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Workshop attendees

Workshop on Urban Flooding Research Challenges

Dr Albert Chen, Centre for Water Systems (CWS) organised a workshop on Urban Flooding Research Challenges at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) on 30th August to exchange research outcomes between the UK and China.

This workshop was part of the “ESPRIT Embedding Strategic Planning In flood Resilient ciTies” project, which is a collaboration with Tsinghua University and funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering under the UK-China Urban Flooding Research Impact Programme (UFRIP). The ESPRIT project aims to establish a holistic framework to analyse current and future flood risk in cities. The outcome will support government authorities to integrate adaptation strategies within urban planning that will enhance cities’ resilience to flooding.

During the workshop, Dr Albert Chen presented the latest work on ESPRIT. The ESPRIT partners Dave Stewart and Mike Wood from Torbay Council shared the EU-CIRCLE project research and the local authority’s experience in evaluating and managing flood risk to protect citizens from future climate change impact. Another ESPRIT partner Chris Rogers (Sweco) talked about the challenges of flood risk management from industry projects.

Researchers from other projects funded under the UFRIP also attended the workshop and introduced their projects and progress. Dr Lisa Stewart at CEH introduced the “Enhancing China-UK technical co-operation, knowledge sharing, and business opportunities in urban flood management and intelligent urban water network monitoring”; a collaboration between CEH and Changjiang River Scientific Research Institute (CRSRI).

Dr Dave Ramsbottom (HR Wallingford) shared the “Developing Engineering Options for Mitigating Future Compound Flooding Risks in Shanghai by Transferring the Expertise of UK TE2100”; a UFRIP project between the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, Shanghai Climate Change Research Centre and HR Wallingford.

Dr Steve Cole (CEH) explained their ongoing research on the Surface Water Flooding Hazard Impact Model (SWF HIM) within the Natural Hazard Partnership. Prof Dawen Yang at Tsinghua University shared the methodology for flash flood warning in rural areas and Dr Shen Yu (Chinese Academy of Sciences) talked about his research investigating pharmaceuticals sediment in an urban river network.

Following the presentations, Prof Guangtao Fu chaired a session to discuss existing research gaps and challenges. In addition to the above speakers, Bob Moore, James Miller and Michael Hutchins (all CEH) and Tracey Haxton (Wallingford Hydro Solutions) also provided valuable knowledge on urban flooding research. Participants are looking forward to advancing research methodologies through further collaborations. 

Date: 14 October 2019

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