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20th-21st May 2025

Save the date for the TUFLOW 2025 UK/Europe User Conference

The team here at Edenvale Young are once again collaborating with TUFLOW to deliver the UK/Europe 2025 User Conference. We are putting together the programme and will be launching our Early Bird tickets shortly.

This year’s conference will lead on the the theme of The Human Element.

TUFLOW 2025 – The Human Element

As ever, there was a lot of deliberation about what we would like to be the theme for this year’s conference and it seemed that the natural progression from previous events, ‘Change in a Changing World’ and ‘Roadmap to the Future’, is to consider the human element. In true human fashion the reasons for liking or indeed not liking the term were very mixed, however, as a title it seemed to encompass them all. Our deliberations were very human even down to discussions about specific words to describe our theme.

Some said that the title sounded robotic however, another contributor stated; “isn’t that almost the point?” They went on to say;

“…that we risk living in a computer based world interacting with computers, thinking like computers (or trusting computers to do the thinking for us) and we need to pause and remember how people fit in! TUFLOW is software, but the influence of TUFLOW is so much more, from the people who commission the modelling, the people who undertake the modelling, the people who interpret the modelling, the people who make decisions based on the modelling, the people who benefit from the outcomes of that whole process and the people who carry the burden of responsibility to ensure it’s not only people who benefit – people are central. And those people will be most effective and affected by modelling if there is a good train of understanding throughout the process, rather than the “computer says no” basic acceptance of life. This is the robot itself acknowledging that without the people it is nothing and of no use.”

I was going to write something different, however, I feel that their comments above sum up the Human Element rather beautifully.

Whilst I am not a member of the technical team (GIS is about as good as it gets!), I see the difference our work can and must make. For my part, I was greatly moved by watching the inaugural address of the Institute of Civil Engineer’s (ICE) 159th President, Professor Anusha Shah. Were I a little girl now, I would certainly have been inspired to be a Civil Engineer. When she was asked what about being a civil engineer inspired her, she responded with:

“Knowing that I can a) use my experience, skills and personality to make a tangible and positive difference to people’s lives and b) do everything in my capacity to provide solutions to the world’s most pressing problems”.

I think that is a good aspiration for all us humans.

Our collaboration with the TUFLOW Team has always been about showcasing the TUFLOW Software but also how TUFLOW sits in the wider framework which has attracted modellers as well as those that benefit from the modelling. When we get the time to look outside of our models, there is a real world out there in which our data and outputs are consumed to create a better world for all.

Colette Linehan
Event Coordinator

TUFLOW 2025 UK/Europe User Conference

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