About

Career Type:

Practitioner/Engineers

Organization Type:

Companies and Enterprises

Expertise Fields/Interests:

Peter von Lany is a Director at Jacobs with responsibilities for climate change adaptation. With over 40 years of professional experience in strategic water resources planning, flood risk management, and climate change impact assessment, he has extensive experience, advising national and international public and private sector clients. His expertise includes applying decision-support techniques (optimisation, simulation, risk assessment and multi-criteria analysis) to developing resilience and adapting to climate change. In recent work commissioned by the UK Environment Agency, Peter has provided technical advice and direction on applying adaptation pathways to flood risk and water resources management at a regional scale. He has advised water utilities in England and Wales on embedding adaptive planning techniques within water resources planning processes at a regional scale. In 2018, he developed outline adaptation pathways for coastal zone management in response to sea-level rise and associated climate impacts at selected sites along the UK coastline. As Convenor of the British Standards Institution (BSI) working group on Climate Change Adaptation, Peter helped draft BS 8631:2021 on applying adaptation pathways for climate change adaptation. In 2017 he contributed to drafting ISO 14090 on climate change adaptation. He has helped peer-review UK National Climate Change Risk Assessments and has advised the UK Climate Ready Support Service (2015). In 2007, Peter helped develop and apply the concept of adaptation pathways to developing a flood risk management strategy for the Thames Estuary (the TE2100 Strategy). In 2004, he provided expert advice to the UK Government Foresight Flood and Coastal Defence Project on assessing the effectiveness and resilience of flood risk management responses under different national socio-economic and climate change scenarios. Through extensive international experience, Peter has good insight into the implications of climate change on water and land resources, infrastructure systems and the environment. His international experience relevant to this project includes the development of strategic flood risk management plans in Bangladesh (1990 to 1994); managing risks associated with flooding along the Rio Parana, and urban drainage in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1993 to 2000); and developing a national flood risk management strategy for Hungary (2002). He has advised on: the development of adaptive coastal flood protection for the State of Louisiana, USA (2006); improving the resilience of oil installation assets in India (2008); and, most recently, engineering options for resilience and climate adaptation in Singapore (2013 - 2017) where a combination of fluvial and coastal climate induced change could threaten the future security and performance of water supply reservoirs.

Major Achievements:

As Convenor of the British Standards Institution (BSI) working group on Climate Change Adaptation, Peter von Lany is a recognised expert in developing and applying adaptation pathways to aid decision making in climate change adaptation. Building on his experience in developing and applying the concept of adaptation pathways to developing the first adaptive long-term flood risk management strategy for the Thames Estuary (the TE2100 Strategy) in England (in 2007), Peter has developed outline adaptation pathways for coastal zone management in response to sea-level rise and associated climate impacts at selected sites along the UK coastline. This work for the UK Committee on Climate Change, in 2018, was been followed by providing technical advice and strategic direction (since 2021) on work commissioned by the UK Environment Agency to test the application of adaptation pathways at a regional scale (covering a river basin in England) to the long-term adaptive management of flood risks and water resources.