Alex Nicholson | Technical Lead Natural Flood Management
Arup

Alex is an Associate chartered civil engineer and digital water specialist with a focus on nature-based solutions and ecosystem services assessment. His PhD involved demonstrating the mitigation effects of on farm storage, land cover change and NbS measures on downstream flood risk in Belford, Northumberland, which received the Robert Stephenson award from the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) in 2015. At Arup, he has led projects across the globe investigating the technical feasibility of NbS on small- and large-scale catchments including the River Severn catchment to Shrewsbury, and the Kizinga River catchment upstream of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He led the detailed design of NFM components for the Weardale natural flood management (NFM) demonstrator project, and the Coatham Woods NFM scheme, upstream of Stockton-On-Tees, which completed on site in November 2020, also receiving the Robert Stephenson Award from the ICE. More recently, working in partnership with Scalgo, Alex has led the development of the digital tool, NatureInsight, for identifying NbS opportunities and quantifying their benefits in terms of flood risk reduction, sediment management, habitat creation and carbon sequestration.