ve therefore been taking the opportunity throughout my junior presidency to propose a challenge to the senior individuals I’ve been fortunate enough to encounter along my journey so far.

I’d like to invite you all to consider this challenge: how you can support

those around you who are building their careers. Could you provide opportunities and sponsorship for others to give them the skills, experiences and exposure you have access to? Could you put them forward for projects, speaking opportunities, site visits or to observe meetings outside of their knowledge area or level of responsibility?

Could you invite them along to this very conference, for them to learn firsthand from the speakers, talk to others across the sector and help them to build their own networks? All of these actions could be vital for career progression.

Please don’t underestimate the power sponsorship can have on an individual’s

career progression. Saying their name when they aren’t in the room, advocating for their talent, costs you nothing. You will however reap the rewards for your teams and your organisations when you see those individuals’ confidence and aptitudes rise. You will help retain your best and brightest as you show trust and faith in their abilities. And you will feel a huge sense of gratification when you start to see them paying it forward to the next generation of early career professionals. When we support others, we all benefit.

Emily Clarke FCIWEM C.WEM, CIWEM junior president, Binnies principal flood and coastal consultant

CIWEM membership

The CIWEM membership team share FAQs from their stand

THE CIWEM MEMBERSHIP team spent Flood & Coast sharing tips and advice from the CIWEM lounge, so we thought we’d share our frequently asked questions from the conference:

Who can sponsor my application?

Application sponsors play a key role in the chartership process and should understand the required mandatory competencies to provide useful, in-depth comments about you and your application. This should include reviewing your submission before submission. To apply for chartership you will need to have two chartered

Be clear about your specific role, how you fit in with the wider team, what you did and how the outcomes of the work were different because of your input

sponsors, one of which must hold C.WEM, the other can be chartered elsewhere. You will need to submit a signed letter from each of your sponsors alongside your application.

How long does it take to get chartered?

CIWEM has application deadlines for chartership applications every other month. Following the deadline your application will be checked before sending for peer review. This first stage takes roughly six weeks before you will hear the outcome and, if successful, be invited for professional review interview. The is usually two to three weeks later. This full process takes around three months from the initial application deadline.

There’s no set time frame for when you can submit your application in terms of years in industry. However we find it typically takes individuals around five years of work experience to gain the relevant skills and knowledge

to demonstrate the competencies Finally, when it comes to completing the application itself, there’s no one answer for this! Some people prefer to work on it over time and other like to complete it across a more compressed period. Whichever works better for you, we recommend keeping your reflective CPD recording and choosing an application deadline to submit by.

What’s the professional review interview?

The professional review interview is the second stage of the chartership process. Following peer assessment of your written application you will be invited to undertake an interview where you’ll be given the opportunity to talk about your career and experience in relation to the mandatory competences. You’ll be asked to prepare a 10-minute presentation which should focus on your role on a project or programme of work. Be clear about your specific role, how you fit in with the wider team, what you did and how the outcomes of the work were different because of your input. You’ll also be

Journey of a CIWEM member

asked questions about your written submission so re-read what you submitted and be ready to expand on the examples you gave.

What CPD can I use?

CIWEM requires chartership applicants to submit a three-year reflective CPD record with their application. This should demonstrate at least 90 hours of CPD over this period. In addition to factual details, such as time spent and content of specific activities, CPD records must contain planning and objectives together with reflection on the personal professional development benefits gained. You can make their own decisions about the kind of CPD activity that is relevant to their role and their work. CPD activities could include going on secondment, in-service training, mentoring or reading or reviewing journal articles. We are looking for variety in your CPD record, so ensure it covers a range of activity types.

Find out more at: https://www.ciwem.org/membership/ how-to-become-a-cwem

Access our ‘Member Grade Finder’: https://www.ciwem.org/membership/ membership-grades https://www.ciwem.org/membership/ how-to-become-a-cwem

Women in FCERM

FOLLOWING OUR HUGELY successful networking event at Flood & Coast conference in 2023, WiFCERM returned to Telford for 2024. Volunteers from WiFCERM were once again invited back to the Flood and Coast Conference 2024 in Telford. This is not just an industry-leading annual event, but an inclusive, diverse community of people working towards a sustainable future. The initiative built on the success of previous years with a new exhibition stand, engaging networking event, and the highly anticipated WiFCERM Awards.

