MAKING SPACE FOR WATER CONFERENCE
Restoration of blanket bogs; flood risk reduction and other benefits
23 April 2015, University of Manchester, Renold Building
Biographies of Speakers
Tim Allott – University of Manchester
Tim Allott is Professor of Physical Geography and Head of the School of Environment, Education
and Development at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on anthropogenic
impacts on upland landscapes and the management and restoration of degraded freshwater and
peatland systems, funded by grants from NERC, DEFRA and the Environment Agency. Current
work with colleagues in Manchester supports the widespread peatland restoration efforts
underway in the UK and internationally, including collaborations with external partners such as
the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN), National Trust and the Moors for the Future Partnership.
Neil Davies - Environment Agency
Neil has worked in the Environment Agency for 20 years and has considerable experience in
regulation and flood risk management. Neil is currently Deputy Director for Strategy Delivery in
Flood and Coastal Risk Management and is responsible for setting the priorities for work on
planning and development and work with other Risk Management Authorities. Prior to this, Neil
headed up the Agency’s Regulation teams and has led Flood Risk Management teams in the
South West and Midlands Regions of the Agency.
He has also spent time in the DTI working on Energy Strategy and inputting to the Government’s
2003 White Paper on Energy.
Neil has a first degree in Applied Chemistry and a PhD in Chemical Engineering. Prior to joining
the Environment Agency he worked for British Coal.
Martin Evans - University of Manchester
Martin Evans is Professor of Geomorphology and Head of Geography at the University of
Manchester. His research interests are in the erosion and restoration of blanket peatlands and
their impact on peatland hydrology and biogeochemical cycling. A particular interest is the role
of geomorphology in conditioning peatland carbon cycling, fluvial carbon fluxes and the fate of
particulate and dissolved organic carbon.
Jasper Kenter -University of Highlands and Islands
Jasper Kenter is lecturer in Ecological Economics at the University of the Highlands, Head of the
Laurence Mee Centre for Society and the Sea at the Scottish Association for Marine Science,
Honorary Fellow of the University of Edinburgh and a board member of the European Society for
Ecological Economics. He also runs EcoLogos Consultancy. He was coordinating lead author for
the UK National Ecosystem Assessment follow-on on shared, plural and cultural values of
ecosystems. His primary area of specialisation is in deliberative methods for assessing the value
of ecosystem services, including monetary and non-monetary methods.
David Milledge - University of Durham
Lecturer / Post Doctoral Research Associate in the Department of Geography, University of
Durham.
Interested in how water moves over and through the landscape and the implications this has for
sediment and chemicals. His Ph.D. has focused interest in three areas:
Using field research and numerical techniques to maximise the quality of input data, and identify,
quantify and minimise error;
Applying geotechnical engineering concepts in novel settings to create reduced complexity but
multidimensional stability analyses;
Coupling field monitoring with remote sensing to identify wet areas in the landscape.
Understanding what we can say about the driving forces behind their spatial and temporal
patterns and how these change in different environments.
Nick Odoni - University of Durham
Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Geography, University of Durham
Michael Pilkington - Moors for the Future Partnership
Mike Pilkington is the project manager for the Making Space for Water Project in the Moors for
the Future Partnership. His previous research involved the influence of nutrient transformations
on plant community dynamics and he has worked on upland moors in Wales and meadows in
Derbyshire. Before joining Moors for the Future Partnership, he was a post-doctoral research
associate in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield.
Jim Rouquette - University of Northampton
Jim is a research ecologist and conservation biologist at the University of Northampton. His
primary research interest is in ecosystem services and biodiversity, particularly in relation to
rivers and their catchments. His research focuses on modelling and mapping ecosystem services
and biodiversity, operationalising the ecosystem approach, and exploring the implications for
policy and practice. Jim also carries out research on riverine and wetland ecology and
conservation and has completed a number of major interdisciplinary research projects, as well as
consultancy contracts.
Colin Smith - Defra
Colin is an Economic Adviser in Defra with over 17 years’ experience working in Government,
having worked on agriculture, food policy and the natural environment. In recent years he has
been working on payments for ecosystem services, ecosystems valuation and natural capital
accounting. Colin has helped to manage Defra’s Payments for Ecosystem Service research pilots
programme and in particular has been closely involved in the development of the pilot Peatland
Code in partnership with IUCN. He is currently a member of the pilot Peatland Code Steering
Group.
Jonathan Walker - Moors for the Future Partnership
Profile
Jon Walker is the Science Programme Manager at Moors for the Future Partnership. He oversees
the delivery of a multidisciplinary programme of research and monitoring projects that evidence
the conservation and sustainable management of upland peatlands.
Dylan Young - University of Leeds
Dylan Young is researching the use of two modelling approaches to inform land-use decisionmaking. The first, a network-based model of the causal interactions within upland peatlands, has
been co-produced by a group of practitioners in the Dark Peak. The second is a peatland
development model that can be used to help understand the long-term (hundreds to thousands
of years) impact of management and climate on blanket bog growth and hydrology.
Poster Bearers
Tia Crouch – Moors for the Future Partnership
Tia has been a member of the Science team at the Moors for the Future Partnership for 4 years.
She has led on a number of projects including the Bamford Catchment Characterisation project,
which included a catchment scale peat depth survey; the Bamford Water Quality Monitoring
project, and currently the Catchment Restoration Fund project. The focus of all of these projects
has been improvements to water quality through appropriate land management and restoration.
She has a BSc in Environmental Science (University of Brighton) and an MSc in Biodiversity and
Conservation (University of Leeds).
Jillian Labadz
Jillian is a peatland hydrologist who has conducted research on stream flows, sediment transport
and dissolved organic carbon in the Peak District for over 30 years. She has also undertaken
wider work on river flows and reservoir sedimentation rates for the Environment Agency and a
number of water companies. She was involved in reviews for the IUCN commission on UK
Peatlands and the Natural England review of evidence on upland restoration.
Ben Clutterbuck
Ben is a specialist in GIS and remote sensing of peatlands, especially related to managed burning
and impacts on dissolved organic carbon. He is currently working with Natural England on use of
new technologies (UAV and terrestrial laser scanning) for assessing peatland vegetation and
microtopography.
Sarah Ross
Sarah has been carrying out ecological research and providing ecological advice for over 20 years,
including twelve years in consultancy. She specialises in upland, heathland and wetland habitats
and retains a strong interest both academically and practically in the restoration of these
habitats. She has a BSc (Hons) in Pure and Applied Ecology (University of Sheffield) and a PhD in
wetland eco-hydrology (University of Stirling).
Emma Shuttleworth
Dr Emma Shuttleworth is a Research Associate in the Upland Environments Research Group at
the University of Manchester. Her research focusses on human-landscape interactions. She
recently completed her PhD titled “Tracing peatland geomorphology: sediment and contaminant
movements in eroding and restored systems” which was funded in part by a Moorland Research
Grant from the Moors for the Future Partnership, and now works on the stormflow and runoff
monitoring aspect of the Marking Space for Water Project. In addition to her position at the
University of Manchester, she is also actively involved in communicating science to the public
through her work as press officer for the British Society for Geomorphology, and advocates the
work of early career researchers as a Young Scientist representative for the European
Geosciences Union.