Samantha Deacon

Principal – Ecosystem Solutions

Contact Samantha Deacon

T: +44 1225 748 420

Samantha Deacon leads Ramboll’s ecological risk assessment practice in the UK and is a core member of Ramboll’s ecosystem services task force. She has over 15 years’ experience in environmental regulation, consultancy and research in the assessment of chemicals in the environment. Her recent work at Ramboll includes advising clients on ecosystem services analysis, environmental damage under the Environmental Liabilities Directive, chemical risk assessments for REACH, ecological risk assessment of contaminated soils, river and harbour sediments, and the risk assessment of composting bioaerosols (as expert witness in a national planning inquiry).

Samantha has previously managed a regulatory programme of research to develop a decision-making framework for assessing risks to ecosystems from land contamination. In her eleven years in regulation, she contributed to over 65 publications, scientific papers and conference presentations including more than 50 Environment Agency technical reports. She holds an MSc in Ecotoxicology of Natural Populations from the University of Reading and a BSc (Hons) in Biology from Royal Holloway, University of London.
 

Recent projects

Tomato Cultivation: Southern Italy

A nematicide used widely on tomato crops across Europe is currently only available to growers under emergency license. Southern Italian farmers have relied on the soil fumigant – 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D) – for more than 50 years to manage plant parasitic nematodes (microscopic worms) in tomato cultivation.

Using an enforcement undertaking to improve river water quality

Ramboll was appointed to assist with a water pollution offence in a river in south-west England in 2014. The failure to dam a river during a road construction project meant that an accidental chemical release led to a number of fish being killed. Working with legal partners, our damage assessors (comprising ecologists, eco-toxicologists and economists) undertook a project to value the damage and identify compensatory actions that were accepted by the Environment Agency.