Charles Schelpe Email & Phone Number

I am serving as Jacobs’ Global Principal for Flood Infrastructure Engineering, providing leadership in the development of integrated technical solutions and the technology within this field of expertise. In the UK I am currently the lead technical advisor for the Environment Agency on the Boston Barrier scheme; Senior Technical Consultant for the Thames Estuary Asset Management 2100 programme, which includes the Thames Barriers; and technical lead for projects such as the Lowestoft Barrier. Over recent years as part of my global role I have been providing technical leadership to fluvial, coastal and storm surge barrier/barrage related flood resiliency projects in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Asia such as the East Side Coastal Resiliency project in New York and the Coastal Reservoirs Adaptation project in Singapore.My career has spanned over 37 years with global experience successfully delivering flood risk management, river, water, public health, and infrastructure projects. This has included providing technical leadership on a wide variety of projects involving pluvial, fluvial, tidal and coastal flood risk management and river engineering, and covering works including storm surge barriers, barrages, flood storage reservoirs, flood defence walls and levees, pumping stations, outfalls, nature based solutions, dredging, scour and erosion protection, weirs, sluices, locks, navigation infrastructure, major utility diversions, managed realignment/wetland creation, fish passes, and environmental enhancement works. This work has also involved computational and physical hydraulic, sediment and navigation simulation modelling, ecological surveys and mitigation, river restoration, environmental impact assessments, community planning and stakeholder engagement, and assistance in the preparation of associated parliamentary orders and legal agreements. After completing my civil engineering degree at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and my national service in the SA Army Engineering Corps, my career started with working for a consultant, and then contractor, delivering potable and wastewater projects in both urban and rural environments in South Africa.Since 1990 I have been based in the United Kingdom working initially on the design and implementation of public health and infrastructure projects. This gradually changed over the ensuing decade to become solely focussed on flood risk management and river related engineering schemes with an increasing involvement providing technical leadership to projects abroad.