CIWEM Urban Drainage Group Annual Conference 2022

In confronting these challenges this year we will focus on 3 main themes:

Delivering on societies expectations for overflow spill reductions and mitigating wider environmental impact – including, and spanning well beyond, the modelling implications of achieving both interim reductions in frequency and ultimately 10 spills per annum whilst maintaining the serviceability of the network
Sewerage Planning - with the Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans coming to a conclusion and the Periodic Review for England and Wales in full swing numerous aspects of our evolving approaches to managing risk, asset health, and future change will be considered against the backdrop of stakeholder engagement
Partnership Outcomes - Recognising that concrete alone can not offer viable solutions to all flooding and overflow reduction ambitions the importance and benefit of partnership working is ever increasingly. With schemes now successfully operating it is opportune to reflect on both successes and lessons learnt.

We’ll welcome a range of expert speakers to give you the latest range of viewpoints, opinion and leading knowledge.

The WaPug Prize 2022 and the Adam Dean Award will be presented at the CIWEM UDG Annual General Meeting on 10th November at 13:00 in Hilton Birmingham Metropole during the CIWEM UDG Annual Conference 2022.

WaPUG Prize 2022

The CIWEM Urban Drainage Group's WaPUG Prize celebrates our rich heritage of UK urban drainage management, as well as honouring leaders and technologies of the future.

The winner will be invited to the CIWEM Annual Dinner in 2023 and our annual conference in November in 2023.

The closing date for nominations is 21 August 2022.

Find out more about the WaPUG Prize

The Adam Dean Award 2022

The Adam Dean Award is aimed towards encouraging those yet to take the big step of presenting at a conference to develop a poster presentation to be displayed and presented to a judging panel at the CIWEM UDG Annual Conference 2022.

Applications are invited from those with under four years experience and should take the form of a 200 word summary. The selection of the finalists will made using the following criteria:

Demonstrating clear understanding of the project needs and benefits to the client, environment or community;
Understanding of technical challenges and/or any innovation;
Outlining the individual’s direct contribution to the project;
Describing what the individual has gained from their involvement and how it will apply in their careers.

The closing date for applications is 21st August 2022. All enquiries and entries should be emailed to katherine.allsop@wsp.com,

First Prize: £400

The closing date for applications is 21 August 2022.

Find out more about the Adam Dean Award

Event Information

Accommodation: Please note accommodation is not included in the above rates. We have created a HotelMap to show you all of the latest deals at all the nearby hotels: https://HotelMap.com/MH2DR

Event sustainability: CIWEM is committed to ensuring that all areas of our operation are entirely consistent with delivering as effectively as possible against the challenges of a climate and ecological emergency. We have recognized areas where we can improve our ecological and social impact.

Catering: As such we have worked closely with the Hilton Birmingham Metropole catering team to produce vegetarian and vegan lunch menus for the CIWEM UDG Annual Conference 2022.

Venue & Travel emissions: With travel having such a significant impact on carbon emission, we've asked our delegates to share with us their travel choices in order to measure our event carbon footprint. We've partnered with Hilton to measure our environmental impact by estimating our carbon emissions, waste produced and, energy and water use during the event.

Printing: We are trying to reduce our printing before and during event to minimum, by using interactive QR codes on badges for our agenda programme and digital screens onsite.

Speaker selection, D&I and equality monitoring: CIWEM is committed to improving gender balance on the speaker programme at our conferences. We understand that getting the experts and most relevant persons may not always be a visible diverse panel but we are working towards a more diverse future and are constantly reviewing our speaker selection methods and equality monitoring.

Why attend?

Join CPD-accredited panel sessions and live presentations with recognised industry leaders
Discuss the latest industry developments
Meet and interact with speakers, exhibitors and delegates
Participate in group workshops and discussions
Network and arrange meetings with new colleagues

CONFERENCE SPEAKERS

Ari Feldman, Optimatics

Ari earned his Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois with a research concentration in hydraulic modeling and sewer network conveyance analysis. As an Optimization Engineer on the Strategic Support Team at Optimatics, Ari assists clients with formulating and implementing optimisation solutions for water distribution and collection networks.

Francisco Simon, Scottish Water

Francisco is a Chartered Engineer with 17 years’ experience working in the UK water sector. He is a senior hydraulic modeller with Scottish Water based in Edinburgh. In recent years Francisco has led the development of 2Di (Scottish Water direct rainfall modelling approach) to support the company storm water strategy.

Gwen Rhodes, Stantec

Gwen Rhodes is a Principal Civil Engineer with 20 years' experience and in the US and the UK. She has successfully delivered solutions to flooding and water quality challenges including bathing water improvement schemes, SuDS, surface water separation, CSO screening and storage, and flood alleviation schemes. Gwen is also active within her local community to support STEM activities

Jack Robinson, Severn Trent

Jack has worked at Severn Trent for 11 years, learning the ropes in the capital design team before moving on to support more strategically through PR19, PR24 and more recently with DWMPs. Outside of work Jack spends most of his time-consuming food and hitting the gym.

James Ballard, Severn Trent

Bio: James is a Chartered Electrical Engineer, inventor and architect with 8 years experience in the Water Industry and named inventor in UK patents. He specialises in Control and Automation systems, the Artificial Intelligence of Things and Digital Twins.

