Impacts of Climate Change on Brownfield Regeneration – Risks and Opportunities

An increasing challenge for successfully regenerating Brownfield Land in the UK is shifting weather patterns associated with Climate Change.

The past five years have seen an increasing trend of hotter, drier summers and milder wetter winters, interspersed with periods of abnormal (often wetter) weather. The increased frequency and intensity of wet weather creates significant challenges for managing earthworks on brownfield sites including damage to soil structure, contaminated (and uncontaminated) silt run-off and increased fluctuations in groundwater levels.

Post remediation, brownfield developments are also placing significant additional pressure on our fragile sewage and river systems due to the practice of diverting rainfall away from groundwater infiltration systems (e.g. soakaways) and into the sewage and river systems.

These changes have wide ranging implications for developers, consultants and contractors alike – from the risk assessment and design stages through to site implementation (to programme / specification) and the potential need for ‘future-proofing’ remediation & earthworks projects in tandem with development levels and drainage for flood protection.

Whilst there are clear risks, are there also opportunities for the brownfield regeneration industry to help deliver a more sustainable, circular economy – this topic will be explored by our expert panel.

This CPD-certified event is held in partnership with Brownfield & Regeneration Network premium partner Soilfix.

Discussion Topics:

• Extremes of rainfall and impacts upon the site, groundwater & river levels – what are the impacts on project / contract delivery, sustainable drainage solutions, flood risk, sewer discharge considerations?
• Risk Assessments – what are the implications of climate change on ‘future-proofing’ and also potentially ‘looking back’? Are we seeing projects where previous risk-based remediation or flood risk levels are no longer valid?
• Carbon outputs of certain remediation & earthworks techniques – will we reach a point where certain techniques or approaches become redundant?

Chair:

• Steve Jackson, Director, Soilfix

Panellists:

• Matt Timmins, Project Director - Midlands, Harworth
• Matthew Bell, Flood Risk for Planning Lead, Tetra Tech Europe
• Richard Clayton, Strategic Growth Director for Earth & Environment, WSP UK