Tamsin Lyle | Principal | Ebbwater Consulting

Education

M.Eng, Imperial College London, 1998

M.R.M, Simon Fraser University, 2001

Designations

P.Eng

Affiliations

Canadian Water Resources Association

Past-President BC Branch
BC Representative to National Board
Chair Flood Management Committee

Northwest Regional Flood Management Association

Past BC Representative

Languages

English, mother tongue
French, professional proficiency

Tamsin Lyle, Principal

Tamsin is a well-known thought leader on flood management in Canada. She comes to this position having invested her entire academic and professional careers in the exploration of various aspects of flood management. She has genuine enthusiasm for the subject, which is evident in her many publications (peer-reviewed and for public communication) and presentations. She is particularly interested in exploring the nexus of science, engineering, policy and planning – disciplines that often work apart or in series in flood projects when best practice suggest they should work together.

She is a sought-after speaker and commentator on flood management in Canada, regularly accepting invitations to speak at Canadian and International conferences. She also regularly comments to the media in print, on radio and on television.

Over her 20-year career, she has worked on numerous high-profile flood and risk projects across Canada both as an engineer and as a policy analyst and planner. She is well regarded for her numerical modelling skills, which have been applied to the major Canadian river systems of the Red River in Manitoba, and the Fraser River in BC, as well as to smaller river systems in Canada and abroad. She is also well known for her integrated and collaborative approach to mitigating flood risk; and is the author of the award winning Integrated Flood Management Plan for the Cowichan Valley. She is a recognised champion of risk-based planning for natural hazards in Canada and has written several peer-reviewed, other scholarly and public articles on flood risk assessment methods.