Invest in Women; Accelerate Progress

With standing room only at the networking event, the theme was ‘Invest in Women; Accelerate progress’. Kindly sponsored by WSP Binnies and led by facilitators, Priscilla Haselhurst (Lower Medway IDB), and Kevin Simpson (Binnies) alongside guest speakers, Joanne Barlow (Mott Macdonald), Jack Southon (WSP), and Caitlyn Davies (Binnies), there was an open and honest discussion about what investment in women they had seen or experienced in the FCERM sector that helped accelerate progress, and the challenges that still exist.

The safe space allowed plenty stories and reflections to be shared by the 168 attendees, who had a chance

to mention support they would like to see more of. Feedback from the table discussions will be used to build out future activities and initiatives.

“This session was an excellent chance to listen to various speakers as they recounted their personal journeys and obstacles within the FCERM industry,” said Blair Mitchell, managing director for water at WSP UK.

Original founding member Hannah Burgess. The CIWEM president elect, added: “It makes me very proud to see the huge profile this initiative takes, six years on from first being discussed at Flood & Coast. Extra chairs were needed as the workshop was very popular! My manager and our Binnies flood, coast and maritime director Kevin Simpson co-hosted with Priscilla Haselhurst, while one of our very first Binnies Aberystwyth interns and returning graduates Caitlyn Davies spoke. I was very proud of them all.”

Engaging with the Flood and Coast community

WiFCERM - with particular thanks to the stand sponsors AtkinsRéalis, CIWEM, and Tetra Tech - brought their presence once again to the exhibition hall at Flood and Coast with a new stand.

A representative from WiFCERM added: “We were delighted to talk to

so many people at our stand, sharing who we are and what we do, including our networking events, our corporate affiliate membership, our successful mentoring programme. We heard of stories of men and women doing amazing things in their organisations to promote gender quality and expanded our networking group of professionals, connecting and reconnecting with wonderful people across the FCERM community.”

Women in FCERM Awards

An important part of the group’s ethos is recognition, and this is exemplified by the Women in FCERM Awards – sponsored by Jacobs. This is a chance to celebrate professionals of all genders and organisations in the flooding and coastal risk management sector, who make a real difference to gender equality in the workplace and across the industry.

The categories for 2024 included the Rising Star Award, the Equality Leadership Award and the Laura Baird Special Recognition Award. You can find see photographs of the winners in the Awards section of this magazine.

To find out more about WiFCERM and to discover their newly launched corporate affiliate membership, which has already signed up early adopters JBA, Arup, Binnies, Jacobs and Tetra Tech, please see the WiFCERM website

Exhibition Hall: people engaging at the WiFCERM stand

Flood and Coast networking event: WiFCERM Committee members and event speakers

Want to network with over 300 delegates and gain exclusive

Sponsorship opportunities delegates and gain exclusive access to the latest knowledge, drainage? discussion: milestones and chart the future of urban drainage management plans: Can Cycle 2 DWMP deliver the next 40 years of best practices and innovations to meet public expectations and manage a cost-effective network that withstands extreme AI, machine learning, and other tools for better planning, design, audience of industry leaders. presentations, roundtables, and workshops. cutting-edge urban drainage solutions.

: Celebrate milestones and chart the future : Can Cycle 2 DWMP : Share best practices and innovations

: How do we manage a cost-effective network

: Explore AI, machine learning, and other

Engage in thought-provoking presentations, roundtables, and

Sponsorship opportunities

The last word

WELL, FLOOD & COAST 2024, you have been a fantastic experience! My key takeaways are collaboration, compassion and celebration as well as collective acceptance of the need to up our pace in responding to the climate and ecological emergency and the impact this is already starting to have on flooding and coastal change.

