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Name: Dr Matthew Simpson
Organization: WWT Consulting, consultancy arm of Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust
Role: Associate Director
Nationality and main countries worked: British; worked throughout Europe (UK, Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria), the Americas (US, Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname), Africa (Kenya, Botswana), and Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam).
Why is remediation an important aspect of applied ecology?
Remediation is important for many reasons. I especially enjoy the technical side and the challenge, for example, of understanding pollutant loadings and then designing a wetland treatment system to ensure discharges to the wider environment are fully treated whilst providing habitat and beautiful landscaping.
What is your day-to-day job?
I work directly with people around the world to manage and design natural infrastructure to benefit the environment and local communities. I manage and provide advice on managing the restoration and creation of wetlands for multiple benefits that include water treatment, flood attenuation, carbon storage, biodiversity, green and blue space amenity and livelihood support.
What are your most interesting recent projects and why?
I'm working on a number of projects where we have designed wetland treatment systems to use biological, physical and chemical processes to remove pesticides from arable agricultural runoff in the UK, remove organic pollutant loadings from brewery wastewater in the UK, and treat sewage effluent from safari lodge wastewater in Kenya. I am also currently working on a project in Colombo, Sri Lanka, that involves the management of wetlands within the city to provide essential flood storage (without the wetlands the city would face an annual flood damage of around 1% of Colombo's GDP), to provide water treatment as many sewers input directly into the wetlands and to provide a cooling effect on the city (living next to a wetland area can reduce air temperature by 10 degrees compared to living next to a concreted area which provides a huge electricity saving from reduced air conditioning requirements). The wetlands are threatened by legal and illegal infilling and raising awareness of their importance, training government staff in wetland management, and developing visitor facilities within some of the wetlands to allow public access for recreation and education will maintain the important ecosystem services they provide and protect the impressive range of biodiversity found across the city. The project is a complex mix of technical ecological, hydrological and socio-economic research and design and extensive engagement with stakeholders with conflicting demands, which makes it very challenging.
What's been best part of these particular projects?
There is a huge sense of satisfaction when a design that you worked on with a local community is constructed and you see people benefitting through improved water quality or through support of sustainable livelihoods and at the same time that system provides habitat for wildlife and maximises biodiversity.
For example, designing sensitive, low intensity public access to the wetlands in Colombo, contributing to regional legislation to protect the wetlands and developing a management approach that results in endangered species such as the fishing cat Prionailurus viverrinus maintaining a healthy population, within the city, whilst ensuring that future generations will have access to the benefits provided by the wetlands provides huge satisfaction. One of the most enjoyable parts of this particular project is the fact I get to work with a range of people with different interests and from different cultures who are all working together to achieve such a positive result.
What are the main challenges in your field and how can they be overcome?
The main challenge is the acceptance of the use of natural infrastructure such as wetlands by governments, planners, architects and engineers. There is still an attitude in many parts of the world where hard engineering is seen as the only solution when it has been demonstrated that the use of natural infrastructure not only provides an effective approach to water treatment, for example, but provides multiple benefits for the environment and people that steel and concrete cannot provide. There is still a big educational role that is needed to make sure that this type of understanding becomes mainstream in design and planning.
What next for you, and why?
More of the same - I'm very happy in my current role because I get to travel the world, work with some amazing people and deliver projects that have a benefit to the environment and to people. Typically, I work on around 15 to 20 different projects a year so there is great diversity in what I do, which definitely keeps things interesting.
Finally, how did you get into your area of work and what advice would to others?
I followed an academic route initially before I got a job in environmental consultancy. After my first degree I then did a master’s degree in Environmental Water Management before doing a PhD in Geography on functional wetlands. I then had a number of years doing academic research on wetland management in Vietnam before getting a job in environmental consultancy.
My advice to others would be to get as much practical experience as possible, either through the courses you choose or volunteering, whilst also getting a solid academic understanding of a subject. When we recruit people we always look at what practical experience people have already got. Unfortunately most people have to volunteer to get that experience but it is a great way to meet people and make contacts. My Master’s and PhD theses both had very applied, practical applications which meant I worked with organisations such as NGOs, government agencies and other universities allowing me to make a range of contacts that helped me get jobs and projects to work on which really helped establish my career.