Flood Modeling News
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France taken to Court and Luxembourg given warning over failure to notify flooding legislation
The Commission is asking France and Luxembourg to comply with EU environmental legislation in the area of flood prevention. Both Member States have failed to inform the Commission about the transposition of this legislation, which should have been in place by November 2009. At the recommendation of Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik, the Commission has decided to take France to Court ...
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Willis Re Releases Groundbreaking Flood Models for Latin America
LONDON - Willis Re, the reinsurance arm of global insurance broker Willis Group Holdings (NYSE: WSH), has extended its lead in Latin American flood risk with the release of detailed risk estimates and large event scenarios for key cities including São Paulo, Santiago and Bogotá. The models, developed by the Willis Research Network (WRN), will help clients to optimize their related ...
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Pakistan flood data wasted, say critics
A huge effort to collect and analyse data on the devastating floods wreaking havoc in northern Pakistan has been severely undermined by a lack of strategies for disaster management and the dissemination of information, scientists and disaster experts have said. The Pakistan Meteorological Department's flood forecasting division provides information on the size and flow of the floods using data ...
By SciDev.Net
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Murray-Darling water to flow where it is needed most
Funded by the National Water Commission, the report; Ecological Outcomes of Flow Regimes in the Murray-Darling Basin, provides information that will assist water managers to improve and justify delivery of environmental water to ‘icon sites’, including wetlands of international significance such as the Macquarie Marshes, Gwydir Wetlands and Narran Lakes. “It’s no secret ...
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Atlanta floods extremely rare
The epic flooding that hit the Atlanta area in September was so extremely rare that, six weeks later this event has defied attempts to describe it. Scientists have reviewed the numbers and they are stunning. “At some sites, the annual chance of a flood of this magnitude was so significantly less than 1 in 500 that, given the relatively short length of streamgaging records (well less than 100 ...
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Early warning system for pluvial flooding
An early warning system for pluvial flooding caused by surface water runoff has been developed and could be implemented in the near future. The method offers greater warning and better targeting of resources. Pluvial flooding occurs when large volumes of surface water, typically from heavy rainfall, accumulate causing overland flow and ponding which is unable to drain away. Urban underground ...
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Mapping groundwater flooding for the EU Floods Directive
In the coming years the EU Floods Directive1 will require Member States to produce flood hazard and risk maps. Taking the UK as a case study, new research highlights the need for advances in data collection, mapping and groundwater flood warning systems to meet EU requirements for maps and management plans. Although often occurring less frequently than fluvial (river) flooding, the effects of ...
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India must improve its climate strategy, says report
India must develop a comprehensive climate resilience strategy that includes innovations in agriculture and water management, says a World Bank report. Other recommendations include improving publicly-accessible climate information systems and shifting to dryland farming. The report, released last week (25 May), analyses the impact of climate change in three Indian regions — two drought-prone ...
By SciDev.Net
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ADB, Japan to help Asia cut human, economic losses from water disasters
Japan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are providing support for improved flood management in the region, in a bid to lower the rising human and economic costs of water-related disasters. ADB’s Board of Directors approved a US$2 million grant from the Japan Special Fund for regional technical assistance to support investments in water-related disaster management. The Fund is financed by the ...
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Cleaning up the effects of stormwater with biofilters
Stormwater in urban areas can have negative effects on both the quantity and quality of surface- and ground-waters. Biofiltration systems are a popular form of water treatment, but information on their performance with stormwater is limited to laboratory studies. This research is the first to evaluate three biofiltration systems in practice. Biofiltration systems (otherwise known as biofilters, ...
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World must work together to use water wisely – Ban
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has underscored the potential of water as a unifying force rather than a catalyst for conflict, stressing that the world's collective future depends on how it manages this precious resource. “More than ever we need to work together to use it wisely,” Mr. Ban said in a message to mark World Water Day, observed annually on 22 March. “While the world's growing ...
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UK Environment Agency encourages local authorities to implement flood risk role
Following the Government’s response today to Sir Michael Pitt’s review of the summer 2007 floods, the Environment Agency is encouraging all local authorities in England to begin implementing their future role in managing local flood risk. The Environment Agency has already made good progress in taking on its new strategic overview role for all types of flooding in England, ahead of securing ...
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The health, social and economic impacts of flooding
The health, social and economic impacts of major floods are devastating, affecting people’s physical and mental health and disrupting and dispersing communities. Impacts can range from immediate death, injury and harm from contaminated water, through to lasting psychological consequences caused by damaged homes, loss of personal possessions and financial worries. In a paper published in ...
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Leading-edge workshops : Mapping for a sustainable future
Training4GIS™, the training and consultancy division of GeoInformation® Group, is hosting a series of workshops designed to serve local authorities, the business community and those with an interest in creating a sustainable environment.Mapping for a Sustainable Future is a comprehensive set of one day, practical workshops focused on how mapping can successfully be applied within sustainable ...
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How vulnerable to flooding is New York City?
A report just released in the most recent issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society offers hope that a new high-resolution storm surge modeling system developed by scientists at Stony Brook University will better be able to predict flood levels and when flooding will occur in the New York metropolitan area, information crucial to emergency managers when planning for impending ...
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Met Office welcomes Pitt Review recommendations on flooding control
The Met Office welcomes calls for a joint centre to deal with the issue of severe weather and flooding in the UK. The final report of Sir Michael Pitt's Flooding Lessons Learnt Review recommends combining the expertise of the Met Office and the Environment Agency. The review also indicated that continuous investment will be required to support the development of integrated forecasting and ...
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New Asia-Pacific network launched to tackle water problems
Twelve organizations from across the Asia-Pacific region have launched a network to share solutions for improving water management to tackle the region’s many pressing water challenges. The network, known as “KnowledgeHubs,” is an initiative of the Asia-Pacific Water Forum, which was established in 2006 with support from Japan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to promote leadership and boost ...
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UK Met Office advances severe weather forecasting
The Met Office has announced significant developments in its science and technology capability to provide more precise pinpointing of where and when extreme rainfall will occur, helping to strengthen the UK’s resilience to major severe weather events. The latest advances mean that severe rainfall forecasts will now be available a further day in advance and the location of individual storms will ...
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Mapping Earth`s soil moisture with NASA
Professor Dara Entekhabi from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is to lead a science team designing a NASA satellite mission to collect global soil moisture measurements and other data seen as key to improving weather, flood and drought forecasts and predictions of agricultural productivity and climate change. At present, scientists have no network for gathering soil moisture data as they ...
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US Geological Survey develops online map tracking flood conditions
As expected rains drive flood waters higher along the Mississippi River Valley, USGS crews are in the field collecting data needed to update the flood maps, prepare forecasts, manage the flood and warn communities. This new system is part of the USGS WaterWatch suite of web-based streamflow products and can be accessed at the Map of flood and high flow conditions Web site. 'The water monitoring ...
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