Climate Change and Resilience
Ben Smith
The UK has a target for Net Zero emissions by 2050, and over half of the UK’s local authorities have declared a climate emergency. Towns need to support these national and local ambitions. Towns can help quickly establish plans and support action to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to consider adaptive interventions that can enable resilience in the face of likely climate impacts (e.g. increased flood risk, water scarcity, extreme heat). We are here to support you in understanding how your projects can support these ambitions.
The type of support we can offer includes:
help understand the direct and indirect environmental impact of your project(s)
help articulate the environmental impact successfully in your Business Case
help setting local GHG baselines, reduction pathways and carbon budgets
access and interpret UK Climate Projections 2018 (UKCP18) data to give Towns a view of future local climate projections and risks
share case studies of common climate change-related interventions (i.e., initiatives, programmes and projects which act to reduce emissions or enhance resilience) setting out indicative costs, benefits and with supporting case studies and learning points.
access to online seminars, surgeries and direct 1-1 support
Topic Lead: Ben Smith
Ben is a Chartered Environmental Consultant with 18 years’ experience – gained internationally, but predominantly in the UK – specialising in sustainable development, energy strategy, climate change and urban resilience. His work has spanned research, strategy and policy making for cities and local government, as well as masterplanning / planning strategy for developers and landowners. Ben serves as Arup’s global point of contact with C40 Cities and 100 Resilient Cities.
Ben has delivered direct consultancy commissions for over 20 global mega cities, and for a similar number of UK cities and local authorities. He has supported local energy opportunities planning for county or local authorities including; Kent, Yorkshire and Humber, Dover, Swale, Basingstoke and Deane, Harrogate and East Midlands. He is now involved in “climate emergency” response planning working with Bristol, Merton, Thurrock, City of London and Hertfordshire Councils. Prior development planning experience that has included liaison with planning authorities includes; Peterborough Southbank (Carbon Challenge), Upton, Whitehill Bordon EcoTown and North Harlow. Ben was a co-author of the UN scorecard for disaster resilience in cities and has supported the development of urban resilience strategies in London, Manchester, Bristol and Glasgow.
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Crime and Security
Ashley Reeve
All towns, crowded places and development projects need to take account of the risks of crime and terrorism. It is incumbent on planners, designers and project teams to address these risks and ensure that projects designed to enhance the town, do not inadvertently compromise safety and security. We are here to support you in understanding these risks and how your projects can mitigate them.
The type of support we can offer includes:
access to tools on how to manage COVID-19 recovery
support on evaluating mitigation measures to ensure that interventions and investments are targeted in the most effective way possible
access to online seminars, surgeries and direct 1-1 support
Topic Lead: Ashley Reeve
Ashley is a dedicated security professional with over 30 years’ experience in security design, policy and regulation. Having worked as a security consultant across multiple sectors, he now specialises in offering expertise in crime and security related matters and takes pride in working with stakeholders to develop proportionate, risk-based solutions which are fully effective, but which blend in with the environment.
Ashley understands the importance of collaborative working with planners, design teams, emergency services and government security advisers to achieve creative yet robust risk-based security outcomes. He leads a team of international experts who have trained and worked with Police and Government, and whose specialist areas involve embedding security into the design of towns and cities, protecting crowded places from crime and terror attack, understanding behaviour in emergencies and how best to manage this, hostile vehicle mitigation and resilience.
The team have extensive experience in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), Security in Design of Stations (SIDOS) and Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM).
Prior to joining Arup, Ashley established an independent consultancy providing security advice to a range of clients worldwide. When working in the Department for Transport, he led security compliance and policy teams, and key initiatives such as the Threat Review programme following the 9/11 attacks.
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Creative Arts, Culture and Tourism
Sowmya Parthasarathy
Investing in arts and culture is powerful way to boost identity, build a local place-brand, create a high-quality visitor experience, promote tourism, and create economic opportunity. While bricks-and-mortar initiatives such as museums, theatres, and arts centres can be effective and highly visible investments, combining it with a complementary approach to arts and cultural programming that invites wider community participation is shown to deliver long-lasting and sustainable outcomes. We are here to support you in understanding the role of creative arts, culture and tourism in your projects.