The passion that individuals across the industry have for what we do came across loud and clear in our joint celebration of the amazing work of people from across the industry

CIWEM worked with sponsors at breakneck speed to design, run and host the alternative CIWEM Spotlight Awards within less than two weeks, due to the implications of the general elections on the usual Flood & Coast Excellence Awards. However, at times like this teams absolutely pull together, and I could not be prouder of the joint effort between CIWEM, WSP Binnies and Jacobs, as well as the positive reception from event sponsors and exhibitors to submit nominations

within 48 hours of being requested. The passion that individuals across the industry have for what we do came across loud and clear in our joint celebration of the amazing work of people from across the industry. A huge well done to the winners and those highly commended for our CIWEM People, Planet and Possibility Awards and to Clare Dinnis, who won the CIWEM Rivers and Coastal Group Jack Lewin prize.

Our Binnies ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ nature walk in Telford Town Park was attended by a fantastic 50 delegates. I enjoyed giving my Parkrun-style health and safety briefing, although I had no takers for the warm-up star jumps! It was a lovely sunny morning for informal networking, and I give my thanks to my Binnies colleague Emma Stevens, our head of environmental services for her brilliant insights into habitat creation and biodiversity net gain.

I was very proud to launch CIWEM’s Coastal Change Adaptation Policy Paper. I’ve always been interested in how our environments change over time, and the nature and pace of coastal change really brings home just how dynamic our natural environment is. But this is also a human tragedy for those communities on the coast, and this sits behind CIWEM’s calls for national changes to policy, practice and funding. You’ll find the 10 key recommendations in the report. I look forward to seeing how a new government responds to our CIWEM call for change.

I closed the conference on Day 2 and, inspired by our CIWEM junior president Emily Clarke’s excellent closing speech on Day 1, I shared my personal reflections on 21 years in the industry. This included how we have normalised discussions on wellbeing and mental health, as well as helping to make our workplaces and industry much more inclusive. In 2021, I shared my story on recovering from an eating disorder and suffering with anxiety in The Environment, CIWEM’s magazine.

The CIWEM Spotlight Awards on the evening of Day 2 were hosted by our excellent Binnies head of global processes Tony Koodie, and Niki Roach, host of our CIWEM Planet Possible podcast. It was a great event and people fed back to me that they particularly enjoyed the celebration of outstanding individuals and the element of surprise in how Tony and Niki introduced the winners and those highly commended.

I came away with a long list of ideas to add to our CIWEM presidential planner, as well as renewed optimism in the passion of our industry to work together for the benefit for those at risk from flooding and coastal change

Day 3 of the event had a focus on surface water management in partnership with the CIWEM Urban Drainage Group and I enjoyed catching up with local authority and water company contacts about all things urban drainage.

People across the industry were keen to give me positive feedback on the event at the end of the conference and especially given the necessary last-minute changes. I give my thanks to Darren Eckford and Cat Moncrieff at CIWEM who went several extra miles to make the conference such a roaring success.

I wear many hats and after a brilliant three days spent conversing with contacts (many of whom I’ve known my whole career), I was tired but exhilarated. I came away with a long list of ideas to add to our CIWEM presidential planner, as well as renewed optimism in the passion of our industry to work together for the benefit for those at risk from flooding and coastal change.

Hannah Burgess BSc FCIWEM C.WEM - regional delivery director Binnies UK, CIWEM trustee and president elect and WiFCERM founding member

NEWEVENT

3rd December 2024 1 Birdcage Walk, London

A Fresh Water Future: Are you involved in water management at policy level?

Our rivers are in crisis. Our infrastructure is strained. Water management needs a reboot. For decades, policy drift and light-touch regulation have left our water systems vulnerable. A new government is signalling a new way forward.

Join us at the A Fresh Water Future conference and discuss how to deliver a comprehensive national strategy.

Here's what's at stake:

• A full, independent review of water management and regulation: We need strong oversight to protect our most vital resource.

• Reshaping water companies: Realigning their purpose with public service and environmental responsibility.

• Sustainable farming practices: A holistic approach to managing pollution and optimising water usage in agriculture.

• Catchment-based solutions: Prioritising investment and fostering collaboration across local stakeholders.

