I am a member of the Landwise Project Advisory Board and also contribute to working groups on farmer survey; modelling; multiple benefits and communications. I work for Natural England’s Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF), national team, as Senior Adviser; leading on Natural Flood Management (NFM), Water Resources and Bathing Waters.
As a Resource Protection Specialist I am building an integrated future CSF model on water quality, flood risk and water resources – one which turns policy into practice and can be used and understood by many people for the benefit of society.
As a Resource Protection Policy Adviser I advise Natural England and the Environment Agency (EA) on the role of land use and land management in helping manage flood risk. My wealth of experience covers working both at grass roots and influencing Policy; delivering farm advice in the UK as well as community projects overseas.
I instigated early work to explore the links between land management and flood risk including soil compaction surveys and modelling and have recently worked with the EA and Rivers Trust to mastermind the development of a web based monitoring system for the Community NFM programme. I am very keen to inform policy development both from ‘sound science’ and practical implementation and involve communities in this dialogue.
I will ensure Landwise builds on all our lessons-learnt over the last 12 years; of working with farmers and land managers to improve soil and water quality (see Phase 3 Evaluation Report) and to share relevant insights with emerging policy development through my National role for Natural England. I see Landwise as an excellent opportunity to build-on earlier work – covering soil management and knowledge exchange – and provide robust guidance on where this can most benefit flood risk management whilst providing wider benefits for all.