The type of support we can offer includes:
support on developing creative arts and culture projects and considerations for successful programming
support on Covid-19 recovery in relation to tourism
access to online seminars, surgeries and direct 1-1 support
Sowmya Parthasarathy
Sowmya is an architect and urban designer with over 25 years of global experience in the UK, US, and Asia. She is a Director in Arup’s Integrated City Planning group where she leads city-scale and neighbourhood-scale projects working across architecture, urban design, planning, engineering, transport, and sustainability. Her expertise lies in masterplanning and strategic planning for new development and regeneration in urban areas confronting significant change and growth.
Sowmya has been a designer and lead advisor for projects in both the private and public sectors and brings a deep understanding of how partnerships and collaborative working can help translate ideas into implementation. She has significant experience in arts and culture led urbanism, including:
the integration of public art programmes (London Olympic Legacy Masterplan);
redevelopment anchored around a major arts institution (York Central adjacent to the National Railway Museum);
visitor experience based placemaking (Broadgate Placemaking Strategy in London) ; and
embedding cultural landscapes into masterplans (Wellcome Genome Campus in South Cambridgeshire, and St. Cuthbert’s Garden Village in Carlisle).
She is currently project director for an Arup University research initiative examining the role of urban lighting in supporting the night-time experience and economy of our towns and cities. Sowmya was appointed in 2017 as a Mayor’s Design Advocate with responsibility to work with London’s City Hall and boroughs to advance the Good Growth by Design programme. She is member of the Greater London Authority’s London Review Panel and the design review panel for Transport for London.
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Health and Wellbeing
Katie Wood
On average, people are living longer, more urban and more digitally connected lives than ever before. But this does not result in improved health and wellbeing for all. In fact, health inequalities in England have been widening, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the situation. The focus is shifting to the wider determinants of health. How towns and buildings are planned, designed, built, operated and experienced can make a significant contribution to people’s health and wellbeing.
Business Cases will need to clearly identify the ways in which the proposed projects will achieve the outcomes identified in the TIP, referencing data to identify the specific cohorts of the local population who will achieve health and wellbeing benefits. They will need strategies for realising these health and wellbeing benefits, including working with delivery partners. Finally, they will need a key performance indicator framework to measure the achievement of the targeted health and wellbeing benefits.
We are here to support you in advising on how to integrate health and wellbeing into your projects, including:
advice on strengthening your business cases by including health and wellbeing benefits
support to identify key performance indicators to monitor and evaluate health and wellbeing impacts
advice on project implementation, including delivery partners
online seminars, surgeries and direct 1-1 support
Topic Lead: Katie Wood
Katie has successfully led the development of strategy, business cases, planning and delivery for a wide variety of healthcare programmes and projects across the UK, Australia and Canada.
Her work has led to consideration of the wider determinants of health, and advice on how the built environment supports health and wellbeing overall. Katie focuses on the complex interactions between buildings, the urban environment, operational processes, digital technology and people, to realise greater social value from capital developments.
Her project experience includes:
business cases, planning, design and implementation for large, complex healthcare facility and health and wellbeing led developments;
advising on how the built environment can improve health and wellbeing, at both individual building and city levels; and
transformational change covering organisations, people, processes and digital systems.
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Heritage Design and Assessment
Thomas Pearson
A town’s heritage is vital to its sense of identity. It can be a source of both community pride and economic development. We are here to support you in understanding heritage design and assessment from large-scale improvements to the built environment to attracting visitors to cultural events.
The type of support we can offer includes:
support on heritage-related projects particularly around design, conservation, and assessment
support on developing compelling narratives on the towns’ history and story
access to online seminars, surgeries and direct 1-1 support
Topic Lead: Thomas Pearson
Based in Arup's York office, Thomas is an architectural conservationist, designer and heritage consultant. He leads a team of heritage specialists (including architects and engineers) split between London and York, delivering assessments, design and conservation solutions for historic buildings of all types and ages.
Thomas is passionate about history and the complex stories contained within towns and cities, embodied in their buildings. He has led various award-winning conservation projects, including the refurbishment of the Grade II* listed Engineering Building in Leicester, one of Britain’s most daring and provocative buildings.
Accredited with the Institute of Historic Building Conservation, Thomas sits on the national casework committees of the Georgian Group and the Twentieth Century Society, two of the UK’s statutory consultees for work on historic buildings. He is a published author on conservation, has taught at several universities and lectured at heritage groups including ASCHB and Docomomo.
