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He鈥檚 had a big influence on Portland water resource management for someone who only recently moved to the United States.

But before that, Colin Thorne had already made a name for himself internationally as a renowned fluvial geomorphologist, civil engineer and scientist with a swath of institutions, both academic and governmental, across the globe. He has been intensely involved in governmental policy in both the United Kingdom and the United States, including leading a geomorphology work package in the UK鈥檚 Foresight flood and coastal defense project. He also sat on the UK government鈥檚 Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies after the 2013-14 UK winter floods, while his research has also had public impact in an International Court of Justice case involving Costa Rica and Nicaragua, where he was called as an expert witness.
More recently, Thorne became familiar with Portland through the Blue-Green Cities Research Project, during which a consortium of eight UK universities evaluated flood risk benefits in several cities around the world, including Portland. While he has worked in various locations in the U.S. in the past, this particular project led to Thorne accepting a position as a river scientist with Wolf Water Resources, a Portland-based and woman-owned engineering and watershed science firm founded six years ago by Marjorie Wolfe, who formerly worked as a bio-engineer for the Northwest Environmental Hydrology Group, Clean Water Services and others.

鈥淚 think that Colin has always been a big influence and mentor in my life,鈥� Wolfe said. 鈥淚 love the way he thinks about rivers, how he engages communities about rivers.鈥�

Wolfe worked more closely with Thorne during his Blue-Green Cities project research, as well as at symposiums hosted by River Restoration Northwest, a Portland non-profit dedicated to river restoration. Eventually, she learned Thorne was actually interested in relocating to the U.S. to work, and in the Northwest in particular, where he already had familiarity.

鈥淲hen I started the business, the opportunity to hire Colin was huge,鈥� she said. 鈥淭o hire my own mentor and teacher and get to work with them on a daily basis is a pretty big deal; it鈥檚 a great opportunity.鈥�

For his part, Thorne says he was initially impressed with how the City of Portland was willing to embrace blue-green concepts that had previously been roundly rejected in his home country. That conversation brought out another of his traits 鈥� the ability to explain complex concepts and systems in a way that is easily understood.

鈥淎 blue-green city is one that tries to bring together management of green spaces, so hence the blue and the green,鈥� Thorne said. 鈥淪occer fields and parks don鈥檛 mind getting flooded too much, and we鈥檙e going to need a lot more managed flooding and less flood management squeezing rivers into tight spaces in the future.鈥�

Current policy isn鈥檛 working, he added, and has led to constant flooding of urbanized creeks and watersheds in the Portland area, the most well known being Johnson Creek.

鈥淚f you can take a green space and turn it into a blue space, you get flood risk management benefits,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here are costs avoided and distress avoided for people. So, if you can make that green space benefit from getting flooded ground, use it for water storage, it鈥檚 a win-win situation.鈥�

That ability, Wolfe said, just as much as his formidable technical prowess, explain his success over more than 40 years of research and field work.

鈥淐olin has worked all over the world on some of the biggest, most complex water resource problems we鈥檙e trying to solve,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just the technical skill, but the people skills in terms of solving the big problems 鈥� flooding in the UK, sediment transport in China, and restoration and creating frameworks around the blue-green cities stuff.鈥�

It works around the world, too.

鈥淲hat I鈥檝e discovered is if you go in and meet a new group of people and tell them what you need from them, you often don鈥檛 get very far,鈥� Thorne said. 鈥淏ut if you tell them what you can do for them and how you are going to improve their lives, they are often much more interested.鈥�
That attitude explains why he is an environmental science icon.

鈥淐olin really inspired me to start this company even though he probably doesn鈥檛 really know that,鈥� Wolfe said. 鈥淗e gave me the confidence to say we can do a better job.鈥