Rachel Marsh
Environment Agency
Rachel is a Flood and Coastal Risk Management Team Member for Wessex Area and established speaker and course representative for the Flood and Coastal Engineering (FACE) Degree Programme, which is based in Brunel University London.
She is currently undertaking the BSc portion of the FACE programme alongside her full time role after completing her first two years on integrated placements with the Environment Agency in Wessex and is also working towards Incorporated Engineer accreditation from the Institute of Civil Engineers.
Rachel regularly gets involved with the promotion of STEM careers, especially within the water industry, by working closely with CIWEM at educational career fairs.
During her time in the Wessex Area, Rachel has been able to apply her local knowledge of where she grew up, to engage with capital schemes such as the Bridgwater Tidal Barrier; which will protect 11,300 properties and 1,500 business from future flood risk.
Also, the Avonmouth Severnside Enterprise Area; Ecology Mitigation and Flood Defence Project. This scheme will improve create new areas of wetland habitat and improve flood defences over 17km of coast. She was the lead officer in the permitting process for the ground investigation works for both schemes, working closely with Natural England and the Marine Management Organisation due to both sites being in British and European designations.
Rachel helped to launch the new Flood and Coastal Erosion and Risk Management Draft Strategy consultation alongside leaders and partners of the DEFRA community, to help engage on the themes within the strategy, especially ‘Engineering today’s growth and infrastructure for resilience in tomorrow’s climate’.