Wallingford: Flood-risk specialist appointed visiting professor at Southampton

HR Wallingford’s chief technical director of flood risk, Ben Gouldby, has been appointed visiting professor in ocean and earth science at the University of Southampton.

Gouldby takes up the appointment at the prestigious National Oceanography Centre, where he will contribute to research and academic programmes, with a specific focus on coastal flood risk analysis.

Prior to the appointment, Gouldby collaborated with Dr Ivan Haigh, associate professor in coastal oceanography at the University of Southampton, on research into extreme but plausible coastal flooding scenarios for England and Wales. The results of this analysis have now been used to inform the coastal flooding aspects of the Cabinet Office’s National Risk Register (NRR) of Civil Emergencies.  The NRR provides a government assessment of potential major civil emergencies that could affect the UK over the next five years, and includes risks as diverse as cyber-attacks, volcanic eruptions and large-scale flooding.

photo: courtesy HR Wallingford

In addition to providing opportunities for further collaborative research, his contribution will include engagement with the MSc in Engineering in the Coastal Environment, a programme which is strongly linked to industry, and which focuses on educating coastal practitioners aiming to work in coastal engineering, both in consultancies and relevant areas of government.

Gouldby has over 20 years’ experience in the development and application of a wide range of flood risk analysis models, and in the production of flood hazard and risk maps from a range of different flood sources. 

Dr Ivan Haigh commented: “We welcome the opportunities provided by Ben’s appointment. His depth and breadth of knowledge relating to industry practice and research developments in coastal flood risk is well-established, and we very much look forward to our continuing collaboration.”