About David Banks
Dave Banks is a geoenvironmental consultant. His main spheres of activity are in the fields of:
Dave is trained as a hydrogeologist and has qualified as a Chartered Geologist. He now has around 23 years professional experience from all sectors: consultancy, research, public and academia. His hydrogeological experience is backed up by a solid grounding in physics, mathematics and chemistry.
Dave is a member of the following professional societies:
Dave has extensive international experience having worked in the following countries in addition to the United Kingdom: Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Burundi, Chad, Chile, Congo (Democratic Republic), Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Hungary, Iraq, Ireland, Kenya, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyz Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Mozambique, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan (Khartoum and Darfur), Svalbard, Tajikistan and Zambia. Additionally, Dave has attended conferences and scientific exchange visits in Denmark, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Hungary, Kenya, Romania, Russia and Sweden and he has travlled privately in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Crete, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Mongolia, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and Yugoslavia. Dave speaks fluent English and Norwegian and is able to understand Swedish and Danish (if you speak slowly!). He offers translation services from these languages to English. He also speaks and reads some Russian and has a basic knowledge of French, German and Spanish.
An irrigation well in an orange grove, near Tolo, Greece (photo: D Banks)
Dave was educated as Collyer's School (subsequently Collyer's Sixth Form College) in Horsham, Sussex, where he gained an A-level in Physics and S-levels in Mathematics and Chemistry. He was subsequently admitted to Robinson College at the University of Cambridge to study for a BA in Natural Sciences. Within the Natural Sciences tripos, Dave specialised in geological sciences, but maintained a solid grounding in maths, physics and chemistry as subsidiary subjects. He attended various geology field trips in Britain and a geophysics field-course in Greece (in conjunction with students from Thessaloniki University). In his final year, he carried out a structural geological mapping project along the north Cornish Coast near Padstow.
Subsequently, Dave studied for an MSc in Hydrogeology on Professor John Lloyd's course at the University of Birmingham, which covered various aspects of groundwater flow and engineering, geophysics, hydrometry, computing (FORTRAN 77), investigation techniques and economics. Dave's dissertation work, which was eventually awarded the University's Cecil Barber Prize, comprised a hydrogeological investigation of a waste disposal site operated by Pioneer Aggregates at Ware, Herts. This involved sample collection, shaker and column tests to establish cation exchange capacity of various potential landfill liner materials and application of a self-written Fortran program to simulate landfill leachate migration through a liner.
Following the end of the University of Birmingham course, Dave spent a year away from hydrogeology. He moved to Sheffield and became engaged in various voluntary work (including tutoring at the Vietnamese Refuge and assisting at St Mary's Community Centre). He also taught sporadically at Granville College of Further Education. Subsequently, he moved to John Constable's former home at East Bergholt, Suffolk, to work in the kitchens of Flatford Mill Field Centre for the Field Studies Council.
Between 1985 and 1989, Dave worked with Thames Water Authority in Reading (which later became the National Rivers Authority). He began as an Assistant Hydrogeologist in the Water Resources Group and by the end of his time there, he had worked his way up to the heady heights of "Hydrogeologist"! It was during this time that Dave gained most of his practical experience of pumping tests, geophysical logging, Chalk karst and the London "soggy cellar syndrome".
Subsequently, Dave's career has taken him zig-zagging across the North Sea between the UK and Norway:
It was in Norway, in around 1998, that Dave first made contact with the charity Kirken's Nødhjelp (Norwegian Church Aid) who were, at that time, seeking hydrogeologists for their emergency roster of personnel. This roster, with associated packages of water supply and sanitation equipment, was funded by the Norwegian Government. Since then, Norwegian Church Aid have called upon Dave's services on several occasions, notably:
It was also while in Norway that Dave first became interested in the topic of ground source heating and cooling (GSHC). Like many converts to this cause, Dave was at first disbelieving and it took several months of effort on the part of his colleague, Helge Skarphagen, to convince him that heat pumps really did work! On his return to the UK in 1998, Dave took up the challenge of persuading Britons that ground source heating and cooling could also be of relevance to their chilly island. He was particularly interested in the possibilities that water from abandoned flooded coal mines offered in this context and published a paper on this topic in 2002.
Eventually, the ground source heat pump industry did take off in the UK and numbers of ground source heating/cooling schemes have increased from an estimated 10 (ten) in 1999 to maybe 4000 today. The majority of Holymoor's work at present involves some form of thermogeological consultancy:
Dave has attempted to place the nascent earth science of thermogeology on a rigorous, documented footing via his new book "An Introduction to Thermogeology: Ground Source Heating and Cooling", published by Wiley in 2008.
Dave very occasionally takes some time off from hydrogeology, geochemistry and thermogeology. He enjoys theatre and has formerly been an active member of Progress Theatre, Reading. He is currently a member of Hasland Theatre in Chesterfield. Dave enjoys a spot of cycling and long walks in the Peak District or the Magnesian Limestone terrain of Eastern Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. He frequently wanders along grubby old canals and like to photograph urban cityscapes. Dave represents slightly less than one half of the notorious lo-fi, shock-folk duo, The Sedatives. He plays guitar and is a songwriter.
Holymoor Consultancy Ltd.,
Registered as a limited company from 12/11/2008,
Company registration number 06747725,
Registered office: 8 Heaton Street, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S40 3AQ, UK.
David Banks is also registered with the Inland Revenue as a self-employed sole trader,
trading as "Holymoor Consultancy" from 1/8/98 to 30/11/08 and as "Holymoor GeoEnvironmental Services" from 1/12/08.