Experienced Civil Engineer joins SLR Consulting

Chartered Civil Engineer Ian Walton has joined SLR Consulting’s (UK) hydrology and hydrogeology team as a Technical Director in the Cardiff office.

Ian has over 30 years’ experience in civil engineering and environmental consultancy gained with John Taylor and Sons, Halcrow, Weeks Consulting and latterly Bureau Veritas. He is now tasked with further developing the company’s hydrology service offering.

During the early part of his career, Ian worked as a public health engineer in the UK and Middle East before spending several years as a tunnelling engineer in East London. He joined Weeks Consulting to develop their civil engineering infrastructure capability providing highways and drainage advice for residential, commercial and waste management development schemes.

Following the widespread flooding in 1998 and again in 2000, he pursued his interest in hydrology gaining an MSc in Hydrology for Environmental Management from Imperial College, London. He then went on to develop a dedicated flood risk team that specialised in the use of 2d hydraulic modelling to assess flood risk and develop mitigation and alleviation strategies for diverse range of projects, including major residential, highway, education, commercial and industrial schemes.

Ian has also completed a number of flood alleviations studies for Local Authorities, Drainage Boards and the Environment Agency, including the East Peckham Flood Alleviation Scheme that won an Institution of Civil Engineers Award. Ian is also regularly called upon to provide expert evidence at planning hearings and inquiries and has been retained by several insurance companies to provide advice to their network of brokers and underwriters on flood risk issues.

Ian said: “I am really looking forward to being part of the SLR team and was attracted by the diverse range of Clients and business sectors the existing hydrology and flood risk team currently work for. With support of other in-house teams, I hope to develop our flood risk and drainage services further.”