Hisham Nuhu: CV summary
Flood and disaster risk specialist with about seven years in practice: six at England’s Environment Agency (2019–2025), then independent consultancy on Ghana (2025–2026). MSc Water Science, Policy and Management, University of Oxford. UK-based; remote or in-country.
- 13 Act
- 13 Investigate
- 234 Monitor
Selected work: my independent screening of river flood risk in Ghana’s 260 districts, presented for discussion with the World Bank. How to read this: orange districts stay in the national top 20 for modelled damage in all nine tests, amber in some. Not an official priority list.
- years of professional flood risk experience, United Kingdom and Ghana
- about7
- districts of Ghana screened for river flood risk under uncertainty
- 260
- incident weeks as Flood Warning Duty Officer, south-east London
- 10
- estimated value of the council-led flood schemes supported in London
- over US$5.2m
Who is Hisham Nuhu?
Hisham Nuhu is a UK-based flood and disaster risk specialist. He worked at England’s Environment Agency from 2019 to 2025 and holds an MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management from the University of Oxford. He works remotely or in-country with governments, development banks, UN agencies and consulting firms, and in England with councils, communities, landowners and developers.
He builds flood risk evidence, from catchment hydrology and 1D–2D models to national risk assessment under uncertainty. He turns it into decisions through cost–benefit appraisal, partnership funding, community work and early warning, in line with the Sendai Framework and Early Warnings for All.
Specific experience: hydrology, modelling and flood risk assessment, 2020–2026; flood forecasting and warning operations, 2023–2025; flood risk regulation, 2020–2025; programme delivery and partnership funding, 2023–2025.
Key achievements
- National flood risk assessment under uncertainty (Ghana). Screened all 260 districts with 11.7 million district-level Monte Carlo damage calculations; 13 priority districts hold in all nine model combinations. Presented for discussion with the World Bank.
- River hydrology and 1D–2D modelling (England). Recognised that the River Blithe gauge is bypassed in floods and rebuilt the design flows: the pooled 1-in-100-year flow is 44.6 m³/s, against 30.0 m³/s from the gauge alone. The study pointed to holding the right bank; the farmers then built a flood bund.
- Programme delivery and partnership funding. Partnership advisor or contact on three council-led schemes, together est. over US$5.2m; support project manager on an est. US$1.5m pumping-station refurbishment.
- Operational early warning. 10 incident weeks as Flood Warning Duty Officer for south-east London: issued flood alerts and warnings against forecast thresholds and kept police and ambulance services involved.
Where has he worked?
Six years at the Environment Agency, England’s flood risk management authority: in the West Midlands (2019–2023, placements, then Flood Risk Officer) and in London (September 2023 to September 2025, Flood Risk Advisor). Since 2025, independent consultancy on national river and coastal flood risk in Ghana.
Career record, 2018 to 2026
Placements, then Flood Risk Officer, West MidlandsEnvironment Agency, 2019–2023
Flood Risk Advisor, Partnerships and Strategic Overview, LondonEnvironment Agency, Sep 2023 – Sep 2025
Independent consultant, GhanaNational river and coastal flood risk, 2025–2026
MSc Water Science, Policy and ManagementUniversity of Oxford, 2025–26
FdSc, then BSc, Flood and Coastal EngineeringBrunel University London, 2018–22
How to read this: each bar is one role or degree, placed on the years at the top; blue bars are Environment Agency roles, the bright bar is independent consultancy and the violet bars are study. Bars show approximate periods; the dates are in each row.
Independent consultant: national flood risk assessment, Ghana (sole analyst)
Independent consultancy · remote (Ghana) · 2025–2026 · est. US$155k if contracted (river US$90k; coast US$65k)
- Built a national hazard–exposure–vulnerability model for all 260 districts on a 90 m grid (Python, QGIS) from open data: JRC flood depths for 1-in-10 to 1-in-500-year floods, about 13 million building footprints, WorldPop, and a night-lights asset-value surface calibrated at 10 sites and checked against census welfare (Spearman ρ = 0.83).
- Ran Monte Carlo (Latin hypercube) uncertainty analysis: 11.7 million district-level damage calculations across nine flood-extent and damage-curve combinations. Median expected annual residential damage GHS 5.19bn (about US$413m), 86.8% of it in 20 districts.
- Classed districts as Act, Investigate or Monitor (13 / 13 / 234); compared the economic ranking with people exposed (1.18 million in the modelled 1-in-100-year extent, about 421,700 of them children) and recommended a parallel people-based criterion.
- Compared global flood maps (JRC, WRI Aqueduct, UNEP/CIMA GIRI) and tested the chosen map on the September 2020 White Volta flood: mean critical success index 0.58 against Sentinel-1; 6,371 people modelled in the flooded area against 7,561 reported affected by NADMO in the Upper East Region (a different area, so context rather than a match).
