Questions from task teams, consulting firms and clients
Short answers to what people ask before they hire me: whether I can join a bid, where I work, what I need from you and what you get back. Each answer links to the page with the evidence.
- 13 Act districts
- Other districts
How to read this: the coast and lower Volta from Accra to Keta, from my national screening of Ghana. Orange districts stay in the national top 20 for modelled river flood damage in all nine tests. Not an official priority list.
- years of professional flood risk experience, in the UK and on Ghana
- about7
- years at England’s Environment Agency, 2019–2025
- 6
- districts of Ghana screened for river flood risk, 2025–26
- 260
- kinds of work offered, from national assessment to funding
- 6
How do I hire you for a bid or an assignment?
Send me the terms of reference, the role and the deadline. I will reply with how my record maps to each task, my availability and a CV in the format your procurement needs. I work as an individual consultant, or as a key expert or specialist in a consulting firm’s team.
Can you join a consulting firm’s bid as a key expert?
Yes: as flood risk specialist, hydrologist or flood modeller. Send the terms of reference and the expert positions. I will tell you which ones my record fits, and send a CV in the client’s format. See Services.
Do you take contracts directly with governments, development banks and UN agencies?
Yes, as an individual consultant for a defined task, short-term or as framework call-offs. My Ghana results were presented for discussion with the World Bank; that work was independent consultancy.
Can you provide a CV in World Bank, ADB or UN P11 format?
Yes. Ask by email and say which format and which role. A summary of my record is on the CV page.
How are fees agreed?
Per assignment, once I have seen the terms of reference: a daily rate for input days on international work, or a fixed fee after a scoping call for most work in England. I quote rates for each assignment rather than publishing them.
What should I send you first?
The terms of reference or a short brief, the deadline, the expected input days and where the work is. For work in England, the site address or the planning reference and any Environment Agency response.
Where and how do you work?
From the UK, remotely, with time in-country for the parts that need it: field visits, workshops and training. I have worked in the United Kingdom and, since 2025, on Ghana, and I am available for West Africa and elsewhere. My work is flood risk: rivers, coasts and the decisions and money around them.
Do you work remotely or in-country?
Both. The analysis I usually do remotely from the UK. Field visits, inception and validation workshops and training are better done in-country.
Which countries have you worked in?
The United Kingdom, with six years at the Environment Agency (2019–2025), and Ghana, through independent consultancy since 2025. I am available for West Africa and elsewhere. See flood risk work in Ghana and West Africa.
Which language do you work in?
English.
Are you available for short assignments and framework call-offs?
Yes: short-term inputs, framework call-offs and key-expert roles, home-based or in-country. Tell me the dates and I will confirm.
What kinds of flood work do you take on?
Six: national and basin flood risk assessment; river hydrology and 1D–2D modelling; coastal extreme water levels and screening; risk information for early warning; option appraisal and funding; and flood risk work in Ghana and West Africa.
What do you not do?
I do not configure forecasting software, design drainage networks or carry out section 19 flood investigations. If a task falls outside my record, I will say so.
What do you need from us, and what do we get back?
From you: the decision the work must inform, any local data you hold and a contact in each agency that holds more. From me: results you can use and defend, with the uncertainty stated, the data and code documented, and a plain-language summary for decision makers. Open global data fills the gaps where local data is missing.
What data do you need to start a flood risk assessment?
Boundaries, census tables, any river flow or tide records, records of past floods and any existing models. If some are missing, open global data can stand in for a first screen, as it did for Ghana. See national flood risk assessment.
Can the work be done with open global data?
A national screen can. Ghana’s used JRC flood maps, Google Open Buildings, WorldPop and night-time lights, checked against a real flood. Designing a scheme needs local survey and a local model.
What do you deliver at the end of an assignment?
Whatever the terms of reference ask for, usually a technical report, maps and tables, the model or analysis files with a run log, and a short summary for decision makers. For Ghana that included prototype decision-support dashboard views.
Do you train counterpart staff?
Yes, as part of an assignment, so the people who will use the results can run them. My record so far is two internal Environment Agency courses, for 10 and 3 colleagues.
What have you done in Ghana?
An independent national screening of river flood risk in all 260 districts, which was also my Oxford MSc dissertation, and a screening of the 566 km coast. I presented the river results for discussion with the World Bank and now share them with its Accra-based team. They are modelled estimates, not an official priority list.