Talking floods is nearly always fun

Selected Publications, Presentations and Interviews

Lyle 2017. Avoiding White Elephants: Common-sense principles for climate adaptation. BCWWA Climate Adaptation Conference. January 2017. Vancouver, BC Presentation
Lyle 2016. Is it worth the effort? A case study of cumulative-based risk assessment versus scenario-based risk assessment methods for sea level rise. Society for Risk Analysis Symposium. December 2016. San Diego, U.S. Presentation
Lyle 2016. Deep Uncertainty: Managing Climate Extremes. Invited Presentation at Watersheds 2016. Presentation Proceedings
Lyle 2016. Straight Talk on Adaptation to Flood. Presentation in Weird Weather: Straight Talk on Climate Adaptation . UBCM 2016. Presentation
Lyle and Mills 2016. Assessing Coastal Flood Risk in a Changing Climate for the City of Vancouver. Canadian Water Resources Journal. DOI 10.1080/07011784.2015.1126695. Article Link
Mills, Badelt and Lyle 2016. Sea Level Rise Flood Risk Assessment and Planning Approaches on Canada’s Coasts. January 27, 2016, Webinar
Mills and Lyle 2015. City of Vancouver Coastal Flood Risk Assessment. MMCD – MED Joint Annual General Meeting and Workshop. November 27, 2015. Coquitlam, BC.
Lyle 2015. Flawed Decisions in Flood Management: Why Engineers Should Not be Trusted. BC Branch CWRA Conference, November 2015. Richmond, BC. Presentation
Lyle 2015. Flood Maps 101: Why, What and How? PIBC Kootenay Branch Workshop. November, 2015. Nelson, BC Presentation
Lyle 2015. Respondent at “A World of Climate Extremes” presentation by Dr. Jana Sillmann, Public lecture and discussions on Solutions and You: Combating Climate Change , Vancouver, Oct 29, 2015.
Lyle 2015. Sharing Ideas to Build Flood Resilience. Local Community Event. Panel Speaker. Video Password: V1234
Lyle 2015. What we don’t know: Managing gaps in our understanding of infrastructure risk? 2015 Liveable Cities Forum. September 2015, Calgary, Alberta. Presentation
Lyle 2015. We Can’t Calculate That: Data and method gaps for flood consequence assessments in Canada. 2015 Liveable Cities Forum. September 2015, Calgary, Alberta. Presentation
Lyle 2015. Communicating Future Flood Risk: What do practitioners and decision-makers really need from scientists? MEOPAR Workshop. June 2015. Vancouver, BC Presentation
Lyle 2015. Managing Future Flood Risk: Planning for what really matters. CWRA National Conference 2015. Winnipeg, Manitoba. Presentation
Lyle 2015. People Not Dollars: What matters when planning for floods. Keynote Address, Alberta Branch CWRA Annual Conference. April 2015. Red Deer, Alberta. Presentation
Lyle and Harford 2015. Flood Risk Management. Construction Business Magazine. March/April, 2015. Article Text
Lyle 2015. Life on the Edge: Risk Management and Planning for Resilience. BUILDEX Vancouver, Feb 25, 2015. Presentation
“300,000 at Risk in Lower Mainland Flood: Experts” CTV News Vancouver, January 19, 2015. Interview
Lyle 2014. Rising Sea Level Demands Attention. Invited Op-Ed in Vancouver Sun, September 14th, 2014. Article
Lyle and Mills 2014. The Value of a Coastal Flood Risk Assessment for the City of Vancouver in a Changing Climate. In proceedings of 6th International Conference on Flood Management. September, 2014. Sao Paolo, Brazil. Paper
Lyle and Mills 2014. Living on the Edge: Coastal Flood Risk in Vancouver in a Changing Climate. Presentation to Association of State Floodplain Managers National Conference, June 2014, Seattle, Washington State.
Lyle 2014. City of Vancouver Coastal Flood Risk Assessment: Obstacles and Successes. Presentation to 56th CWRA National Congress, June 2014, Hamilton, Ontario.
Lyle, Mills and Menezes 2014. City of Vancouver Coastal Flood Risk Assessment: Obstacles and Successes. Presentation to CWRA Alberta Branch Conference, 2013 Alberta Floods: The Rains, Response, Recovery and Resiliency, March 2014, Calgary, Alberta.
Lyle 2014. From Flood Hazard to Risk: Useful Tools for Decision Makers. Presentation to Okanagan Water Stewardship Council. February 2014. Kelowna, British Columbia. Presentation
Lyle 2013. Flood Maps for Hazus: Why, What and How? Presentation to Canadian Hazus Users Group. December 2013. Webinar. Presentation Podcast
Lyle 2013. Are We Going Under? Risk and Consequence to the City of Vancouver of Sea Level Rise. Presentation to NORFMA Annual Conference. September 2013. Stevenson, Washington State. Presentation
Lyle 2013. A Floodplain Mapping Primer. Invited speaker at joint CWRA/BCREA Flood Mapping workshop. March 2013. Vancouver, British Columbia.
Lyle 2013. A Long Way From New Orleans: Adapting FEMA’s HAZUS Model for Canada. Presentation to BCWWA – Flood Risk Workshop. April 2013. Kelowna, British Columbia. Presentation
Lyle 2013. Swimming Against the Current: A Comparison of Canadian and International Flood Management Strategies. Presentation to BC Branch CWRA Conference. March 2013. Vancouver, British Columbia. Presentation Abstract
Lyle 2012. Flood Management in Canada: Have We Got it Wrong? Presentation to Canadian Risk and Hazards Network Symposium. October 2012. Vancouver, British Columbia. Presentation
Lyle and O’Connor 2012. Integrated Flood Management – A Primer. Presentation to Planning Institute of BC Annual Conference. May 2012. Harrison Hotsprings, British Columbia. Presentation
Lyle and McLean 2011. Overcoming Obstacles to Integrated Flood Management: A Case Study of the Cowichan Valley, British Columbia. 5th International Conference on Flood Management. September 2011. Tokyo, Japan. Presentation Abstract
Lyle 2011. Overcoming Obstacles to Integrated Flood Management: A Case Study of the Cowichan Valley, British Columbia. Presentation to Northwest Regional Flood Management Association Annual Conference. Bellingham, Washington State. September 2011. Presentation
Engineer explains flood modelling tools, as Assiniboine River in Manitoba is breached. Canadian Consulting Engineer. May 17, 2011.
Lyle 2010. Making Lemonade out of Lemons: Locally Driven Flood Management Solutions in a Deregulated World. Presentation to Northwest Regional Flood Management Association Annual Conference. September 2010. Stevenson, Washington State. Presentation Abstract
Lyle, McLean, O’Connor and Miller 2010. Thinking Outside the Dike: Integrated Flood Hazard Management for the Lower Cowichan Valley. Presentation to 63rd National CWRA Conference. June 2010. Vancouver, British Columbia. Presentation
O’Connor, McLean, Lyle and Miller 2010. Checking the Math: A Review of MIKEFlood Modelling Following Recent Flooding of Lower Cowichan Valley, British Columbia. Presentation to 63rd National CWRA Conference. June 2010. Vancouver, British Columbia. Abstract
Lyle, O’Connor, McLean and Miller 2009. Integrated Flood Management Plan for the Lower Cowichan Valley, British Columbia. In Proceedings of 33rd IAHR Congress. August 2009. Vancouver, British Columbia. Paper
Lyle and McLean 2008. British Columbia’s Flood Management Policy Window – Can We Take Advantage? Proceedings of 4th International Symposium on Flood Defence. May 2008. Toronto, Ontario. Paper Presentation
McLean, Mannerstrom and Lyle 2007. Revised Design Flood Profile for the Lower Fraser River. Proceedings of 18th Canadian Hydrotechnical Conference. August 2007. Winnipeg, Manitoba. Paper
McLean, Mannerstrom and Lyle 2006. Impacts of Human Interventions in the Lower Fraser River, British Columbia. Proceedings of Canadian Water Resources Association BC Branch Conference. October 2006. Vancouver, British Columbia. Paper
Lyle and Day 2003. Breaking the Serial Engineering Cycle: Alternative Approaches to Floodplain Management in British Columbia. In Watershed Stewardship: How are we Managing? Proceedings Canadian Water Resources Association 56th Annual Conference. June 2003. Vancouver, British Columbia. Paper