People Spotlight: Meet Harriet Ridler

Our People Spotlight series gives you an inside look at our technical experts around the world. This week, we are highlighting a coastal engineer from our Water business line in the United Kingdom and providing an insight into their inspiration and work. 

After completing her degree in civil engineering, Harriet joined AECOM as an early career professional straight out of university. For the past two and a half years she has worked as a coastal engineer for our engineering design projects that boost flood and coastal erosion risk resilience and environment protection for local communities. 

What inspired you to join the industry? 

I grew up in the coastal town of Dawlish in the southwest of England. Dawlish was heavily battered by storms in 2014, which led to the collapse of the coastal wall that supports the only railway to and from the town. I used to catch the train down to secondary school and my journey time doubled during the repair works, so I witnessed firsthand the devastation this caused. The emergency coastal engineering works to make the frontage more climate resilient inspired me to study civil engineering at the University of Southampton. This is where my interest in flood and coastal engineering grew. The ongoing challenge of implementing cost-effective, climate-resilient and sustainable projects makes it a fascinating field to be a part of.

What is your favorite AECOM project that you’ve worked on and why?

For the past two years I have been heavily involved in designing the Langstone Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) project in south of the UK. Due for completion in 2025, the project aims to provide enhanced resilience against tidal flooding for the village of Langstone and A3023, the only road on and off Hayling Island.  

The site itself is heavily constrained and challenging. The village is bordered by Langstone and Chichester Harbours, which are environmentally designated at a local, national and international level, with a required 10 percent biodiversity net gain for land take of the foreshore habitat. As a result, new structures have a minimal footprint and sit adjacent to existing, deteriorating structures that must be considered in design and works sequencing. The village is also an important area for cultural heritage, falling under two conservation areas with eight listed buildings. This has partially dictated the aesthetics and form of the new structures. 

What I’ve enjoyed most about the project is seeing the design for the project come together, with a solution that – in my opinion – blends in and respects the unique historical setting of the village. I’ve had the opportunity to lead the development of a 3D BIM model for the project, which has formed the basis of a holistic design and has been used to support stakeholder engagement. 

As part of the project, I’ve also had the opportunity to lead the design for one of the seven frontages. This frontage is eligible for minimal central government funding (Grant-in-Aid) and would require funding from the community. For these works, I explored and developed four different tiers of options which would extend the life of the existing sea defences and maintain or increase the standard of protection offered to the residents. The options included: Tier 1 consisting of toe stabilisation works; Tier 2 consisting of patch repairs works to existing defences in conjunction to the toe stabilisation works; Tier 3 consisting of capital refurbishment of the existing defences; and Tier 4 option consisting of capital refurbishment of the existing defences, ecological enhancements and introducing new defences.  

I also considered how these options could be constructed in phases. For example, ensuring that the toe stabilisation works could occur before the wall encasement works for most effective deployment of capital investment. The output from this work was a prioritised remedial work schedule, with the top-tier design incorporating ecological enhancements such as ecoformliners and release of hard surfacing to intertidal habitat. It’s been a great learning experience to approach the design of this frontage differently, providing the community with options to maximize flood protection. The lower tier designs aim to extend the life of the existing sea defences and the highest tier design focuses on bringing the standard of protection up to a 1:200-year protection against still tidal water level.

Tell us a story of how your work positively impacted the community. 

As part of the Langstone FCERM project, I have been involved in several stakeholder engagement sessions. My role involved presenting and answering queries on the technical design to the community and helping them understand the key drivers for the project. What’s been most rewarding with community engagement is seeing the level of public support go from below 50 percent at concept design stage to above 90 percent at the final stage of design.  

Photo realistic visualisations and 3D model demonstrations of the project have been greatly helpful in garnering support from the local communities. There’s still a way to go before the project obtains planning permission and is constructed but it’s great to see the community involved in the project at this pivotal moment. 

Share a piece of career advice. 

Say yes to opportunities! It’s often our own insecurities and doubts that hold us back. Even if the opportunity doesn’t work out as you had hoped, by taking an active role and saying yes, you will have taught yourself something along the way. Sometimes you won’t know a wrong turn until you take it.