scholarly journals Report on the 3rd International Conference on Flood Recovery, Innovation and Response (FRIAR) 2012

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele De Wrachien ◽  
David Proverbs

The terms flood or flooding are often used in different ways. According to the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID), <em>flooding is defined as the overflowing or failing of the normal confines of a river, stream, lake, canal, sea or accumulation of water as a result of heavy precipitation where drains are lacking or their discharge capacity is exceeded</em>. The occurrence of floods is the most frequent amongst all natural disasters. Although flooding is a serious hazard in humid regions, it can also be devastating in semiarid areas, where high rates of runoff following storms produce widespread flood damage down valley. These hazards involve tragic loss of life, damage to buildings and natural environments, and massive short-term disruption to the lives of the affected population. One-third of the annual natural disasters and economic losses, and more than half of the respective victims are flood-related.

GEOgraphia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (43) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Alex Santiago Nina ◽  
Cláudio Fabian Szlafsztein

Nos últimos anos, tem aumentado a frequência dos desastres naturais na Amazônia, concomitantemente com a necessidade de estimar os seus prejuízos econômicos. Este trabalho tem como objetivo verificar qual é o tipo e a intensidade do impacto das inundações de 2009, consideradas as maiores já registradas na Amazônia, no crescimento do Produto Interno Bruto (PIB) municipal. A metodologia consistiu na análise de correlação linear entre o desempenho econômico e algumas variáveis referentes ao tipo de inundação e indicadores socioeconômicos. Os resultados mostram que as inundações bruscas são as mais problemáticas em longo prazo. As principais estratégias a serem adotadas perpassam pela inclusão de ações de mitigação de desastres naturais ao planejamento do desenvolvimento sustentável da Amazônia. Palavras-chave: Produto Interno Bruto. Inundação. Amazônia. THE 2009 FLOODS IN THE AMAZON AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: IMPACT ON THE MUNICIPAL GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT Abstract: In the last years, have been increase the frequency of natural disasters in Amazon, concomitantly whit the need of estimate their economic losses. This work have the objective of check what is the type and intensity of 2009 floods impacts, considered the major already registered in Amazon, to the increase of municipal Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The methodology was the linear correlation analysis between the economic performance and some variable relative to inundation type and socioeconomics indicators. The results bring which the fast floods are the major problem in the long term. The means strategies to be adopted are the inclusion of natural disasters mitigation actions in plan of sustainable development of Amazon. Keywords: Gross Domestic Product. Flood. Amazon. LAS INUNDACIONES DE 2009 EN LA AMAZONÍA Y SU RELACIÓN CON EL DESARROLLO SOSTENIBLE: IMPACTO EN EL PRODUCTO INTERNO BRUTO MUNICIPAL Resumen: En los últimos años ha aumentado la frecuencia de los desastres naturales en la Amazonia, concomitantemente con la necesidad de estimar sus prejuicios económicos. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo verificar cual es el tipo y la intensidad del impacto de las inundaciones de 2009, consideradas las mayores ya registradas en la Amazonia, al crecimiento del Producto Bruto Interno (PBI) municipal. La metodología consistió el análisis de correlación linear entre el desempeño económico y algunas variables referentes al tipo de inundación e indicadores socioeconómicos. Los resultados muestran que las inundaciones bruscas son las mas problemáticas a largo plazo. Las principales estrategias a ser adoptadas pasan por la inclusión de acciones de mitigación de desastres naturales a la planificación del desarrollo sostenible de la Amazonia. Palabras clave: Producto Interno Bruto. Inundaciones. Amazonia. 


