Tag Archive for 'floods'

Super models – using maths to mitigate natural disasters

Published on 02/03/2012 in climate change, dams, floods, management and peak water. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

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Photo retrieved from: theConversation.edu.au

“Last year will go on record as one of significant natural disasters both in Australia and overseas. Indeed, the flooding of the Brisbane River in January is still making news as the Queensland floods inquiry investigates whether water released from Wivenhoe Dam was responsible. Water modelling is being used to answer the question: could modelling have avoided the problem in the first place?

This natural disaster – as well as the Japanese tsunami in Marchand the flooding in Bangkok in October – involved the movement of fluids: water, mud or both. And all had a human cost – displaced persons, the spread of disease, disrupted transport, disrupted businesses, broken infrastructure and damaged or destroyed homes. With the planet now housing 7 billion people, the potential for adverse humanitarian effects from natural disasters is greater than ever.

Here in CSIRO’s division of Mathematical and Information Sciences, we’ve been working with various government agencies (in Australia and China) to model the flow of flood waters and the debris they carry. Governments are starting to realise just how powerful computational modelling is for understanding and analysing natural disasters and how to plan for them.

“So how does it work?

Well, fluids such as sea water can be represented as billions of particles moving around, filling spaces, flowing downwards, interacting with objects and in turn being interacted upon. Or they can be visualised as a mesh of the fluids’ shape.”

Read more: The Conversation

Sami Oueida

Flooding and water scarcity ranked as top threat for UK

Published on 01/27/2012 in climate change, drought, floods and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Retrieved from: edieWater

“Water scarcity and flooding is likely to become the main problem for the UK in the future, which will need to adapt to increase its reliance, was the stark warning from the first comprehensive climate change risk study.

“As part of the assessment, 700 potential climate change impacts were investigated, with flooding ranked as the worst risk for the UK, closely followed by water shortages, soil erosion and prolonged heatwaves.

Flood risk is projected to increase significantly across the UK, with analysis for England and Wales showing unless plans to adapt to changing risks are implemented, that by the 2080s climate change and population growth could see damages to buildings and property reach between £2.1bn – £12bn, compared to current costs of £1.2bn.

Water quality is also predicted to be affected, as it depends on water volume and river flows to dilute pollutants. This, states the report is likely to increase water treatment costs and damage the local ecosystem.

“The CCRA also predicts increasing pressure on the UK’s water resources and warns that without action to improve water resources there could be major supply shortages by the 2050s in parts of the north, south and east of England, with the Thames River basin predicted to take the brunt of the drought.”

Read more: edieWater

Sami Oueida

Wet blanket over desal plants

Published on 04/15/2011 in desalination, drought, floods and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Wivenhoe Dam

Retrieved from:The Australian

“On a crisp dry Melbourne winter’s day just over a month before stepping down from the state’s top job, former Victorian premier Steve Bracks announced his government would invest more than $3 billion to build a desalination plant on the South Gippsland coastline at Wonthaggi.

“It was June 2007, the height of the crippling millennium drought. Melbourne’s water storages had plunged to 28.4 per cent, a dramatic dip of more than 20 per cent from where storage levels were just a year earlier. Lawmakers and bureaucrats were suddenly grappling with the frightening prospect that the city could run out of water.

“And Melbourne was not facing this crisis alone. Billions of dollars were being invested across the country by state governments – sometimes with the assistance of federal government subsidies – in expensive large-scale desalination plants.

“Today, Sydney and Perth get about 3 per cent of the total urban water supply from desalination plants. A $1.2bn plant is operating at a third of its capacity in southeast Queensland, and Adelaide’s $1.8bn desalination project is expected to be completed sometime next year.

“But the merit of these investment decisions – often made by state governments and large scale water holders when anxiety about a city’s water supply is at its peak – has been questioned by three reports released over the past week by the Productivity Commission and the key independent advisory body to state and federal governments on water, the National Water Commission.”

Read more: The Australian

sammykayed

Dam burst destroys Kazakh village

Published on 03/14/2010 in dams and floods. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

“At least 35 people have been killed after a dam broke in southern Kazakhstan, unleashing a flood that destroyed a village, officials said.

“Torrential rains and rising temperatures triggered the reservoir’s burst that left hundreds of homes in ruins on Friday in the village of Kyzyl-Agash near Almaty, Kazakhstan’s biggest city.”

read more: Al Jazeera

chrismorrow

Adapting to Climate in Africa

Published on 03/02/2010 in drought, floods, rainwater harvesting and solutions and outreach. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

“Throughout history, African African societies have experienced various climate-related events and pressures. But over the last 30 years both drought and floods have increased in frequency and severity. The continent is now burdened with nearly one-third of all water-related disaster that occur worldwide every year.”

read more: jotoafrika

chrismorrow