Tuesday
Lydia Burgess-Gamble, PhD
Biodiversity Net Gain Strategy Lead, Southern Water
Website: Southern Water
Notes from a Small Island – Funding Nature-Based Solutions for Resilient Nature Recovery in England
The United Kingdom is among the most nature-depleted countries globally, with vital habitats under pressure from development, unsustainable farming, invasive species, and pollution. These threats are compounded by climate change, which is driving more frequent and severe floods, prolonged droughts, and rising marine heatwaves.
In response, a wave of innovative policy drivers and funding mechanisms is emerging to restore natural processes and deliver wide-ranging co-benefits. Yet, uptake remains challenging, often due to a lack of trust in nature-based solutions compared to traditional engineered approaches.
Lydia will explore England’s evolving environmental policy landscape, highlighting key initiatives and real-world examples where nature-based solutions (NBS) are helping to address the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change.
During her presentation she will focus on three main areas:
• Integrating Nature Flood Management measures alongside engineered infrastructure to reduce flooding and coastal erosion.
• Using farming payment incentives to support nature-positive farming and land management practices.
• Implementing mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain as part of major developments to achieve a minimum 10% net gain in biodiversity.
She will talk about the opportunities and challenges presented by these different policy drivers. The importance of sharing best practice and lessons learnt internationally will be emphasized, using examples to demonstrate the vital role that international collaboration plays in helping mainstream and scale up NBS delivery.
Dr. Lydia Burgess-Gamble has a passion for restoring natural processes to benefit people and wildlife, deepened through her PhD on river restoration monitoring, which informed a UK national guide. With over 23 years in the environmental sector, she has worked as a Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) specialist across public service and consultancy roles. She is currently Biodiversity Net Gain Strategic Lead for a water utility company, developing strategic habitat creation to offset engineering impacts. Lydia led the development of the UK’s Natural Flood Management (NFM) evidence directory, helping shift flood management from engineered approaches to nature-based solutions. She also co-developed a national NFM research program with a UK research council. Internationally, Lydia co-authored fluvial chapters for USACE’s NNBF guidelines and led an EU-funded coastal adaptation project restoring wetlands in England and France. This sparked her interest in estuarine and coastal NBS, leading to the creation of innovative coastal and marine strategies for the Environment Agency.
Wednesday
David Skuodas
Education and Outreach Director, Mile High Flood District
Website: Mile High Flood District
Personal website: www.theeffectiveclient.com
Balancing Nature and Community in Urban Waterway Design
How do we strike the right balance between natural systems, community, flood risk, and cost along waterways in an urban setting? The urban context presents a special challenge for even the most well-intentioned planners, designers, and decision makers, especially given the degree of hydromodification, dams, and diversions.
This presentation discusses the Mile High Flood District's evolving approach to nature-based urban waterway design – an approach they’ve been experimenting with for over 10 years. The presentation emphasizes a shift from solely focusing on flood protection through hydrology and hydraulics to more holistic, nature-based designs that incorporate geomorphology, vegetation, and multiple community values. The presentation includes numerous project examples to illustrate the benefits and challenges of this integrated design philosophy, highlighting the long-term cost savings and increased community value of nature-based solutions while at the same time acknowledging the special role of context.
Dave Skuodas has spent most of his 25-year career on the design, construction, and maintenance of urban waterway infrastructure, initially as an engineering consultant and then for the past 15 years leading projects at the Mile High Flood District. Dave’s passion for teaching and storytelling led to his current role as the Education and Outreach Director at the District. Dave is also the author of the book, The Effective Client: Why Being a Good Client is Smart Business in the A/E/C Industries and is the co-host of a podcast called Middle Aged Wisdom with his wife, Nancy.
Helpful Links:
- An Introduction to Riprap Video – this includes information about how we use “soil riprap” for lateral bank protection
- An Introduction to Void Filled Riprap Video – this includes information about how we build “void filled riprap” mixes like for constructed riffles
- MHFD Riprap Specification – technical specification including void filled riprap
- Construction Guidance Checklists – these are handy guidance documents meant for people headed out to observe an installation in the field
Thursday
Emily Fairfax, PhD
Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota
Website: www.emilyfairfaxscience.com
Beavers: Architects of Wildfire Resilience
Beaver dams and beaver mimicry (e.g. Beaver Dam Analogs) are gaining popularity as a low‐cost, nature-based strategy to build climate resiliency at the landscape scale. Beavers slow and store water in their ponds, canals, and the surrounding soil during wet periods which can then be accessed by riparian vegetation during droughts. As a result, the well-watered vegetation in beaver-dammed riparian corridors is less flammable. My research has shown that these beaver-influenced patches of the landscape stay green and can serve as fire refugia, preserving intact, mature riparian habitat, even during megafires. As the number of case studies grows, we’ve also begun seeing examples of beaver wetlands not just creating refugia – but also fundamentally altering wildfire behavior and spread patterns. Though questions and unexplored research directions still remain, we can say with increasing confidence that beavers create wildfire-resistant landscapes throughout the American and Canadian West. Perhaps instead of relying solely on human engineering and management to create and maintain drought and fire‐resistant waterways and riparian zones, we could benefit from partnering with beaver’s ecosystem engineering to achieve the same goals at a lower cost.
Dr. Emily Fairfax is an Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota and an affiliate faculty member at the Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory. Dr. Fairfax double majored in Chemistry and Physics as an undergraduate at Carleton College, then went on to earn a PhD in Geological Sciences with an emphasis in Hydrologic Sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder. She uses a combination of remote sensing, modeling, and field work to understand how beaver ecosystem engineering can create drought and fire-resistant patches in the landscape under a changing climate. Her research has been featured internationally in National Geographic, the New York Times, the LA Times, PBS, NPR, BBC, and others. When Dr. Fairfax says she can talk about beavers all day, she’s not kidding.