Jo Bradley, Stormwater Shepherds UK

Jo Bradley has worked on many aspects of water management during her 30-year career in the UK. She completed 28 years at the Environment Agency where she focussed on many pollution prevention topics but in the last decade, Jo’s attention has been on pollution from urban surfaces and roads. She worked for SDS Limited for four years, specifying stormwater treatment devices in SuDS schemes and in September 2020, she became Director of Operations for Stormwater Shepherds UK where she is now dedicated to the pursuit of better stormwater management, and the development of a funding mechanism to deliver that management.

Juan Scouller, Defra

Juan heads up the Water Industry team in Defra, looking at the impact of water industry on the quality of our waters. He is the Defra lead on storm overflows and has previously worked on international engagement on water issues

Keith Herbert, Southern Water

Keith has 15 years’ experience in the water industry across water supply, distribution, wastewater and external affairs. Most recently, Keith has been the area manager for the Isle of Wight. Fewer places have seen a larger backlash regarding storm overflows which motivated Keith to join the Storm Overflow Task Force.

Leah Humphries, Yorkshire Water

Leah is currently working as the Inland Bathing Water Manager at Yorkshire Water with over 7 years’ experience in the water industry. She has previously worked in roles in waste water, flood risk and more recently bathing water. Leah previously worked as the Coastal Delivery Manager focusing on improving Yorkshire’s 19 coastal bathing waters before transitioning to focus on the UK’s first riverine bathing water designation at Ilkley.

Luke Ferriday, ICS Consulting

Luke is a senior consultant at ICS Consulting where he specialises in asset management, stakeholder engagement and GIS analysis. Having previously worked for one of the regional water companies, Luke aided in developing the first DWMP where he recognised the importance of long-term strategic planning.

Mark Russell, Yorkshire Water

Mark Russell is a CIWEM UDG Committee member and has over 25 years’ experience in the water industry, working both as a client and consultant. He is currently Yorkshire Water’s Modelling & Data Manager, leading their Urban Drainage Modelling work, recently focusing on their Flood Alleviation Partnerships, SOAF and UPM programmes.

Mary Dhonau

Mary runs her own consultancy MD Associates specialising in PFR. She is the author of an eBook ‘Property Flood Resilience'. She is a member of the Defra PRF round table and spearheaded the award-winning Cumbria Property Resilience round table. In 2009 she was awarded an OBE for Services to the Environment in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Paul Hargreaves, Jacobs

Paul is a Senior Associate Director at Jacobs with a passion for blue green infrastructure, SuDS, and nature-based solutions. Paul has over 20 years’ experience in this sphere, having co-authored best practice guidance for CIRIA relating to design for exceedance, as well as flood risk policy statements for ICE.

Rebecca McLean

Rebecca has been in the DWMP team at Severn Trent for the last 5 years, giving her the experience of working on the DWMP from the early stages of developing processes to the more recent draft publication. Outside of work she is a keen walker, reader and sports player.

Theo Thomas

Theo launched London Waterkeeper in 2014. The organisation uses environmental laws and grassroots advocacy to drive change. It a member of Waterkeeper Alliance – a federation founded in the US in 1999 which preserves and protects water by connecting local Waterkeeper groups worldwide. He grew up in rural Wales, and after university spent five years at BBC Radio Leicester and BBC East Midlands TV. He made the move to London twenty years ago to take a position at Keep Britain Tidy, before transferring to Thames21, where he spent 12 years as Senior Programme Manager.

Rick Battarbee, University College London

Rick Battarbee FRS is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Change and the former Director of the Environmental Change Research Centre at University College London. He is a freshwater ecologist and palaeolimnologist. In retirement he chairs the Addingham Environment Group and leads citizen science projects on the River Wharfe.

Robert Palmer, Stantec

Robert Palmer is a Chartered Environmentalist with 15 years’ experience working as a consultant for in the water industry. He has a broad range of experience from water quality schemes to wastewater networks and is currently working as a Project Technical Lead in the Catchments & Nature Based Solutions team. Rob is also leading Stantec’s riverine bathing waters response, having worked on the UK’s first two riverine sites at Ilkley and Oxford Port Meadow, as well as many ongoing applications and potential future sites.

Simon De-Ville, The University of Sheffiled

Dr Simon De-Ville is an Early Career Researcher at the University of Sheffield working in the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering. Over the past 9 years, Simon has explored the complex interactions between water and soil within Green Infrastructure, focusing on how the dynamics of living systems affect stormwater management performance.

Adam Smart

Adam Smart is Chartered with CIWEM and has over 15 years of modelling experience. Having worked for both consultancies and water companies he has an appreciation of both sides of the fence. He is currently working as Environmental Modelling Team Leader with Yorkshire Water which allows him to work on a range of studies including UPMs, catchment modelling, SOAF assessments, coastal modelling and today's topic inland bathing water studies.

Robert McTaggart, Stantec

Rob has worked in the water industry for over 25 years and has extensive experience in the delivery of capital programmes. As technical director, he delivers innovative wastewater infrastructure and oversees technical governance and the development of innovative workflow procedures to maximise efficiency. His goal? To work in collaboration with clients and regulators to achieve funded obligations and outcomes using innovative delivery and sound science techniques.

Karen Dee, Scottish Water

Karen leads the Wastewater Service Strategy team who develop, plan and implement the strategies to deliver a wastewater service that adapts to meet the future challenges. Her responsibilities include Regulation, Strategy, Flooding, System Planning, hydraulic modelling, standardisation and engineering. Karen joined Scottish Water in 2015 following a career with Veolia and Thames Water, where she gained experience in Wastewater Operations, Design and Commissioning and PFI operations. Karen is a Chemical Engineer.