- Derived extreme water levels for 57 sections of the 566 km coast from 32 years of hourly tide, surge and wave setup (GTSM, ERA5; peaks-over-threshold; tide gauge check r = 0.94). Static 30 m connected-inundation screening, with provisional forcing, shows 1-in-100-year flooding rising from 132.3 to 182.4 km² with a +0.25 m sea-level scenario for 2050, and locates sites for 2D modelling.
- Deliverables: a national technical report (the river part is also the Oxford MSc dissertation); results presented for discussion with the World Bank and shared with its Accra-based team; prototype decision-support dashboard views; coastal return levels and screening maps.
Flood Risk Advisor, Partnerships and Strategic Overview
Environment Agency · London · September 2023 to September 2025
- Partnership advisor on two council-led schemes co-financed by national grant and partner contributions: the Chessington flood storage basin (est. US$1.7m; completed 2025) and the Worcester Park nature-based scheme (est. US$1.5m; under construction 2026). Finance tracking, delay analysis, funding and procurement support.
- Partnership contact on SuDS in Sutton’s Schools (est. >US$2m): fortnightly progress meetings and checks with the lead council.
- Support project manager on an eel-compliance refurbishment of three pumping stations (est. US$1.5m): hydrological and hydraulic input, scope and scheme plan, task tracking, quarterly finance.
- Delivery support for two river models feeding the Flood Map for Planning (est. US$120k and US$100k): scope, programme, delivery tracking, finance and audit.
- Flood Warning Duty Officer, south-east London (10 incident weeks): monitored rainfall and river telemetry, including overnight; checked IMFS (Delft-FEWS) forecasts and the Flood Guidance Statement against thresholds; issued flood alerts and warnings; kept police and ambulance services involved as the risk level moved between yellow and red; wrote post-event records.
- Planning advisor (statutory consultee): reviewed developers’ flood risk assessments for sites in and near Flood Zones against national planning policy, including the exception test.
Placements, then Flood Risk Officer
Environment Agency · West Midlands (Birmingham) · 2019–2023
- Hamstall Ridware, River Blithe (2020–25; est. US$100k modelling): all the hydrology. Quality-checked the gauge record; flood frequency analysis of 50 annual maxima; FEH statistical (pooled WINFAP) and ReFH2 methods; routing through Blithfield Reservoir; climate allowances of +15%, +17% and +29%. Flood estimation record (2022, updated 2025) and technical report (December 2024).
- Commissioned a 20-cross-section channel survey; checked the first 1D–2D model against residents’ records of the February 2020 flood and calibrated channel roughness; built the linked Flood Modeller–TUFLOW model (5 m grid, 1 m LiDAR) jointly with an Environment Agency modelling colleague; tested options up to 0.1% AEP; presented the results to the village. Outcome: a flood bund built by the farmers.
- Own cost–benefit appraisal of the options (self-initiated, not a formal Environment Agency submission), with Multi-Coloured Manual and mental-health damages, on one consistent, screening-level basis: benefit–cost ratio about 4.6 for an earth bund, 1.6 for a set-back wall, 1.0 for an embankment.
- Stafford Common, Sandyford Brook (est. US$40k modelling, within a project of more than US$500k): extreme-flow analysis under climate change for an urbanised catchment with several watercourses; technical reports to flood risk management (FCERM) and Water Framework Directive standards.
- Flood risk activity permits (2020–23): assessed works on or near main rivers and flood defences, and set permit conditions.
- Placements in Partnerships and Strategic Overview (2019) and Asset Management (2020), alongside Brunel studies.
Which projects show his work best?
Three studies have full case pages: Ghana’s national river flood risk screen (2025–26), Ghana’s coastal extreme water levels (2026) and the Hamstall Ridware village flood study (2020–25). Eight more projects, from council-led schemes to flood warning duty, each have a page saying exactly what his part was.
| Period | Project | Role | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025–26 | Ghana flood risk: where to act first | Independent consultant (sole analyst) | est. US$90k (US$155k with the coastal work) |
| 2026 | How high can the sea reach on Ghana’s coast? | Independent consultant | est. US$65k |
| 2020–25 | Hamstall Ridware: keeping a village dry below a reservoir | Hydrologist and hydraulic modeller | est. US$100k (modelling) |
| 2020–23 | Stafford Common: urban flood hydrology for the Sandyford Brook | Hydrologist | est. US$40k (modelling), within a project of more than US$500k |
| 2023–25 | Flood storage basin, Sir Francis Barker Recreation Ground, Chessington | Partnership advisor | est. US$1.7m |
| 2023–25 | Worcester Park nature-based flood alleviation scheme | Partnership advisor | est. US$1.5m |
| 2023–25 | SuDS in Sutton’s Schools | Partnership contact (fortnightly progress meetings and checks) | est. >US$2m |
| 2023–25 | Pumping station refurbishment for eel compliance (three stations) | Support project manager | est. US$1.5m |
| 2023–25 | Flood map models: Beverley Brook and a second river model | Delivery support | est. US$120k (Beverley Brook) and est. US$100k (second model) |
| 2023–25 | Flood Warning Duty Officer, south-east London | Flood Warning Duty Officer | – |
| 2020–25 | Flood risk permits, planning advice and the Water Framework Directive | Permitting officer; planning advisor | – |
Values are estimates: scheme values as delivered, modelling values as the cost of the work if contracted externally, and Ghana values benchmarked against comparable Environment Agency products.