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Innovation & Digital
Will Cavendish CBE
As we emerge from the COVID-19 lockdown, innovation and digital are both requirements and opportunities that will help Towns thrive. The requirement for modern digital infrastructure is key to developing prosperity and modern public services in the 21st century. Seizing digital and innovation opportunities can help towns engage in new ways with hard-to-reach groups, attract new businesses, repurpose existing assets, improve service delivery, meet sustainability goals, and much more besides.
We are here to support you in developing your projects and Business Cases in these areas.
The types of support we can offer includes:
support in planning and developing digital and innovation interventions
support in developing robust Business Cases for digital and innovation projects
access to online seminars, surgeries and direct 1-1 support
Topic Lead: Will Cavendish CBE
Will is Arup’s global Digital Services Leader. He works with a wide range of clients to understand the potential of innovation and digital technologies to improve growth, regenerate cities and places, and improve the effectiveness of infrastructure.
Before joining Arup, he was Applied Strategy Lead at DeepMind, responsible for taking the world-leading breakthroughs taking place in Artificial Intelligence, and applying them for good in areas such as health and energy. Prior to that he was a senior civil servant and his roles included: Director General for Innovation, Growth and Technology at the Department of Health; Director General, International Energy and Climate Change at DECC; and head of the Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit, reporting directly to David Cameron and Nick Clegg.
As a result, he has wide-ranging experience of achieving change in areas such as digital, health, education, energy and climate change, cybersecurity, growth and innovation.
During his time in government, Will led the creation of the world's first network of What Works Centres, set up to provide proper evidence on effective uses of public money. He was also a LEP Senior Sponsor and was involved in a number of City Deals.
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Social Value
Alison Ball
Embracing social value connects businesses with community, people and place. These connections and the value that they generate — whether in better public services, stronger communities, growth of the economy, shared information or reduced cost — help support people to reach their potential. Social value in the context of the built environment relates to the benefits that places provide to local communities, residents, local businesses, now or in the future. To maximise social value outcomes, it is important that places are planned, maintained, built and operated so they can create worthwhile jobs and bolster economic growth, as well as improve local health and wellbeing, and strengthen the community. We are here to support you in understanding and embedding social value in your projects.
The types of support we can offer includes:
advice on securing maximum social value through: setting strategy, preparing policies, procurement advice, impact articulation, impact measurement and impact reporting
access to online seminars, surgeries and direct 1-1 support
Topic Lead: Alison Ball
Alison is a sustainability consultant and leads a team of specialists providing strategic social value and sustainability advice for infrastructure projects in the NW region. This includes advice on strategies, plans and the articulation, measurement and valuation of social and environmental impacts. Her team help clients make more informed decisions to deliver economic, social and environmental benefits of infrastructure for stakeholders and communities.
Alison is Community Engagement Programme Manager for the UKIMEA, supporting staff who wish to work with local communities and schools to deliver pro-bono projects and inspire the next generation of would be Arupians. She is also a UKIMEA member of Arup's Global Social Value Network and helped develop Arup's Global Infrastructure Sustainability Strategy.
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Transport and Connectivity
Richard de Cani
Transport and connectivity forms an essential component of how any town functions and survives. This is both at a strategic level, providing connections between towns, and at a local level in terms of connectivity within towns. How people travel is a function of how they live their lives, providing connections for work and leisure. Access to good transport plays a significant role in contributing towards other outcomes such as health, wellbeing and economic prosperity. Transport and connectivity cannot be considered in isolation – it is an enabler of growth; a driver of fair and equitable growth, and contributes significantly to a broad range of economic, social and environmental outcomes. Some of these are positive but others are negative – congestion, poor air quality and lack of connectivity can be considerable challenges in many towns.
Transport is also changing – with new technologies and operating models creating more choice and flexibility for users. We have also seen rapid reductions in travel as a result of COVID-19 and considerable uncertainty in how future demand will respond. We are here to support you on transport related projects and the importance of connectivity.