Author(s):  
Mali‘o Kodis ◽  
Marci Bortman ◽  
Sarah Newkirk

AbstractAs climate change accelerates the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, damage to public and private property is also increasing, putting exorbitant strain on governments and communities. Societies across the world are working to adapt to climate change, but climate adaptation is currently inadequate to meet the needs of the people left increasingly vulnerable and the places that risk being irreversibly changed or destroyed. One tactic of climate adaptation is strategic retreat, sometimes referred to as managed retreat. Strategic retreat is the process by which the government or another entity purchases (buys out) developed properties that are at risk of destruction or have been destroyed by natural disasters. The structure is most often demolished, and the land is placed under a permanent easement to prevent future development. What happens next is dependent on the entities involved in the buyouts, and can range from derelict, vacant lots to full restoration of ecosystems and their abilities to mitigate flood damage. Sometimes recreational amenities, such as trails or park infrastructure, are prioritized and funded as well. Conservation organizations can leverage their expertise in conservation planning, land acquisition and restoration, policy advocacy, and partnership development to improve the implementation of strategic retreat so that nature and people can thrive in the long term. In this policy paper, we review ways that conservation organizations have and can continue to engage in buyout processes to ensure positive outcomes for communities and nature. Conservation organizations must also evolve their approaches to climate adaptation to integrate equity and redress historical injustices in land use, and contribute towards improving strategic retreat for a more just and resilient future across disaster-prone communities. This work focuses on the context of disasters and climate adaptation in the USA, though many of the principles presented are applicable around the world.


Author(s):  
Alexia Barrable ◽  
David Booth ◽  
Dylan Adams ◽  
Gary Beauchamp

Nature connection, which describes a positive relationship between humans and the rest of nature, has been recognised as a worthwhile goal of all education. Given its association with wellbeing, as well as the fact that it can predict ecological behaviours in children, there have been several calls for it to become central to environmental education, and an important tool in tackling climate change. Previous research has reported the success of short-term interventions in increasing nature connection in children, but to date no empirical studies have looked at how mindful engagement with nature can promote both nature connection and positive affect. This study took place in a nature reserve in Wales and included n = 74 children, aged 9–10, who took part in three mindful activities. Pre- and post- measures included nature connection and positive/negative affect. Analysis showed a significant small to medium effect of the activity on nature connection. Moreover, positive affect significantly increased post-activity, while negative affect showed a small decrease.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva van der Kooij ◽  
Marc Schleiss ◽  
Riccardo Taormina ◽  
Francesco Fioranelli ◽  
Dorien Lugt ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;Accurate short-term forecasts, also known as nowcasts, of heavy precipitation are desirable for creating early warning systems for extreme weather and its consequences, e.g. urban flooding. In this research, we explore the use of machine learning for short-term prediction of heavy rainfall showers in the Netherlands.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We assess the performance of a recurrent, convolutional neural network (TrajGRU) with lead times of 0 to 2 hours. The network is trained on a 13-year archive of radar images with 5-min temporal and 1-km spatial resolution from the precipitation radars of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). We aim to train the model to predict the formation and dissipation of dynamic, heavy, localized rain events, a task for which traditional Lagrangian nowcasting methods still come up short.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We report on different ways to optimize predictive performance for heavy rainfall intensities through several experiments. The large dataset available provides many possible configurations for training. To focus on heavy rainfall intensities, we use different subsets of this dataset through using different conditions for event selection and varying the ratio of light and heavy precipitation events present in the training data set and change the loss function used to train the model.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To assess the performance of the model, we compare our method to current state-of-the-art Lagrangian nowcasting system from the pySTEPS library, like S-PROG, a deterministic approximation of an ensemble mean forecast. The results of the experiments are used to discuss the pros and cons of machine-learning based methods for precipitation nowcasting and possible ways to further increase performance.&lt;/p&gt;


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francina Dominguez ◽  
Sandy Dall'erba ◽  
Shuyi Huang ◽  
Andre Avelino ◽  
Ali Mehran ◽  
...  

