Planning for climate change, building resilience and the role of natural flood management will be amongst the topics under discussion at the Flood & Coast Conference and Exhibition (20-22 March at the Telford International Centre).
The three-day event will host contributions from 200 speakers.
Speakers this year include Sir James Bevan, Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, which is convening the event. Attendees will also hear from 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.
Other speakers include Jeff Lindner, a Director and meteorologist with the Harris County Flood Control District in Houston, Texas, who will share his experiences from Hurricane Harvey last August.
Clare Dinnis, Deputy Director of the Environment Agency, said: “Climate change is one of the biggest global threats we face. Intense storms are becoming more frequent and climate change will also raise sea levels. So this year we’re focussing on how partnerships between attendees can help us be better prepared to respond to future challenges like climate change.
“Experts from the UK and across the globe will discuss their experiences so we can learn from each other and improve how we manage flood risk and coastal erosion in the UK.”
Paul Cobbing, Chief Executive of the National Flood Forum, said: “The Flood & Coast Conference is a great chance to network – bringing together a rich concentration of flooding and coastal erosion experts with a diverse mix of backgrounds – commercial companies, product manufacturers, public organisations, community representatives and academics.
“Bringing these people together in a shared space provides a fantastic opportunity to explore how we can work together to reduce flood risk and manage coastal erosion more effectively in the UK.”
The Flood & Coast exhibition has a central role as an industry showcase. 80 exhibitors will be on hand from all sectors of the industry, offering a cost-effective medium for sourcing new suppliers, researching new products and benchmarking existing partners.
Flood & Coast is sponsored by Van Oord, Black & Veatch, Jacobs, Flood Modeller, AECOM and VBA (VolkerStevin, Boskalis Westminster and Atkins). Full details can be found at www.floodandcoast.com.