• Sponge cities: Building resilience and vibrant communities by embracing water, not fearing it.

• Empowering the public: Fostering water-smart citizens through education and engagement.

This is your chance to learn the latest on government priorities and debate how to unlock a fresh water future. Together, we can secure a thriving future with clean, abundant water for generations to come. Register for A Fresh Water Future today by contacting events@ciwem.org

A new future for water

How can organisations recognise and harness the true value of water in their decisions to drive meaningful change?

WATER IS LIFE. It sustains and supports our well-being, our environment, and our economy. Yet we are putting increasing strain on the very system that sustains us, through land use changes, unsustainable consumption, and the waste and pollution we put into the water environment. In the

face of climate change and the biodiversity crises, the central role of water and the water system is increasingly recognised.

Through our work we recognise first-hand that our current ways of interacting with the water system are no longer fit for purpose and that there

Possibility is endless

#bamukandireland ukandireland.bam.com

is a need for a fundamental shift in how we think about and work with water.

And from our experiences working with public and private organisations and institutions across the globe that are on the frontline of the water crises, we have identified nine features that we deem essential for organisations to successfully respond to the challenges the water sector faces. We term these the necessary characteristics of future-facing organisations.

This paper explores how organisations in the water sector can move towards a more sustainable future. It can serve as a frame of reference for organisations, as they consider their role and responsibilities and determine their strategy, focus and actions going forward.

To read more about this report visit: A new future for water | Arup

At BAM, we’re on a mission to make possible. Flood resilience, new habitats and brighter futures. At the top of our list is always making a positive impact possible - to create a more sustainable tomorrow, for everyone.

Sponsoring the Flood and Coast 2024 event is another milestone that aligns with our vision. We value every opportunity to bring clients, partners and our supply chain together to unlock what’s possible, together.

Real industry innovation. Championing modern methods of construction, and making a positive impact in a leaner, greener and more efficient way than ever before.

Partnering with

Whether your current focus is on talent development, driving innovative sustainability solutions, information sharing or expanding revenue streams, CIWEM can help support your organisational goals. We build a personal and bespoke relationship with each partner to achieve our common goals with 3 main areas of focus:

Get in touch with us and we’ll talk you through our three partnership levels and help you choose the right one for you.

Barbara Orth | Head of Partnership

+44 (0)20 7269 5828

barbara.orth@ciwem.org

Protect your communities. Enhance our environment

OUR PURPOSE IS to sustainably deliver infrastructure which is vital to the UK. We have a proven track record of delivering high profile, complex flood and coastal risk management projects and sustainable urban drainage solutions. We focus on delivering environmental improvements while reducing whole-life

carbon impacts. At the core of all our projects is technical excellence and innovation, using the latest construction techniques and technologies to ensure we offer the best value and most sustainable solutions for our clients while maximising social outcomes for the communities we work within. Trusted collaboration with our

clients and partners underpins our approach. We have a more than 25year relationship with the Environment Agency and have delivered more than 1,600 projects on behalf of the Canal and River Trust, since 2015.

Our capabilities are broad; from creating vital new intertidal habitats on the Lower Otter Restoration Project to heavy civil engineering that will facilitate the Bridgwater tidal barrier – one of England’s largest flood defences that will protect about 11,300 homes and 1,500 business from coastal changes. Whatever the challenge, we step up to it.

If you’d like to know more about what we do or if you’re interested in working with us in the future, please contact our Operations Director, Philip Ramsay at philip.ramsay@kier.co.uk

Leading with Science®

Tetra Tech is a leading global provider of consulting and engineering services. Our experts work alongside clients to deliver on objectives through sustainable and resilient solutions, backed by a global network of innovators who thrive in complex and highly regulated environments.

Flood risks adversely impact people, property, infrastructure, and the environment. Through the onset of climate change these risks will continue to increase.

Our environmentally sensitive approach provides clear solutions to complex problems in water and climate change, optimising sustainability and minimising environmental impact for our clients.

