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SPEAKERS

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Ramon Strong

PDP Consultants

Ramon is a Water Resources Technical Director for environmental consultants PDP based in Southland/ Murihiku. He’s a river engineer with over thirty years’ experience in the field of civil engineering, a career that started in the dirt, working for Beca as a geotechnical technician out of high school. He attended both the Central Institute of Technology (NZCE) and Canterbury University (BE) and then worked in the field of geotechnical engineer before being drawn to river engineering.
He has just short of 20 years’ experience in regional sector leadership roles mainly with Otago and Manawatu-Whanganui (Horizons) and has extensive experience in river engineering, land drainage, flood modelling, stopbank and dam engineering, and geotechnical engineering. He’s a Chartered Professional Engineer and currently part of the NZ Society on Large Dams management committee.
His key mentors have been the late Dick Hince, CIT hydraulics lecturer, and Colin Hickling, a stalwart of the Wellington civil engineering scene for many years, Wellington Principal for Connell Wagner [Aurecon] and now retired. Colin’s gruff exterior concealed a highly analytical mind, attention to detail and a genuine desire to ensure clients were provided with good advice – ‘old school’. If Colin started a sentence with “Tell me this…” you knew you were in strife.
Like many river engineers Ramon has an affinity for the natural environment, absorbing in part his parent’s passion for native plants, and is an avid tramper/ hiker. He’s enamoured with Southland/ Murihiku from University summer holiday employment in Invercargill and the natural wonder that is Fiordland, and can frequently be found paddling around Lake Manapouri.

2020 Rangitikei River Management Strategy

Thurs 7 Nov 10.30am - 12.30pm

In June 2015 the Manawatu-Whanganui region was significantly impacted by a severe weather event, resulting in widespread flooding including the most extensive flooding of Whanganui on record. River systems impacted included the Rangitikei River in northern Manawatu – amongst other things stopbanking on the north side of the river southwest of the town of Bulls came close to breaching during the event. That near miss was illustrative of a lack of adaptive planning – successive scheme reviews focused on a limited set of parameters (bed level trends and stopbank levels of service) and not considering some of the Scheme’s inherent vulnerabilities/ management challenges.

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