Summary
Rachel leads the Project Management Office at BGS, overseeing and ensuring a consistent and best practice approach to project management.
Prior to this role, Rachel managed numerous high-profile projects including the construction of the £31m UK Geoenergy Observatories, which delivered two geothermal research facilities comprising complex, instrumented boreholes arrays, in Glasgow and Cheshire.
Rachel has a PhD in hydrogeology and in previous roles has worked in contaminant hydrogeology, geoscience data product development and knowledge exchange, in addition to project management. Rachel has won a number of grants relating to knowledge exchange and innovative geospatial product development.
Rachel Dearden’s biography
- 2024 to present: Head of Project Management
- 2020 to 2024: Senior Project Manager, UK Geoenergy Observatories Project
- 2016 to 2020: Project Manager, UK Geoenergy Observatories Project
- 2011 to 2016: Project Manager and geospatial product developer
- 2008 to 2011: Hydrogeologist, British Geological Survey
- 2006 to 2007: Post-doctoral researcher, University of Birmingham
- 2003 to 2007: PhD University of Birmingham
- 1999 to 2003: BSc (Hons), University of Wales, Bangor, Environmental Science
Current projects and collaborations
- 2016 to 2024: UK Geoenergy Observatories Project – a £31m capital project funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
- 2015 to 2017: ‘BIM for the subsurface’ funded under the Technology Strategy Board’s ‘Digitising the Construction Industry call’
- 2014 to 2015: “Modelling the geological factors in pipe failure for better infrastructure management” in collaboration with Yorkshire Water. Funded by NERC’s ‘Environmental Risks to Infrastructure call’
- 2013 to 2017: Delivery of geological data and information from 3D geological models (BGS Groundhog)
- 2013 to 2014: ‘Ground information for the house-building industry’ funded by NERC’s ‘Environmental Data call’
- 2011 to 2014: ‘Sustainable Infiltration knowledge exchange fellowship, funded by NERC’s Knowledge Exchange Fellowship scheme
- 2010 to 2016: Development of Infiltration SuDS Map funded by BGS National Capability funding
Key papers
- 2014: Mathers, S J, Burke, H F, Terrington, R L, Thorpe, S, Dearden, R A, Williamson, J P, and Ford, J R. 2014. A geological model of London and the Thames Valley, southeast England. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, 125 (4), pp 373–382 (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016787814000662)
- 2014: Miller, J D, Kim, H, Kjeldsen, T R, Packman, J, Grebby, S, and Dearden, R A. 2014. Assessing the impact of urbanization on storm runoff in a peri-urban catchment using historical change in impervious cover. Journal of Hydrology. 515, pp59-70
- 2014: Rivett, M O, Dearden, R A, and Wealthall, G P. 2014. Architecture, persistence and dissolution of a 20 to 45 year old trichloroethene DNAPL source zone. J. Contaminant Hydrogeology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jconhyd.2014.09.008
- 2013: Dearden, R A, Marchant, A, and Royse, K. 2013. Development of a suitability map for infiltration sustainable drainage systems (SuDS). Environmental Earth Sciences, DOI 10.1007/s12665-013-2301-7
- 2011: Dearden, R A, and Price, S. 2011. A national suitability dataset for infiltration-based sustainable drainage systems. Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Computing and Control for the Water Industry, September 2011, Volume 1, pp 253–258
- 2011: Rivett, M O, Wealthall, G P, Dearden, R A, and McAlary, T A. 2011. Review of unsaturated-zone transport and attenuation of volatile organic compound (VOC) plumes leached from shallow source zones, Journal of Contaminant Hydrogeology, 123 (3-4), pp 130–156
- 2010: Chambers, J E, Wilkinson, P B, Wealthall, G P, Loke, M H, Dearden, R A, Wilson, R, Allen, D, and Ogilvy, R D. 2010. Hydrogeophysical imaging of deposit heterogeneity and groundwater chemistry changes during DNAPL source zone bioremediation. Journal of Contaminant Hydrology doi:10.1016/j.jconhyd.2010.07.001
- 2010: Dearden, R A, Chambers, J, Allen, D, and Wealthall, G. 2010. Site investigation techniques for DNAPL source and plume zone characterisation, Sabre Bulletin SAB2, September 2010, Published by CL:aire (Contaminated Land: Application in Real Environments)
- 2010: Dearden, R A, and Price, S. 2010. Surface Water Flooding: Sustainable drainage to the ground. UK Groundwater Forum.
Published outputs
Publication downloads
Qualifications
- PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner
- Project Management Qualification, Association of Project Managers (APM)
- NEC4 ECC PM accreditation
- Managing Successful Programmes Foundation and Practitioner
Awards
- 2013: Sustainable Drainage & Flood Management Initiative of the Year at the Water Industry Achievement Awards