Tetra Tech delivers consultancy services across a range of sectors and complexities including Water & Wastewater, Government Services, Energy & Utilities, Defence, Nuclear, Transport, Property & Residential.

• Having little/no insurance claim or lasting flood damage

• After Build Back Better be back home within days or even hours

• Peace of mind and protected against future floods

• Average insurance claim over £30K to repair flood damage

• Out of home for months

• Anxiety and stress about the future

Speak to your insurer to see if they offer Build Back Better

After Build Back Better families can be back in their homes in a matter of days rather than months

Offers up to £10,000 extra to enable property flood resilience measures to be installed following a flood insurance claim

Build Back Better gives homeowners peace of mind that next time it floods their homes and lives are protected

Reduces future flood insurance claims by keeping more water out and protecting homes against the water that does get in Scan this QR code to visit our Build Back Better webpage

Photo by Flood Control International

ABG Ltd www.abg-Geosynthetics.com

AECOM

B

BAM

At AECOM, we believe infrastructure creates opportunity for everyone –upliftingcommunities, improving access and sustaining our planet.We’re trusted advisors — planners, designers, engineers, consultants and program and construction managers — delivering professional services spanning cities, transportation, buildings, water, energy, and the environment. Working throughout the project lifecycle, we’re one team driven by a common purpose to deliver a better world.

Aldgate Tower, 2 Leman Street, London E1 8FA

Tel: 020 7061 7000

AE YATES GROUP

The A E Yates Group of companies has developed to offer a complete service for our customers’ civil and ground engineering needs. The stability and strength of the group, combined with a diversified offering across construction, provides customers with confidence in project delivery.

Cranfield Road Lostock Industrial Estate Greater Manchester, UK, BL6 4SB Tel: 01204 696175 aeyates.co.uk/

Aquatic Control Engineering www.aquaticcontrol.co.uk

Arc Marine Ltd www.arcmarine.co.uk

Arcelormittal sheetpiling.arcelormittal.com/

ARUP

We shape a better world

Dedicated to sustainable development, Arup is a collective of designers, consultants and experts working across 140 countries. Founded to be both humane and excellent, we collaborate with our clients and partners using imagination, technology and rigour to shape a better world.

8 Fitzroy Street London, UK, W1T 4BJ www.arup.com/

AtkinsRéalis

Engineering a better future for our planet and its people.

AtkinsRéalis business is one of the world’s most respected design, engineering and project management consultancies. As a global fully integrated professional services and project management company, we help our clients plan, design and enable major capital projects, and provide expert consultancy that covers the full project lifecycle.

Woodcote Grove, Ashley Road, Epsom, Surrey, UK, KT18 5BW

Tel: 0113 306 6320

ATM www.atm-Ltd.co.uk

Autodesk www.innovyze.com

At BAM, we imagine, create and enrich buildings and infrastructure across the UK & Ireland. Our vision is to build a sustainable tomorrow. We think beyond the build and focus on the bigger impact. It’s how we make the iconic buildings and infrastructure that shape our society. And that’s why we’re on a mission to make possible. But what are we making possible? Flood resilience, new habitats and brighter futures. Connected communities, safe working environments and local employment opportunities. These are just some of the things we’re making possible, wherever we go. At the top of our list is always making a positive impact possible - to create a more sustainable tomorrow, for everyone.

St James House, Knoll Road, Camberley, UK, GU15 3XW Tel: 01276 63484 ukandireland.bam.com

Bioscapes Limited www.bioscapes.co.uk

BMT www.bmt.org

Boskalis Westminster Ltd westminster.boskalis.com/ Breheny www.breheny.co.uk

C

CIWEM

Partnering with individuals and organisations across the FCERM sector we develop careers, provide professional assurance and, most importantly, connect people and organisations to positive water and environment solutions. Through our membership, events, training, publications, awards and policy activities, we build a global community of people passionate about water and environmental solutions to amplify our collective impact on the world. 106-109 Saffron Hill, London EC1N 8QS, UK Tel: 020 7831 3110 www.ciwem.org

