Flood management conference in late June to reflect on the events of the past year

High-Tide-in-Weymouth-Harbour-March-2020
High Tide in Weymouth Harbour in March 2020 (image credit: Andrew Bone, CC BY 2.0 license).

The 2021 Flood and Coast virtual conference and expo will be held virtually on the 28 June – 1 July 2021.

“Produced by CIWEM in partnership with the Environment Agency, Flood and Coast brings together professionals across the FCERM community to discuss innovative ways of working together and with the communities most affected by flooding and coastal erosion in today’s changing climate,” says a statement from the organisers.

The event will take place across four days, with each day focusing on interactive sessions, live exhibition booths and networking opportunities.

Caroline Douglass, Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, Katie Kimber, Rachel Maskell and Helen Jackson are among the conference speakers delivering a session on what can be learned from the experience of trying to tackle flooding during the events of the past year. They will consider “the double threat to communities from flooding and COVID-19” and will explore what the last year taught us about how communities can “recover, build back better, and become more resilient to the impacts of climate change.”

Building social resilience through effective community partnerships is another theme.

Questions to be considered include: how can organisations work effectively with communities to see, understand and tackle future flood risk.

It is key to understand what mechanisms enable collaborative working most effectively and how to get the right people engaged in the right places at the right times.

Evolving to a more resilient future requires an understanding the pitfalls and challenges of coastal erosion and flood risk management and obtaining advice on how to encourage new coastal partnerships.

The conference will address specific topics like innovation and efficiency in flood modelling and forecasting, good examples of SuDs successes and challenges, managing multiple risks concurrently and exploring new ideas around the management and maintenance of assets.

In addition, there will be a conversation around the benefits of resilient development and PFR, and the challenges faced, as well as the behavioural insights work and the National PFR Pathfinders.

Registrations for the conference are open, delegates can purchase a four-day pass to attend the whole conference (VIP access to all sessions, networking and expo areas) or book one-day tickets to attend the sessions of most interest to them. Visitor passes are also available for those interested in accessing the networking and expo areas only.

Register to attend at www.floodandcoast.com.