The UK’s readiness
to meet the challenges of flood and coastal erosion will come under the
spotlight at a major exhibition and conference in March.
Flood & Coast is
the major annual gathering of UK flood and coastal erosion risk management
professionals.
Convened by the
Environment Agency, Flood & Coast takes place at the Telford International
Centre from 20-22 March.
Delegates will
include representatives from the Environment Agency, local authorities and
related agencies, water companies, research academics, businesses,
manufacturers and communities affected by, or at risk from, flooding.
Speakers will
include the Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, Sir James Bevan, senior
executives from the Environment Agency, the Chief Executive of the Met Office,
Rob Varley, and Baroness Brown of Cambridge, Chair of the Adaptation
Sub-Committee of the Committee on Climate Change.
One eagerly awaited
address will be by guest speaker Jeff Lindner. A Director with the Harris
County Flood Control District in Houston, Texas, he will speak about the
response to the devastating floods that accompanied Hurricane Harvey last
August.
Flood & Coast is
the authoritative event for flood and coastal risk management in the UK, says
Clare Dinnis, Deputy Director Strategy Deliver with the Environment Agency.
The three-day event
has been organised under the general theme of ‘Risk, resilience and response in
a changing climate’.
Conference delegates
will explore how organisations and agencies involved in managing the risk of
flooding can work in partnership with each other and with communities.
They will consider
ways of making homes and communities more resilient to lessen the impact of
flooding.
Looking ahead, the
conference will also consider the impact on flooding of challenges such as
climate change and how the UK needs to respond.
A further strand
running throughout this year’s event will be sessions dedicated to the
Environment Agency’s National Flood and Coastal Risk Management Strategy. These
sessions will consider the direction the next strategy should take, the
challenges it is likely to face and what it will need to achieve.
The exhibition is
also a crucial networking space, adds Paul Cobbing, Chief Executive of the
National Flood Forum charity and a member of the Flood & Coast 2018
Advisory Committee.
“Flood & Coast
brings together a rich concentration of flooding and coastal risk management
experts and a mix of commercial companies, product manufacturers, community
representatives and academics,” says Paul.
“Bringing together
so many people from such diverse backgrounds and perspectives creates a much
more interesting event. The opportunity for networking is one of the most
valuable aspects that Flood & Coast provides.”
Flood & Coast
2018 will also host a gala dinner, on 21 March, where the winners of this
year’s Environment Agency Project Excellence Awards will be announced.
The awards celebrate
best practice in project areas such as programme and project delivery,
partnership working, asset management, innovation, value for money,
sustainability and community leadership.
Flood & Coast’s
association partners include the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the
National Flood Forum, the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental
Management (CIWEM) and the Association of Drainage Authorities (ADA).
Flood & Coast is
kindly sponsored by Van Oord, Black & Veatch, Jacobs, Flood Modeller, AECOM
and VolkerStevin, Boskalis Westminster and Atkins (VBA).