Coastsense

www.coastsense.com

Concrete Canvas www.concretecanvas.com

E

Econcrete

www.econcretetech.com

Exo Engineering www.exo-env.co.uk

Environment Agency

We create better places for people and wildlife and support sustainable development. We manage water resources, drought and the risk of flooding from main rivers, reservoirs, estuaries and the sea. We also take a strategic overview of other’s work to manage flood risk from all sources. This year at Flood and Coast, the Environment Agency have a central stand, offering a diverse range of showcase elements, brought to you by a collection of teams, either directly involved in FCERM, or delivering cross-cutting activities that support flood and coastal priorities. Horizon House, Deanery Road, Bristol, England, BS1 5AH Tel: 03708 506 506 www.gov.uk/government/organisations/environment-agency

F

Fairfield Engineering Solutions www.fairfields.co.uk/Fes

Flood Control Ni Ltd www.watertightinternational.com

Flood Mary www.floodmary.com/

Flood Re

Jacobs Flood Modeller www.floodmodeller.com

JBA Bentley www.jba-Bentley.co.uk

JBA Consulting www.jbaconsulting.com

K

KIER

Flood Re is a joint initiative between the government and insurers. Its aim is to make the flood cover part of household insurance policies more affordable. Flood Re helps households at the highest risk of flooding. We also provide information about taking action to reduce flood risk. Flood Re will run for 25 years, at which point insurers should be offering policies based on actual risk to property. www.floodre.co.uk

Frog Environmental www.frogenvironmental.co.uk

Fuel Cell Systems www.fuelcellsystems.co.uk/Home

G

Geodesign Barriers Ltd www.geodesignbarriers.com/En/

Geofabrics www.geofabrics.com

Geogrow www.geogrow.com

Geosynthetics Ltd www.geosyn.co.uk

Gilmour & Aitken Ltd www.gilmouraitkin.com

Grass Concrete Ltd www.grasscrete.com

Greenblue Urban www.greenblue.com/Gb/

Groundwork South Trust Ltd FCIP

Gutteridge, Haskins & Davey Limited www.ghd.com

Hesselberg Hydro www.hesselberg-Hydro.com

I

Ibs Engineered Products Ltd www.ibsengineeredproducts.co.uk

Ibstock www.ibstock.co.uk

Ics Consulting www.icsconsulting.co.uk

Iline Technologies Ltd www.iline.uk.com

J

J T Mackley www.mackley.co.uk

Jackson Civils www.jackson-Civills.co.uk

JACOBS

Across our company, across our offices, across the world, we’re continually challenging today to reinvent tomorrow. At Jacobs, we’re challenging today to reinvent tomorrow by solving the world’s most critical problems for thriving cities, resilient environments, mission-critical outcomes, operational advancement, scientific discovery and cutting-edge manufacturing, turning abstract ideas into realities that transform the world for good. With $15 billion in revenue and a talent force of more than 60,000, Jacobs provides a full spectrum of professional services including consulting, technical, scientific and project delivery for the government and private sector. We help make the world smarter, more connected and more sustainable, supporting better outcomes for Advanced Manufacturing, Cities & Places, Energy & Environment, Health & Life Sciences, Infrastructure, National Security and Space. Cottons Centre, Hay’s Ln, London, City of London, UK, SE1 2QG www.jacobs.com/

For nearly 100 years, we have been delivering infrastructure for communities across the UK. And now, more than ever, it’s important that we do this sustainably.

Our sustainability framework - Building for a Sustainable World - sets out how we will continue to deliver infrastructure that benefits the environment and local communities. The world has changed since we launched this framework in 2020 - and so has Kier.

