I am an early career researcher working within the areas of flood risk policy, practice, and public engagement.

I have a background in professional environmental consulting and have previously worked on collaborative projects with the Environment Agency and Local Councils in understanding and mapping flood risks.

Within the last 10 years the risk of flooding in the UK has risen high on the political agenda as a result of a series of high profile flooding events and subsequent changes in policy and practice. In particular, new methods of assessing and managing ’emergent’ flood risks such as groundwater and surface water have significantly changed the face of flood risk management. There are increasing moves away from ‘flood defence’ towards a more nuanced understanding of management with responsibilities distributed across different organisations and publics.

This dispersion of risk and responsibility has highlighted issues surrounding the way in which risk and hazardscapes are formulated, who is allowed to generate and control information, how this information is used, and how we can try and reduce the asymmetry between those who have traditionally ‘produced’ risk and those who ‘consume’ it?

My research, drawing on my experience of ongoing flood risk management practice, will look at the interactions between the development of flood risk policy, its translation into practice, and how this impacts on those who experience risk, as well as exploring the ways in which we can integrate alternative perspectives on what risk might mean and how it should be represented.