Catchment Advisory Modeller (GIS & Hydrology)

Location: WUF Offices, Talgarth and home working
Salary: £26,000 to £32,000 pa depending on experience, plus pension and life assurance
Contract: Initially 12 month fixed term (with potential to extend)
Hours: 37.5 hours/week. Flexitime and time off in lieu system in place, 24 days annual leave (pro-rata) plus bank holidays.

Introduction to the Wye and Usk Foundation (WUF)

The Wye & Usk Foundation (WUF) is a registered charity concerned with the ecology and, more specifically, restoring the habitat, water quality and fisheries of the rivers Wye and Usk. The Foundation is a delivery organisation: working in partnership with other organisations, we raise significant sums of money to remedy problems such as habitat degradation, poor water quality and diffuse pollution, barriers to fish migration, over-exploitation of our fisheries and advance the education of the public in the conservation of our rivers. WUF is the largest rivers trust in England and Wales in terms of output.

Our charitable objects are:

To conserve, protect, rehabilitate and improve the salmon and other indigenous species of animal and plant life of the rivers Wye and Usk, their tributaries, streams and watercourses (“the River”) and the banks, riparian lands and catchments of the river (“the River Corridor”) and to advance the education of the public in the conservation of rivers, river corridors and their animal and plant life and the need for conservation, protection, rehabilitation and improvement of such environments.

Our Values:

• Approachable – we are open-minded and value diversity
• Non-judgemental – we focus on the potential, not the past
• Inspiring – we lead by example
• Empowering – we enable positive change
• Passionate – we are absolutely committed to improving the Wye and Usk and their catchments

These values inform how WUF and its staff fulfil their objectives and responsibilities.

WUF is an equal opportunities employer.

Context of the role

The Wye and Usk Foundation (WUF) are in the process of developing cutting-edge catchment markets using private and public finance to transform current land management practices to provide various ecosystem services. These include reducing overland flow to lower flood risk, improving water resource availability in low-flow periods, improving water quality, biodiversity benefits and carbon sequestration benefits. WUF aim to quantify the improvement in each of these ecosystem services resulting from change in land management practices across a large scale. WUF are taking a top-down bottom-up approach to this. At a farm-scale, advisors conduct farm walkovers to identify market opportunities, which is supported by mapping and data handling. At a catchment-scale, advisors identify high-value areas for interventions and model potential whole-catchment improvements in ecosystem services resulting from land management change at differing scales.

This is a dynamic role and will require working across a variety of different projects providing support where necessary.

This role will be for an initial 12 month period but market opportunities in this area are growing quickly and we plan to make more permanent additions to our team by the end of this period for the right candidate. You will support the NFM Capability Lead along with specific tasks to support the wider team of catchment advisors.

Role description

We are looking for a capable and personable individual who is environmentally aware, can work within a team and has problem solving abilities.

Your primary responsibilities will include:

Opportunity Mapping of Ecosystem Services

• Provision of GIS mapping support to farm advisors to scope ecosystem service opportunities on individual farms;
• Collate baseline data collected from farms and monitoring data to provide an overview of potential in each sub-catchment.

Quantification of Ecosystem Services

• Quantify the ecosystem service potential of individual farms and whole catchments.

Analysis of Long-term Datasets

• Analysis of trends in flow, rainfall or other environmental data to support bids and projects;
• Analysis of WUF-collected data and assisting in the production of technical reports.

Additional Mapping Support

• Provision of GIS and technical support for various other WUF departments. This may be assisting with the scoping of farm wetland locations, creating location maps for bids or creating summary maps for end-of-project reports;
• Where necessary, assist with the modelling of NFM/NbS features in relevant software (e.g. SCIMAP, Scalgo and other models – with training provided if necessary).

Qualifications, training, knowledge and experience

Essential:

• GIS mapping – using ArcGIS or QGIS
• Batchelor’s degree in relevant discipline (or equivalent)
• Proficient use of MS Word and Excel
• High level of interpersonal and communication skills
• High level of report writing skills
• Ability to manage and analyse large data sets
• Ability to work effectively with minimal supervision
• Ability to manage competing priorities
• Travel between sites is needed so a full driving licence is required

Desirable:

• Understanding of some/all of the following ecosystem services:
  • Natural Flood Management (NFM)
  • biodiversity metrics e.g. Biodiversity Net Gain
  • carbon markets
  • other ecosystem services
• Master’s degree in relevant discipline – hydrology, hydrogeology, hydro-engineering, environmental engineering (or equivalent)
• Experience using hydrological modelling software – TUFLOW, Flood Modeller, REFH2, HEC-RAS or similar alternative
• Experience with other applicable technical software such as Scalgo, SWAT and CAD drawing software
• Good knowledge / experience of catchment hydrology and ability to analyse information about flow and water quality data
• Experience working with nature markets/green finance
• General knowledge of farm and land management issues
• Public speaking
• Project management
• Event co-ordination