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Category: disaster risk reduction

“Are we talking just a bit of water out of bank? Or is it Armageddon?” Front line perspectives on transitioning to probabilistic fluvial flood forecasts in England

“Are we talking just a bit of water out of bank? Or is it Armageddon?” Front line perspectives on transitioning to probabilistic fluvial flood forecasts in England

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Contributed by Louise Arnal, Jess Neumann, Liz Stephens and Hannah Cloke This blog post is based on a paper recently published in Geoscience Communication, written in collaboration with Liz Anspoks, Sue Manson, Tim Norton and Louise Wolfenden from the Environment Agency. With the aim to better anticipate future floods, UK policy is seeing an ongoing shift from flood defence towards a forecast-based flood risk management approach, under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. It is in this context that…

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Helping shape a new flood forecasting service in The wellington region, new zealand

Helping shape a new flood forecasting service in The wellington region, new zealand

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Contributed by Michael Cranston (RAB), Andy Brown (Greater Wellington Regional Council) and Bapon Fakhruddin (Tonkin and Taylor). The flooding challenge in Wellington Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) are embarking on a programme to establish improved flood forecasting services across the Wellington Region on New Zealand’s north island. Flooding is considered New Zealand’s number one natural hazard with flood emergencies estimated to have cost $17 million a year in insurance payments and $15 million in emergency management expenditure between 1968 and…

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Can we foresee drought and its impacts?

Can we foresee drought and its impacts?

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Contributed by Samuel J. Sutanto and Henny A.J. Van Lanen; Hydrology and Quantitative Water Management Group, Wageningen University, the Netherlands. The 2018 and 2019 droughts are still fresh in our memory, when extended areas in Europe suffered, once more, from extreme drought. Climate projection studies show that drought very likely will become more frequent. Similar to the 2015 drought (Van Lanen et al., 2016), impacts of the 2018 drought in Europe were tremendous and affected many sectors. For example, farmers…

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Flash flooding is a serious threat in the UK – here’s how scientists are tackling its prediction

Flash flooding is a serious threat in the UK – here’s how scientists are tackling its prediction

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Contributed by Christopher J White, University of Strathclyde ; Michael Cranston, RAB; Laura Kelly, University of Strathclyde ; Linda Speight, University of Reading. It’s becoming a familiar scene on the news: sodden British people wading through streets up to their knees in flood water. From Stirling to Sheffield, many parts of the UK in 2019 felt the impact of severe surface water flooding – often referred to as flash flooding – that followed torrential rain. As the climate changes and the…

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Data Drought and Data Flood

Data Drought and Data Flood

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Contributed by Mark Trigg*.  It’s hot, and very, very dry. The rains have failed, and the animals are dying. Around the table people are concerned that it will be people dying next. The cycle seems to repeat every 10 years and the response is exactly the same, every time – we must do something and save lives. “Drill more boreholes and put in big pumps and generators”, someone cries, “no matter the cost!”. A timid voice rises above the ongoing…

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