Alan Werritty: Company Secretary

Alan is Emeritus Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Dundee and, until his retirement in 2010, was the Research Director of the UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science within the School of Social Sciences. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and former Vice-President of the Royal Geographical Society (2003-4), Alan was a member of the UN High Level Expert Panel on Water and Disasters which reported to the Fifth World Water Forum in 2009. He was also a member of the National Technical Advisory Group on Flooding (2006-07), the Flooding Bill Advisory Group (2007-09) and the Scottish Advisory and Information Flooding Forum (2009-present) advising Scottish ministers on drafting and implementing the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act, 2009. Alan has published extensively on gravel-bed rivers, river basin management, sustainable flood management and the impacts of climate change on river systems. In 2010-12 Alan was Vice-Chair of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Inquiry Facing up to Climate Change Inquiry and in March 2017 convened the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Conference on How can we learn to live with floods? Challenges for science and management. Alan has also been a member of Scottish Natural Heritage’s Science Advisory Committee (2011-2017) advising on freshwater resources and climate change.

Alan’s current research focuses on climate change and flooding and societal responses to increased flood risk. Recent publications have included promoting a paradigm shift from “flood defence” to “learning to live with floods”; the impact of climate change on urban flood risk; a national assessment of coastal flood risk; the potential consequences of implementing Flood Re; and the effectiveness of spatial planning in Scotland in inhibiting development in high flood risk areas.