Is your Ghana flood risk ranking official?
No. It is my independent analysis, presented for discussion with the World Bank. It is not an official priority list of the Government of Ghana, NADMO or the World Bank. See flood-prone districts in Ghana.
Can you work on a flood project in Ghana or West Africa?
Yes, as an individual consultant or in a firm’s team: district and basin screening, then detailed studies where the screen points. See flood risk work in Ghana and West Africa.
Is the Ghana coastal work a 2D model?
No. It is a static screening of the low ground connected to the sea, with provisional forcing. A 2D model of the priority sites is the next stage. See coastal flood screening.
What do you do for clients in England?
After six years at the Environment Agency (2019–2025) I help consultancies, councils, landowners and developers: reviews of flood risk assessments, evidence on Flood Zones, FEH hydrology and modelling, and support with flood scheme funding. I work independently and do not speak for the Environment Agency.
Are you still at the Environment Agency?
No. I left in 2025 and now work independently, and I don’t take on work on cases I handled while at the Environment Agency. Environment Agency and council references are available on request. See flood risk advice in England.
Can you review a flood risk assessment for a planning application?
Yes, before you submit it or after an objection. I advised on planning applications as a statutory consultee at the Environment Agency in London, 2023–25. See flood risk assessment reviews.
Can you help a council or drainage board with flood scheme funding?
Yes: option appraisal, partner contributions and business-case support. I worked under the 2020 partnership-funding model and follow the 2025 policy. See flood scheme funding in England.
What do the technical terms mean?
Three ideas carry most flood risk work: how often a flood happens (its return period), what a flood reaches and harms (hazard, exposure and vulnerability), and the damage to expect each year on average. The figure shows all three on Ghana’s modelled river floods.
What does a 1-in-100-year flood mean?
A flood with a 1% chance of being equalled or exceeded in any year. It can happen two years running; over 30 years the chance of at least one is about 1 in 4.
What is expected annual damage?
The damage to expect each year on average, with each flood weighted by how likely it is: the area under the curve in Fig. 1. For homes in Ghana’s model it is about GHS 5.19 billion a year, counting floods from 1 in 10 to 1 in 500 years.
What is the difference between hazard, exposure and vulnerability?
Hazard is where the water goes, how deep and how often. Exposure is who and what is in the way. Vulnerability is how much harm a given depth does. Risk combines all three with the chance of each flood.
Rarer floods do more damage; the annual average weights each by its chance
How to read this: left to right, floods get rarer and bigger; the line is the median damage and the band its range. Tap a flood size to read its chance in any year and the annual average.
Modelled damage to homes and contents from one river flood across Ghana’s 260 districts, JRC Africa damage curve. Model estimates, not reported losses.
Show the data as a table
| Flood | Narrower flood edge, GHS bn (P5–P95) | Flood edge as mapped, GHS bn (P5–P95) | Wider flood edge, GHS bn (P5–P95) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 in 10 years (10% a year) | 19.5 (16.1–23.4) | 38.5 (31.8–46.1) | 58.5 (48.3–70.1) |
| 1 in 50 years (2% a year) | 35.5 (29.3–42.6) | 60.6 (50.1–72.6) | 83.5 (69.0–100.1) |
| 1 in 100 years (1% a year) | 40.5 (33.4–48.5) | 67.2 (55.5–80.5) | 90.7 (74.9–108.7) |
| 1 in 200 years (0.5% a year) | 44.4 (36.7–53.2) | 73.1 (60.4–87.6) | 97.5 (80.5–116.8) |
| 1 in 500 years (0.2% a year) | 49.5 (40.9–59.4) | 80.8 (66.7–96.8) | 106.2 (87.7–127.3) |
| Annual average (1 in 10 to 1 in 500) | 2.93 a year (2.42–3.52) | 5.19 a year (4.28–6.21) | 7.33 a year (6.05–8.78) |
Sources
- Nuhu, H. (2026). National fluvial flood-risk assessment and priority stability under uncertainty in Ghana. MSc dissertation, University of Oxford. Method and results.
- UNDRR (2015). Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030.
- United Nations. Early Warnings for All.
- Defra and Environment Agency (2026). Flood and coastal erosion risk management funding policy guidance.
Work with me
Have a question that is not here?
Email it, with the terms of reference if you have them. I will reply with a straight answer, and with how my record fits if you are hiring.