We’ve reviewed and evolved the framework to build on everything we’ve done to date to support the environment and local communities. It now focuses on three areas where we believe we can make the biggest difference - our people, our places and our planet. Hawthorn House, Emporer Way, Exeter Business Park, Exeter, Devon EX1 3QS Tel: 01792 301818 www.kier.co.uk

Kisters www.kisters.eu

Kite Projects Ltd www.kite-Projects.co.uk

M

Mg Solutions (Uk) Ltd www.markhamglobal.com

Moore Concrete www.moore-Concrete.com

Mott MacDonald

Mott MacDonald recognises our responsibility as a global consultancy in tackling the world’s biggest challenges. We aim to be a leading global partner in sustained economic, social, cultural and environmental wellbeing. Our journey is fuelled by our values, guiding us to not only meet but exceed the UN Global Compact’s principles and Sustainable Development Goals. With our clients and partners, Mott MacDonald is committed to making a positive difference. How big a difference is up to all of us. That’s why we want to talk about the future we can create, together. Through collaboration between governments, cities, businesses and communities, we can act now to combat climate change and build a sustainable future, translating commitments into behaviour and actions.

www.mottmac.com/

Naue www.naue.com

National Flood Forum www.nationalfloodforum.org.uk/

P

Pics www.hatcrete.com

Platipus Anchors www.platipus-Anchors.com

Polypipe www.polypipe.com

Pontoon Works www.pontoonworks.co.uk

Qualter Hall & Co Ltd www.qualterhall.co.uk

Ridgeway Online www.rockbags.com

Rivers Trust www.theriverstrust.org

Rsk Adas Ltd www.adas.co.uk

Scalgo www.scalgo.com

Soluform www.soluform.co.uk

Sscl www.sscl.com/

Stantec

At Stantec we have been working with our clients and communities in the UK for over 150 years. With more than 1,800 people working in integrated regional teams, we plan, design, deliver and manage the development and infrastructure needed to support the creation of sustainable, healthy and prosperous communities. stantec.com

Stonbury www.stonbury.com

Systra www.systra.com/Uk/

Tetra Tech

Leading with Science®

Tetra Tech is a leading provider of consulting and engineering services with 28,000 associates working across the full project life cycle worldwide. Our operations in the UK and Europe include more than 5,000 employees who are Leading with Science® to solve our clients’ most complex problems. Tetra Tech’s experts in the UK and Europe work alongside clients on local, national, and international projects to deliver on their objectives by providing sustainable and resilient solutions. From single projects to large-scale programmes, we are adept at working in complex or highly regulated environments.

3 Sovereign Square, Sovereign Street, Leeds, UK, LS1 4ER Tel: 0113 278 7111

www.tetratecheurope.com/

Trapbag www.trapbag.com

Ud Live www.udlive.io/ UK Centre For Ecology www.ceh.ac.uk University Of Hull www.hull.ac.uk

Van Oord UK Ltd Marine Ingenuity

Van Oord, one of the world’s leading dredging and marine contractors, has been established in the UK since 1924 and specialises in capital and maintenance dredging, port development, coastal defence, land reclamation and pipeline installation. Van Oord’s fully owned subsidiary company, JT Mackley Construction, has been established for over 90 years and specialises in the delivery of civil engineering projects in the coastal, fluvial, waste, water, ports harbours, energy and infrastructure sectors. Van Oord and Mackley’s specialised professionals have an unrivalled experience in and understanding of marine construction projects in the UK. In addition, we are able to draw upon the expertise of over 5000 staff who are available to support our operations and be deployed on our projects as need demands. We understand cooperation is essential to achieving best results. We work closely with our clients, supply chain and stakeholders, to not only ensure the most cost effective solutions are achieved but also the most suitable. Van Oord was one of the first contractors to partner with the Environment Agency for the delivery of their coastal infrastructure project and continues to do so on their current framework. Many of the Environment Agency’s major coastal protection schemes have been executed by Van Oord and Mackley, these including: • Saltfleet to Gibraltar Point Scheme Beach Management Works • Hythe Ranges Sea Defence • Lydd Ranges Sea Defence • Bacton to Walcott • Shoreham Adur Tidal Walls Scheme; • Broomhill Sands Coastal Defence Scheme; • Happisburgh to Winterton; and • Jaywick; Bankside House, Henfield Road, Small Dole, West Sussex, UK, BN5 9XQ 01273 494843 www.vanoord.com/

VolkerStevin

VolkerStevin is one of the UK’s leading flood and coastal defence contractors. We have worked collaboratively alongside the Environment Agency and local authorities to protect communities, people, homes and businesses from flooding for more than 20 years. Our team brings decades of experience, expert technical capability, innovative thinking and a deep understanding of client objectives, risks, opportunities, social value, decarbonisation and the importance of stakeholder management and community engagement when delivering flood and coastal works.

