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Meet SV Committee Member - Alan Davidson
What was your career path that led you to working as an Engineer in the stormwater space?
I studied Environmental Science at university, and started my career as an Environmental Engineer graduate, focusing on contaminated land. The consultancy I worked for was very busy in the stormwater and flooding space, I got involved and have never looked back!
What is your favourite aspect of working at Spiire? And how about the most challenging?
At Spiire, we are commonly involved in land development projects in their infancy, and provide services such as the preparation of Stormwater Management Strategies. These strategies often deal with the most critical or challenging aspects of a site (such as flood management) and have a big say on how a site is laid out and designed, such as location of constructed wetlands. As the project progresses, we often have the opportunity to design the stormwater measures (e.g. constructed wetlands, waterways) described in the Stormwater Management Strategy, and then undertake Construction Administration, to ensure these assets are actually build according to the design intent. Having the ability to see a project progress from day one to final construction is really rewarding, as you contribute to vision and strategy development and then enable this vision through design progression and ultimately construction.
What is the most important career learning you think the stormwater industry would value hearing?
Urban stormwater assets such as constructed wetlands, constructed waterways and even sediment ponds are not just functional stormwater devices. They provide multiple benefits including urban greening and cooling, liveability for the local community and increased biodiversity. We need to ensure that these stormwater assets are designed and optimised to maximise these benefits, to ensure opportunities are not lost.
How do you see your role evolving?
That’s a hard one! To be honest, my current role at Spiire gives me great diversity in the types of projects I work on, but also the role I play within these projects – so things are always changing and evolving! I’d like to continue to be involved on projects which produce great outcomes for the environment and local communities.
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