Chris Bean
GIS Analyst at The Rivers Trust
Tell us about your career path so far.
I originally studied for an undergraduate degree in sociology back in 2011 at Nottingham Trent University.
After graduating I worked teaching sociology in a FE college.
I spent a couple of years teaching before I decided to see the world a little more, and think about what I wanted to do in life and work. Teaching was great, but I figured some different experiences would be useful in deciding what I wanted to do longer term.
So, at the age of 23, I decided to go travelling!
India
This was my first trip away, where I realised I would love to try and see as much of the world as I could.
India was incredibly beautiful, friendly and vast, just to see this country alone could take years, so it was time to quit my job!
New Zealand
I have always loved the environment, NZ really does spoil you with what is on offer in such a small landmass.
I spent many months and many more thousands of km hiking all over this incredible place. From the Fiordland of the south island, subtropical beaches, volcanoes, and ancient Gondwanaland forests.
Along the way I enjoyed some time volunteering with the Department of Conservation, on Ulva Island, igniting a passion in me for habitat and species conservation.
Tonga
Tonga was a place of real beauty. I roamed around this place for a time, living with an incredible family on the Island of Nomuka and their sailing yacht "Wildlife", diving with the humpback whales.
So many lessons were learned here about the importance of living in balance with your surroundings, the issues of sea-level rise in the South Pacific, and how satellite technology and remote sensing can identify new landmasses and even whales!
I fell in love with the old nautical maps, spending days pouring over them, trying to understand how the ancient Tongan people managed to navigate such places with no GPS!
Singapore
Singapore was an incredible place to be in. While it was far removed from the remote wild places of the world, the metropolis encourages the wild to take root all over the place, from bus stop roofs to the walls of skyscrapers.
Islands had been created from waste, and otters were beginning to return to the waterscapes. It showed me that even in incredibly densely populated areas we can still find ways to support conservation and thrive from doing so.
South Korea
My time in South Korea was so wonderfully varied. From the megacity of Seoul, to the rugged mountain peaks of Seroksan National Park.
I was fortunate enough to be in a small mountain town on the northeast coast called Goeseong, with delicious food and wonderful friends.
The Koreans have a great love of the outside and the mountains, and I spent much time with my Korean friends here watching the cherry blossoms, bouldering and enjoying the crisp mountain air.
I have been privileged to enjoy visiting many more countries than the ones listed here, each providing me valuable insights into the world around us, and what I might do to improve things here in the UK by their examples.
Throughout my travels one theme was common, my love of the outdoors, of the wild spaces, learning about land and seascapes, and of course, looking at maps whenever I had the chance to!
While travelling is amazing, and I would certainly not discourage those from undertaking such joyful endeavours, as I learned more of conservation and the world’s complex systems, so too I learned more of my footprint and the impact of all my decisions. Accordingly, I try and hike, cycle, carpool, bus, train, and sail wherever possible. I encourage you all to do this as much as possible and reduce your footprint in any way you can!
Aged 28, I decided to come back to the UK to retrain and implement some of the lessons learned with a Masters in Environmental Science at the University of Bristol.
One of my first modules was an introduction to GIS and Remote Sensing, which I immediately fell in love with! Playing with maps all day was great.
I knew immediately this was what I wanted to pursue, so I obtained a 1-month internship with a remote sensing company based in Bristol and worked on a project mapping the islands of Kiribati.
After my internship came to an end, I knew I wanted to continue on this path, so secured a job working for the consultancy LUC as a GIS intern for a year while balancing my studies part-time.
Upon completion of my studies, I spent 1 year as a GIS Analyst at the consultancy.
While I thoroughly enjoyed working at LUC, making great friends, and learning a great deal about GIS, I decided to apply the knowledge and experience I had gained here in a field more relevant to my studies and interests, water.
This brought me to The Rivers Trust, where I now work as a ‘Technical Analyst’, supporting and leading on a range of projects.
My favorite being the woodlands for water initiative, which concerns itself with riparian woodland planting.
In addition to this, I also manage the ArcGIS license agreements we have with our member river trusts. Here at The Rivers Trust we are focussed on upskilling and creating a national network of GIS users to help inform and all of our rivers work across England Ireland and Wales. My previous experience as a teacher is also helping do that!
What 3 things do you like most about your current role?
The reach that we have across England, Wales and Ireland, there are so many local rivers trusts to help support, over 70!
Being part of a team that does great environmental work at all levels.
We are a growing team who collaborate on every project that we work on, and our work has real positive impacts for the environment, from informing local natural flood management work, to challenging the government on national sewage policies.
Knowing that I’m helping support informed tree planting, so the right tree is planted in the right place.
Greenwashing can be a big problem, and tree planting specifically falls prey to this. It is too easily seen as the green fix all.
Give us an example of a project that you have contributed to recently that you are proud of.
I am building the centralised data portal and reporting tool, what we have called the ‘CaBA TreeHub’ , to support our partners across 6 pathfinder areas in planting trees for the Woodlands for Water government initiative.
This includes access to dozens of specialist data sets and tools that users will use to help inform their planting, links to wider guidance on securing funding and support for the schemes, and supporting the creation of a database of specialists across the country that can aid applicants of the scheme.
The TreeHub aims to ensure a slick user experience, with dashboards embedded to facilitate a simple and effective reporting functionality.
Where do you see yourself career wise in 5 years’ time?
I’m about to undergo some training to be a licensed drone pilot – which I am very excited about! Not all GIS has to be done from a computer, having the opportunity to go out into the field and capture data to help inform our projects will be great!
I would also like to develop my understanding of various coding languages and flood modelling.
With more seniority, I would like to be creating bids for projects concerned with rewilding the countryside, perhaps linking this through to the academic world and helping facilitate the bridge between academia and work on the ground.
I aim to continue to teach more and continue to grow the use of GIS across all member trusts.
How do you see GIS helping your sector in the future?
GIS will become the heart of everything we do to empower local citizens on the ground.
From the monitoring of chemicals and sewage spills in our waterways to the implementation of leaky dams, citizen science can offer tangible solutions in addressing issues covering large and dynamic areas. Such areas cannot easily be managed by organisations, due to a lack of understanding of the local issues and drivers for change.
Having this data helps build up evidence portfolios that can usher in change at the central government level.
As our population increases, so do our water stress, flood risk and risk of poorer water quality.
Empowering people to take change is the future.
If you could time travel and give your younger self 1 piece of advice what would it be and why?
If i could give a message to my 16 year old self, petrified about my GCSEs it would be;
You might not ever decide what to be when you grow up, so take the time to enjoy what you doing at that moment in time. If you listen to others, listen to yourself, and take some time to step back from things when they get too much, things will work out
