23 October 2025
Machine learning is a powerful technology but it’s not a universal solution. Understanding its potential, limitations and effective applications is crucial.
Following on from Part 1: An introduction to machine learning, and Part 2: The future of terrain data, this webinar explores the intersection of machine learning and hydrology, with a focus on global-scale flood and climate modeling.
You’ll learn about the challenges of building climate-conditioned flood models, the role of machine learning in innovating hydrological science and its application in real-world scenarios. Participants will gain insights into using machine learning for rainfall prediction, hydraulic modeling and addressing data scarcity and quality issues.
In this webinar, we explore:
This CPD-accredited webinar is the second in a three-part series exploring the transformative role of machine learning in flood modeling. It highlights how machine learning improves uncertainty management, enhances modeling accuracy and supports early decision-making for adaptation and resilience.
This course is approved by the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management and attendance will contribute toward your continuing professional development (CPD).
If you have any queries about this event, please contact marketing@fathom.global.
Meet the speakers
Paul Bates is a world leading authority on flood risk, a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the American Geophysical Union. His research career has focused on the development and application of computational flood models, the importance of which led to the award of the prestigious Lloyds Science of Risk Prize in 2012.
To date he has over 270 journal publications and has been awarded more than £43 million in national and international research grants. He holds a Chair in Hydrology at the University of Bristol, was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services to flood risk management in 2019.
In 2024, the European Geosciences Union awarded him the John Dalton Medal for outstanding contributions to the modelling of flood hydrology. He was the recipient of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 2025 Ven Te Chow award, which recognizes lifetime achievement in the field of hydrologic engineering.
Having co-founded Fathom in 2013, Paul chairs the company’s main board and is deeply involved in Fathom’s day-to-day research activities, from publishing papers to developing new scientific ideas, as well as mentoring and encouraging junior staff.
Chris develops and implements machine learning solutions to enhance Fathom’s flood and climate modeling capabilities, bridging the gap between numerical scientific methods and modern AI approaches.
Chris completed his PhD in high energy physics at the Compound Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at CERN before transitioning into software engineering and machine learning. His career has spanned medical diagnosis using Bayesian inference, vehicle condition assessment with computer vision modeling, patient support systems using large language models and much more, always focusing on creating real-world impact through machine learning applications.
At Fathom, Chris is making the most of the opportunity to advance scientific progress through machine learning while addressing crucial real-world challenges in flood modeling. Working with world leaders in flood and climate modelling is a huge motivation for him, as it provides an opportunity to share and combine complementary backgrounds and experiences to be greater than the sum of our parts.
As a Senior Hydrologist at Fathom, Jannis is responsible for developing hydrologic data, models and workflows. He works across almost every area of technical development. On a day-to-day basis this mostly involves developing, applying and analysing models (including their input and outputs) as well as working on inputs to Fathom’s global flood model with emphasis on global-scale estimates of extreme rainfall.
The challenging and varied workload at Fathom is a big plus for Jannis, but he has a particular interest in reproducible workflows, FAIR data and software and understanding the implications of climate and human-made changes in the water cycle on society and nature.
Before joining Fathom, Jannis was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Utrecht, where he also obtained his PhD in Hydrology. His PhD research focused on coupling hydrological and hydraulic models for improved flood simulations. Afterwards, he stayed at the University of Utrecht as post-doctoral researcher, focusing on advancing hyper-resolution hydrologic simulations, the efficiency of hydrologic measures to mitigate climate change impacts and exploring the possibilities and limitations of projecting conflict risk.
Jorge Sebastián – also known as Seb – is a Senior Climate Scientist in Fathom’s technical team. In this role he focuses on stochastic modeling; taking complex climate data and translating it into something that is usable at a local level, to input into Fathom’s state-of-the-art flood models. Primarily, Seb spends his time coding and reading research papers to stay up-to-date with the latest hydrological advances.
He was attracted to Fathom for its culture of transparency and scientific integrity. He loves being able to work alongside leaders in the industry on cutting-edge research that isn’t just about numbers and models but making a difference to the planet and its people. Seb also enjoys working somewhere where he can spend his lunch arguing with colleagues about football, drinking fresh espresso and playing with the office dogs.
Prior to joining Fathom (and relocating to Bristol), Seb lived in Switzerland while working towards his PhD in Hydrological Modeling at ETH Zurich, which he completed in 2023. Before this, Seb was a civil engineer in his home country, Chile, where he completed his undergraduate and master studies.
Gavin is a civil engineer with a strong commercial background in spatial data and technology, specializing in sectors such as infrastructure, transportation, insurance and the public sector. As Head of Engineering at Fathom, he supports clients globally by providing advanced solutions for identifying and mitigating physical risks, particularly in the areas of flooding and climate change.
Gavin is dedicated to helping engineers, climate specialists and asset owners access credible, consistent and broad-scale flood and climate risk data at all stages of the infrastructure lifecycle. Through Fathom’s global flood and climate data, he empowers organizations to make more informed, data-driven decisions and enhance long-term climate resilience. With a focus on embedding meaningful risk governance in engineering practices, Gavin is committed to advancing climate resilience and supporting the successful delivery of infrastructure projects worldwide.
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