PIANC AU-NZ is delighted to announce that PIANC International’s new Climate Champion for RecCom, replacing Greg Fisk, is another member from our region, Toby Devlin.
Toby’s appointment as the RecCom Climate Champion was advised to Greg Britton, the PIANC AU-NZ Technical Commissions Lead, by the Chair of PIANC RecCom Ian Dobson.
‘This is great news for PIANC AU-NZ’ says Greg, ‘and continues the strong representation by AU-NZ members in important roles within PIANC International. Ian tells me he is looking forward to working with Toby and to him providing key input to RecCom Working Group activities having a strong climate change focus.’
Toby has been a PIANC stalwart for some years, active in the Victorian Regional Chapter, and a winner of PIANC Young Authors awards at the Australasian Coasts & Ports Conference 2023.
Toby’s award-winning paper discussed the design and construction of the new rock groyne constructed at the Point Richards boating facility in Portarlington, Victoria.
Toby volunteered to become a Climate Champion because, he says, ‘I believe in creating progressive, actionable solutions for industry. PIANC and the PIANC community are important parts of driving positive change.’
The main role of PIANC’s climate champions has been to provide a conduit for the flow of technical and scientific information regarding climate change within PIANC.
The Champions provide relevant expertise on climate change issues for the work of each of the four Technical Commissions – Maritime Navigation (MarCom), Inland Waterways (Incom), Environmental (EnviCom) and Recreational Navigation (RecCom) . The Champions are also an important link between each Commission and its activities and PIANC’s Permanent Task Group on Climate Change (PTGCC).
“I believe in creating progressive, actionable solutions for industry. “
Toby is Group Lead – Coastal and Marine, and a Senior Engineer at Water Technology in Victoria, an engineering and environmental consulting company. Toby is skilled in coastal engineering and hydrodynamic modelling, including key software packages and GIS, and has been involved in studies in all the coastal states of Australia as well as Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Kenya, Cote D’Ivoire, the United States, Brazil, India, South Korea and the UK.
His work in Australia ranges from wave and sea-level models to inform coastal hazards, to sediment transport assessments for both coastal management and dredge plume environmental impacts, and providing advice on coastal processes to inform management and planning of adaptation and development in the coastal zone.
Toby has a particular interest in developing community resilience to coastal hazards and climate change, while making sure that coastal space and assets are optimised to get their maximum usage.
‘I’m eager’ he says, ‘to collaborate with the global RecCom community, and am particularly excited by the unique aspects that recreational boating offers in its response to climate change.’
Congratulations to Toby and to RecCom!