What did he study?
An MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management at the University of Oxford (2025–26, graduated), whose dissertation was the Ghana river screen. Before that, a BSc (2020–22) and an FdSc (2018–20) in Flood and Coastal Engineering at Brunel University London, studied alongside Environment Agency placements.
- MSc Water Science, Policy and Management
- University of Oxford, 2025–26, graduated. Dissertation: national fluvial flood-risk assessment and priority stability under uncertainty in Ghana.
- BSc Flood and Coastal Engineering
- Brunel University London, 2020–22. Dissertation: flood risk assessment and preliminary design of a town, applied to Hamstall Ridware.
- FdSc Flood and Coastal Engineering
- Brunel University London, 2018–20.
- Professional training
- HR Wallingford research training week (hydraulics), June 2021.
More on Education.
Which methods and software does he use?
Flood Modeller and TUFLOW for 1D and 2D river modelling; the Flood Estimation Handbook (WINFAP, ReFH2) for design flows; extreme value analysis; Python, R, QGIS and GDAL for national-scale risk analysis; and the Multi-Coloured Manual and the Green Book for appraisal. He used IMFS, built on Delft-FEWS, as a duty officer.
- Modelling
- Flood Modeller (1D, 2D); TUFLOW; full 2D hydrodynamic models at 10–30 m (5 m at Hamstall); Flood Estimation Handbook (WINFAP, ReFH2); extreme value analysis (Gumbel, peaks-over-threshold).
- GIS and programming
- QGIS; GRASS GIS; GDAL; Python (pandas, NumPy, SciPy, xarray, rasterio, geopandas); R; Excel.
- Forecasting and appraisal
- IMFS (Delft-FEWS), as an operational user; Multi-Coloured Manual; FCERM appraisal; HM Treasury Green Book.
- Open data
- JRC flood hazard maps; Google Open Buildings; WorldPop; VIIRS night lights; Sentinel-1; GTSM; ERA5; FABDEM; National River Flow Archive.
Has he trained other people?
Yes, through two internal Environment Agency courses: a technical introduction to flood risk schemes for 10 colleagues (October 2023), using Hamstall Ridware as the worked example, and flood risk permit assessment for 3 new staff in the West Midlands (March 2022).
Where is he based, and when is he available?
UK-based, working remotely or in-country on short-term and framework assignments, as an individual consultant or as a key expert in a firm’s team. Countries of work: the United Kingdom and Ghana. Working language: English. Environment Agency and council references are available on request.
How do I get his full CV?
Email hishamnuhu@gmail.com with the role or the terms of reference. He will send a CV in the format your procurement needs: World Bank, ADB, UN P11 or your firm’s own template, with references on request. His LinkedIn profile carries the same record.
Questions people ask
Can you provide a CV in World Bank, ADB or UN P11 format?
Yes. Tell me the format and the role, and I will send it by email.
Are you available as a key expert in a consulting firm’s bid?
Yes, as flood risk specialist, hydrologist or flood modeller. Send the terms of reference and the positions, and I will say which ones my record fits. See Services.
How many years of experience do you have, and in which countries?
About seven years in practice: six at the Environment Agency in England (2019–2025) and independent consultancy on Ghana since 2025.
Where are you based, and can you travel?
In the UK. I travel for the parts of an assignment that need to be in-country, such as field visits, workshops and training.
Which software and methods do you use?
Flood Modeller and TUFLOW for 1D and 2D modelling, FEH methods for design flows, and Python, R, QGIS and GDAL for national risk analysis. See river hydrology and 1D–2D modelling.
Can references confirm your role on each project?
Yes. Environment Agency and council references are available on request. Each project page also says exactly what my part was. See Experience.
Publications and records
- Nuhu, H. (2026). National fluvial flood-risk assessment and priority stability under uncertainty in Ghana. MSc dissertation, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. Method and results.
- Nuhu, H. (2022). Flood risk assessment and preliminary design of a town. BSc dissertation, Brunel University London. Applied to Hamstall Ridware: the study.
- Hamstall Ridware gauge record: UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and Environment Agency. National River Flow Archive, station 28002.
Work with me
Building a bid or an expert roster?
Send the terms of reference and the position. I will reply with how my record maps to the tasks, my availability and a CV in the format your procurement needs.