Abstract. Atmospheric rivers (ARs) account for more than 75 % of heavy precipitation events and nearly all of the extreme flooding events along the Olympic Mountains and western Cascade mountains of western Washington state. In a warmer climate, ARs in this region are projected to become more frequent and intense, primarily due to increases in atmospheric water vapor. However, it is unclear how the changes in water vapor transport will affect regional flooding and associated economic impacts. In this work, we present an integrated modeling system to quantify the atmospheric-hydrologic-hydraulic and economic impacts of the December 2007 AR event that impacted the Chehalis river basin in western Washington. We use the modeling system to project impacts under a hypothetical scenario where the same December 2007 event occurs in a warmer climate. This method allows us to incorporate different types of uncertainty including: a) alternative future radiative forcings, b) different responses of the climate system to future radiative forcings and c) different responses of the surface hydrologic system. In the warming scenario, AR integrated vapor transport increases, however, these changes do not translate into generalized increases in precipitation throughout the basin. The changes in precipitation translate into spatially heterogeneous changes in sub-basin runoff and increased streamflow along the entire Chehalis main stem. Economic losses due to stock damages increased moderately, but losses in terms of business interruption were significant. Our integrated modeling tool provides communities in the Chehalis region with a range of possible future physical and economic impacts associated with AR flooding.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleš Ugovšek ◽  
Barbara Šubic ◽  
Jernej Starman ◽  
Gregor Rep ◽  
Miha Humar ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1355
Author(s):  
Koji Ishiya ◽  
Sachiyo Aburatani

To understand the activities of complex microbial communities in various natural environments and living organisms, we need to capture the compositional changes in their taxonomic abundance. Here, we propose a new computational framework to detect compositional changes in microorganisms, including minor bacteria. This framework is designed to statistically assess relative variations in taxonomic abundance. By using this approach, we detected compositional changes in the human gut microbiome that might be associated with short-term human dietary changes. Our approach can shed light on the compositional changes of minor microorganisms that are easily overlooked.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 271-281
Author(s):  
Yasuko Kameyama ◽  
Keishi Ono

AbstractAs the level of understanding about climate change has increased, the term “climate security” has been increasingly used in the rapidly growing literature on this subject. Although Japan has officially acknowledged the importance of tackling climate change, discussion of climate security has been almost nonexistent among Japanese governmental officials, politicians, and academics. Our aim was to trace discourses related to climate security in Japan to determine why so little exists in Japan and whether or not such discourse could suggest new areas for consideration to more comprehensively respond to the climate change problem. Because of different interpretations and uses of the term “climate security” in the existing literature, we first categorized existing approaches to climate security into four types and used this categorization to examine Japan’s discourse from these perspectives. Two of the approaches, namely “long-term irreversible planetary changes” and “short-term abrupt risks to individuals”, had been considered in Japan previously but without specific reference to the term climate security. The other two, “cause of conflict and violence” and “impacts to military and defense organizations”, however, had not been used and need to be included in discussions of climate change in Japan. Some of the topics not discussed in Japan include indirect economic losses of Japanese industries via supply chains, loss of Japan’s exclusive economic zone due to sea-level rise, and the potential inflow of refugees resulting from extreme weather patterns outside of Japan.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Shou Su

<p>Taiwan has performed well economically during the past four decades. However, economic development can be profoundly hampered by natural disasters. Sustainable economic development requires environmental resilience. With 23 million people occupying only 13,974 square miles of land, Taiwan is both densely populated and highly exposed to natural disasters: 73.1% of the total population lives in vulnerable areas, and Taiwan is ranked as the country most exposed to multiple hazards (The World Bank, 2005). Storms and floods damage Taiwan frequently, with an average of six typhoons hitting Taiwan annually for the past four decades. Taiwan had the highest occurrence and highest death toll on the natural disaster density indicator (NDDI) in comparison with China, Japan, U.S.A, U.K., France, and the Netherlands from 1985 to 2014. Also, Taiwan’s economic losses during the past thirty years are estimated at $650, 000 per km². This is approximately 5 times that of the Netherlands’ $134,362 and the U.K.’s $135,292, 8 times that of the U.S.A.’s $78,186 losses, and 9 times that of France’s $70,599. Research finds that every dollar invested into disaster preparedness would save $4 to $7 dollars in post-disaster damages (Multihazard Mitigation Council, 2005; The National Academy of Sciences, 2012). Hence, promoting urban resilience policies for disaster risk reduction should become a priority in Taiwan and other Asian nations in the future. Most important is the need of a strong political commitment and leadership to initiate and implement spatial policies toward resilience.</p>


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