The types of support we can offer includes:
advice on interpreting data and evidence
support on transport option assessments and appraisals, including advice on quantifying transport economic benefits
support on developing specific transport Business Cases in compliance with WebTAG
access to online seminars, surgeries and direct 1-1 support
Topic Lead: Richard de Cani
Richard is a recognised senior leader of planning and Transport, with a strong track record of strategic thinking and delivery with in-depth knowledge of the transport/planning issues facing cities and city regions. He brings together a unique combination of senior client-side experience from Transport for London, with direct experience of leading many of the new transport and planning initiatives in London and the UK over the past decade.
His experience combines place-based transport thinking with the development of plans and proposals for transport that contribute to the delivery of wider outcomes. Richard leads multidisciplinary studies and plans for towns, cities and areas of change including development of transport and movement strategies as part of a wider plan for delivering economic, social and environmental change. He develops business cases for major transport infrastructure projects, including assessment of wider economic, environmental and social impacts.
Richard leads the preparation of strong evidence bases that draw on data to gain insight that support the development of strategy and specific policy areas, and develop new policy areas that achieve behaviour change such as growing public transport use; increasing cycling; achieving carbon neutral and addressing air quality. He works extensively with political and other stakeholders, helping to structure plans and programmes including community engagement programmes that align with local stakeholder needs.
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Youth, Urban Childhoods and Inclusive Environments
Sophie Camburn
Inclusive design is vital to the resilience and success of our town centres. It is a methodology that enables everyone, regardless of their situation, to participate. Understanding what can prevent people participating, in both the physical and digital world, helps us to create better designs. Designing inclusively ensures that the built environment is accessible and maximises independence for all users.
As our town centres increasingly focus on providing experiences as well consumption, we need to shape visions and aspirations that reflect the broadest range of users to create meaningful stories of place. Engagement with youth and young people can help develop sustainable urban proposals that reflect the needs of future generations. We are here to support you on understanding how to engage with young people and how to create inclusive environments within your towns.
The type of support we can offer includes:
advice and support on urban childhoods, child friendly cities, design solutions for young people, and developing inclusive environments
design workshops
access to online seminars, surgeries and direct 1-1 support
Topic Lead: Sophie Camburn
A masterplanner and architect, Sophie leads the Integrated City Planning team for the West, covering the Solent region, including Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole BC, Bristol and the South West.
Previously Sophie was based in London, where she led a range of international and UK masterplanning projects including the Regeneration Strategy for Tottenham following the 2011 riots. This included engagement with local young people to inform proposals and build community skills and capacity.
Sophie has over twenty years’ experience leading large, design led, complex, mixed-use regeneration and placemaking strategies with sustainable placemaking at their core. Sophie provides design leadership and advisory services to both public and private sector clients from vision and concept though statutory planning processes to delivery.
Sophie is a skilled communicator who drives design excellence and deliverable outcomes on projects through collaborative working and inclusive engagement.
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Water and Flood Management
Dr Mark Fletcher
Water is at the heart of climate change adaptation, and many Towns have declared climate emergency. Though the conversation is often framed globally, this project is a wonderful and essential opportunity to position towns to better determine how water management impacts their local economies and local environments. We are here to support you on water and flood management projects.
The types of support we can offer includes:
advice and support on net zero carbon, water resilience, Water Governance Assessment, flood risk management, land drainage management, water cycle management, multi-agency working, engagement with government bodies, and economic analysis to support flood risk investment
access to online seminars, surgeries and direct 1-1 support
Topic Lead: Dr Mark Fletcher
Mark currently leads the Global Water Business in Arup and was made an Arup Fellow in 2017. He is on the Leadership Council of the UK Water Partnership and is a Board Director of the Water Industry Forum. He has also presented thought leadership on water resilience to Defra, Welsh Government, the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales. He is also the Global Lead for the City Water Resilience Framework, developed with Rockefeller Foundation, World Bank and 100 Resilient Cities. Pilot Cities include Cape Town, Miami, Mexico, Amman and Hull. He was recently made an Honorary Fellow for the Society of the Environment.
Mark has responsibility for all water and flood risk related activity for Arup. He has extensive experience working with regulators, local authorities, water companies, and environmental agencies and has advised at a regional, national and trans-national level. He has a particular interest in urban resilience to too much or too little water, engineering geology of dams and sustainable flood risk management, surface water management and green infrastructure. He has worked across the water cycle and around the world for over 30 years.