Scientific Committee

Ian H. Townend, University of Southampton, UK
Townend

Ian works as an independent advisor on coastal science and engineering applications and as a Visiting Professor at the University of Southampton and Hohai University in Nanjing. Previously he was responsible for the strategic direction and development of the research capability at HR Wallingford, helping to establish new initiatives within the water sector.  Prior to that he spent 13 years as Managing Director at ABPmer (a research laboratory focussed on the ports industry) and 18 years as a consultant with Halcrow, an international civil engineering company.

He has worked on a wide range of coastal and marine studies in the UK and overseas.  This has included:

  • developing a methodology to operationalise the concept of Coastal Resilience;
  • undertaking the first UK Climate Change Risk Assessment on behalf of UK government;
  • leading the UK estuary research programme;
  • leading the first regional scale coastal study in the UK that helped frame the subsequent development of Shoreline Management Plans;
  • piloting the application of risk methods to examine coastal flooding at a national scale for the insurance industry; and
  • working on several major marine and coastal projects in the UK and abroad.

His own research is largely related to estuaries and coasts and involves a wide range of interests including hydraulics, sediment transport, and geomorphology, as well as the interdependent dynamics of habitats and ecosystems.

Ian is currently an Honorary Professor of Nanjing Hydraulics Research Institute and a Guest Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research at East China Normal University in Shanghai. He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

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