Category Archives: Flooding

Annual Flooding in Miami

Miami during Hurricane Irma in 2017. Image by Kevin Hagan for the NY Times

“Climate Change,” according to Ban Ki Moon and Francis Suarez, writing in the New York Times, here,  “is not a distant threat for Miami; it’s a daily presence in people’s lives. The city has been fighting to stay above water for decades. It knows that its future as a vibrant international hub for business, tourism, arts and culture depends on making the city more resilient to the impact of global warming.”

Eileen Mignoni, In “Flooding is the new normal in Miami In Miami,” here, in Yale Climate Connections, wrote, “sea-level rise is not a problem for future generations. It’s a present-day reality.

Moon, the former Secretary General of the U.N. and Suarez, Miami’s Mayor, wrote, 

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Amphibious vehicles: images

We hope to follow up with more details about particular applications of amphibious vehicles. However, these images are intended to illustrate the variety of amphibious transport which already exist: even a small number of these can replace a bridge, be used as ferries, and can make transportation (supply, bringing rescue personnel in, wounded or immobile persons out) during floods a simple matter. Clearance no longer matters; the question of vehicles shorting out as water hits the electrical system through the underbody is moot.

Plus – in our opinion – some of them  look pretty cool.

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Japan rebuilding failed breakwater

Norimitsu Onishi, writing in the Times, November 3,  Japan Revives a Sea Barrier That Failed to Hold 

KAMAISHI, Japan — After three decades and nearly $1.6 billion, work on Kamaishi’s great tsunami breakwater was completed three years ago. A mile long, 207 feet deep and jutting nearly 20 feet above the water, the quake-resistant structure made it into the Guinness World Records last year and rekindled fading hopes of revival in this rusting former steel town.

But when a giant tsunami hit Japan’s northeast on March 11, the breakwater largely crumpled under the first 30-foot-high wave, leaving Kamaishi defenseless. Waves deflected from the breakwater are also strongly suspected of having contributed to the 60-foot waves that engulfed communities north of it.

Its performance that day, coupled with its past failure to spur the growth of new businesses, suggested that the breakwater would be written off as yet another of the white elephant construction projects littering rural Japan. But Tokyo quickly and quietly decided to rebuild it as part of the reconstruction of the tsunami-ravaged zone, at a cost of at least $650 million.

Wikipedia’s entry “Seawall” is an excellent primer on this type of flood defense.

A seawall works by reflecting incident wave energy back into the sea, therefore reducing the energy and erosion which the coastline would otherwise be subjected to.In addition to their unsightly visual appearance, two specific weaknesses of seawalls exist. Firstly, wave reflection induced by the wall may result in scour and subsequent lowering of the sand level of the fronting beach Secondly, seawalls may accelerate ero . There are three main types of seawalls: vertical; curved or stepped; and mounds.

News from Pakistan floods as of 10 August – more to follow

The Pakistan Red Crescent Society reports as follows on the current floods in Pakistan:

Period covered by this update: 21st July to 10th August, 2010

PRCS along with its Movement Partners (IFRC and ICRC) and Partner National Societies (PNSs) is jointly responding to the Monsoon Floods 2010. CHF 250,000 (USD 239,406 or EUR 183,589) has been allocated from the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the Pakistan Red Crescent Society National Society in delivering immediate assistance to some 35,000 beneficiaries.

Heavy rains starting from 21 July 2010 have triggered both flash floods and river floods in several parts of the country resulting in a loss of life and widespread displacements. It is estimated that more than 300 people have perished and well over 1 million others have been affected. Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa (KPK), Baluchistan and Punjab have been the worst- affected areas. Thousands of people have lost their homes and livelihoods.

Note that this is dated August 10th; we’re trying to provide more complete and current information as possible.

Via ReliefWeb. Link to ReliefWeb post here.

Waterstudio – water-friendly, resilient architecture

From Jill Fehrenbacher and Sarah Rich

at Inhabitat, we learned about Waterstudio :

In the months following Katrina, one of the most interesting design solutions we found for dealing with rising water levels was the amphibious architecture of Dutch firm Waterstudio. Architect Koen Olthius specializes in a unique technology that allows land-based buildings to detach from the ground and float under rising water conditions. Olthius’ claim to fame is that he focuses exclusively on aqueous design – design for building in, on and at the water – in a country where water dominates the landscape.

Link to Inhabitat’s post.

This design – if a flood-prone city grid were designed around having, say, 10% of its building stock built this way – would provide precious evacuation time – and since these structures are might well survive serious flooding – they’re the avant-garde

of the recovery. Once the water recedes – these structures won’t need to be rebuilt.