The Lancashire Hub, Preston City Park, Bluebell Way, Preston, PR2 5PE Tel: 01772 708620 volkerstevin.co.uk

Waitings www.waitings.org

Wallingford Hydrom Solutions www.hydrosolutions.co.uk

WATERMAN ASPEN

Waterman Aspen has built careers and provided technical expertise to our clients for over 35 years. Working right across the engineering spectrum, from major national infrastructure projects to smaller scale local schemes which require specialist support, we welcome engineers and technical specialists to make their mark on some of the biggest infrastructure projects across the UK on a secondment basis. We provide you with the right people at the right time – for as long as you need them.

Tel: 01245 203333

watermanaspen.co.uk

West Northampton Council www.westnorthants.gov.uk

WIFCERM www.womeninfcerm.org

William M Snape www.stormmeister.com

WM Plant Hire www.wmplanthire.com

WSP Binnies

Delivering sustainable outcomes through collaborative working, CapitaBinnies has the right resources across the FCM project lifecycle to solve your most difficult challenges. We deliver key digital strategies and change, ensuring our clients have the data they need, where and when it is needed, to support informed decision making. We have unique capabilities in delivery of nature-based solutions, green finance and support to unlock funding of outcomes that enhances the ability to deliver your schemes. We are driven by sustainable outcomes that support communities and our clients in the drive for net zero carbon. Come and meet some of our inspiring team today.

Address: 60 High Street, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1SH

Tel: 01737 856353

wsp.com / binnies.com

AECOM ADVERTORIAL

AECOM: Integrating strategy with nature

AS PROUD SPONSORS of Flood & Coast, AECOM stands at the forefront of tackling the world’s most complex water challenges. Trusted globally by governments, local authorities, and industry leaders, we are the goto experts in creating sustainable, resilient communities.

By combining our global expertise and deep understanding of local ecosystems, we engineer innovative solutions that work in harmony with nature. In close collaboration with our clients and partners, whether it’s pioneering flood defences, restoring delicate wetlands, or enhancing water quality, we’re committed to delivering results that make a real difference.

We’re not just building infrastructure; we’re delivering a better world — one where nature and strategy work hand in hand to create a world that’s safer, more sustainable, and more resilient for generations to come.

With a global water team of

over 7,000 professionals, including 800 experts in the UK, we have the specialised capabilities needed to create innovative solutions tailored to the unique challenges of flooding and coastal erosion.

Our comprehensive multidisciplinary services include engineering feasibility and design, digital asset management, and project management. With proficiency in water science, hydrology, and environmental restoration, we excel in managing cost, carbon, and construction supervision, ensuring sustainable solutions from planning to execution.

We launched Sustainable Legacies, our transformative ESG strategy to advance sustainability initiatives that deliver positive impact. This strategy integrates four key pillars that embed sustainable development and resilience across our work, improve social outcomes for communities, achieve net-zero carbon emissions and enhance governance.

- 05 June 2025

Flood & Coast is a unique event that attracts exhibitors, speakers and visitors from around the world to advance the debate about the impacts of climate change on ﬂood and coastal erosion risk management (FCERM).

More information and updates for our Flood & Coast 2025 event, scheduled from 03 - 05 June at the Telford International Centre, will be released soon.

https://www.floodandcoast.com/event

For stand bookings and sponsorship opportunities please contact:

Tel: +44 (0) 203 900 0102

Email: ciwemevents@syonmedia.com

Hello, weʼre KISTERS.

A trusted global partner with over 60 years of experience helping businesses and government organisations solve environmental challenges.

At KISTERS, weʼre an agile team of experts, engineers, scientists and environmental specialists who understand the intricacies of your business. We develop and deliver effective, data-driven solutions, from software to sensors, across a range of platforms to make your projects a success.

Discover more today.