Wild LIVE: Could nature be our best flood defence?
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Event details
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About the event
5.2 million properties in England (one in six) are at risk of flooding and two thirds of England is reliant on infrastructure, which is at risk of being flooded. This includes much of our critical infrastructure such as energy, water treatment and transport. Flood risk is expected to at least double by 2050, even with the current mitigation efforts.
Natural Flood Management (NFM) is gaining traction as a lower-cost, multi-benefit complement to traditional ‘hard’ flood defences to help to protect communities from the effects of river, coastal and surface water flooding. The UK Government’s latest Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy, published in 2020, explicitly stated that natural processes should sit at the heart of flood risk management. Its policy statement committed to doubling the number of flood management projects, which include nature-based solutions. The Environment Agency estimates that this means around 260 Natural Flood Management projects need to be implemented with UK Government funding in England during the period 2021 – 2027.
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Click here to register to join the event in-person from The University of Hull. There will be a bar open from 5pm so do join us for a drink before the event starts at 6pm.
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Welcome speech from:
Professor Stuart McLelland - Professor of Water Science and Deputy Director of the Energy and Environment Institute
Stuart's research focuses on physical modelling of flow processes and sediment transport dynamics. His main interests are in river dynamics, but sediment and water are everywhere so he works across a range of scales and also studies estuarine and coastal environments. Stuart leads on our SuDSlab initiative, which has transformed the University of Hull campus into a ‘Living Lab’ for Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS). Stuart manages research in the Total Environment Simulator (TES), which is a world-class experimental facility, operated by the University of Hull, where he is developing a new Property Flood Resilience testing facility. Through the TES we also develop experimental models incorporating environmental fluid and sediment dynamics across with flow, waves and rainfall in conjunction with a suite of laser and acoustic measurement equipment. Stuart manages and delivers MSc teaching programmes for the Energy and Environment Institute, including the MSc Flood Risk Management.
Our panel
Rachael Bice - Chief Executive of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
Rachael moved to Yorkshire in 2019 from Cornwall to lead the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust team. She brings 20 years of experience across the public sector, mainly focussed on strategic change through partnership and policy development.
She has a deep passion for personal growth, our relationship with animals and the environment, and seeks out the wild whenever she can, now often in the Dales and North York Moors. These passions are reflected in her academic studies of Land Economy, Equine Science and Anthrozoology, and a desire to create mainstream ideas from eco-psychology and deep-ecology.
She is an RSA Fellow and a member of Homeward Bound, an international leadership network for women seeking to create a more sustainable world.
Mike Morris - Techincal Director at Stantec
Mike is the lead for Integrated Catchments across Stantec’s UK Water Sector. With a passion for collaboration to achieve natural solutions for landscape scale restoration he brings over 20 years’ experience from the NGO and consultancy sectors.
Prior to joining Stantec, he was the Chief Executive Officer for the Severn Rivers Trust and Vice Chair of Afonydd Cymru before entering consultancy focusing on Nature Tech to increase global knowledge on freshwater species. He has led multiple river and catchment restoration projects focused on the multiple benefits to people, climate and nature provided by Nature-based Solutions.
Mike is a Chartered Environmentalist and the independent Chair of the Severn Uplands Flood Forum.
Chair
Trai Anfield
Craig Bennett - Chief Executive at The Wildlife Trusts
Craig has been described as “one of the country’s top environmental campaigners”, by The Guardian as “the very model of a modern eco-general” and, in 2021, was included in The Sunday Times Green Power List of the UK’s top 20 environmentalists.
Craig was formerly CEO of Friends of the Earth where he refocussed the organisation to empower communities to take action on the climate & ecological crises, resulting in a step change in the scale and impact of the movement, with over 200 new Friends of the Earth community groups set up during his tenure. He also led the organisation to numerous campaign victories including on bees, fracking and against the expansion of Heathrow Airport.
Earlier in his career, Craig was Deputy Director at The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), and Director of The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change (from 2007 to 2010) which he transformed into one of the most progressive business voices on the international climate change agenda.
He is Honorary Professor of Sustainability and Innovation at Alliance Manchester Business School, an Associate Fellow of Homerton College (Cambridge), a Senior Associate of The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and a Policy Fellow of The Centre for Science and Policy at The University of Cambridge. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
We strive to make all of our panels as inclusive as possible and always aim to ensure a good balance in panel membership. We are keen to provide opportunities for underrepresented voices where we can.
Contact us: digital@wildlifetrusts.org