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The worst flooding in two decades has struck Peru, causing a death toll of 72 people since the beginning of the year. The floods are caused by a series of “highly unusual rains” produced by the warming of surface waters along the country’s northern coasts. The waters have inundated hospitals... View full entry
Is flood mitigation the new frontier in urban planning? China, whose urban centers have regularly been experiencing infrastructure-shuttering floods, is actively encouraging its metropolises to start reshaping themselves to handle the new reality via the so-called "sponge city" program. As an... View full entry
The decision to abolish the Department for Energy and Climate Change has been variously condemned as “plain stupid”, “deeply worrying” and “terrible” by politicians, campaigners and experts.
One of Theresa May’s first acts as Prime Minister was to move responsibility for climate change to a new Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
— the Independent
"Only on Monday, Government advisers had warned of the need to take urgent action to prepare the UK for floods, droughts, heatwaves and food shortages caused by climate change."In related news:In a surprise announcement, UK gov to provide £540m for flood protectionBritain's last deep-pit coal... View full entry
As heavy rainfall floods Paris, the Louvre isn’t taking chances with its priceless art collection and will close on Friday to prevent water damage.
The museum will move pieces from its underground stores to higher floors to keep them safe, according to a Thursday statement. The Louvre is right next to the Seine river, which has risen 16 ft. above its normal levels due to rain over the past few weeks, AFP reports.
— TIME
Abnormally heavy rains have caused flooding in northeastern France as well as parts of Germany this week. In Paris, the Seine has risen 16 feet – the highest since 1960 but still short of the standing record of 26 feet from 1910.The rains and flooding have resulted in nine deaths in Germany... View full entry
In January, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced grants totaling $1 billion in 13 states to help communities adapt to climate change, by building stronger levees, dams and drainage systems.
One of those grants, $48 million for Isle de Jean Charles, is something new: the first allocation of federal tax dollars to move an entire community struggling with the impacts of climate change.
— the New York Times
"The divisions the effort has exposed and the logistical and moral dilemmas it has presented point up in microcosm the massive problems the world could face in the coming decades as it confronts a new category of displaced people who have become known as climate refugees."Precisely determining who... View full entry
English cities and towns left without planned flood defences by government cuts will now get the projects after a surprise £540m boost in funding in Wednesday’s budget.
The north of England, devastated by winter floods, will get at least £150m of the new money, giving better protection for thousands of homes.
The Guardian had revealed that 294 projects in line for funding were left stranded after heavy cuts by David Cameron’s coalition government...
— the Guardian
For related coverage, take a look at some of these older articles:"Pay to stay" may boot 60,000 UK families from their homesThe (state-facilitated) death of the council houseMore and more people are dying as a result of air pollution in EnglandThe Guardian reveals how developers play the planning... View full entry
Eventually, Saint Kjelds will be able to withstand — and even welcome — heavy rainfall and flooding. [...]
More parks like it are being built to purposefully turn into small ponds during heavy rains, allowing them to capture and retain water on site until the drainage system has capacity to handle it.
— citiscope.org
More news on cities' response to climate change:"King tides" give a glimpse of what the (near) future's rising seas will look likeJakarta, already 40% below sea level, is building one of the biggest sea walls on EarthUnchecked climate change will make the Gulf uninhabitable, claims new studyMajor... View full entry
Using drones for aerial photography has been a source of controversy for several years now. But amid increasing concerns over privacy and safety, some conservation scientists are hoping drone owners will help them to document sea level rise.
With an expected increase in storm activity in the Pacific Ocean this winter, scientists believe they are getting a glimpse of the impacts of climate change on coastlines.
— scpr.org
To see an interactive example of a DroneDeploy-stitched high-resolution map, click here.Related stories in the Archinect news:The Ehang passenger drone might be another way people will get around town somedayLicense and registration, please: new FAA regulations mandate drone... View full entry
Flood risk in New York City has increased in recent decades due to human-caused sea level rise and the related storm surge that occurs during cyclones, according to a new study.
Climate change threatens to exacerbate the risk storms pose to the largest city in the United States. [...]
“This is going from something you probably won’t see in your lifetime to something you may see several times in your lifetime,” said Andra Reed, a researcher at Penn State University.
— time.com
According to a report published in the journal PNAS that looked at sediment at different point of the New Jersey shore, before 1800, a flood that rose 7.4 ft above sea level would occur about once every 500 years.Now – or, more precisely, since 1970 – we can expect a storm like that to hit... View full entry
In July 2010, heavy monsoon rains flooded nearly 20% of Pakistan, producing a crisis later described by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as the worst disaster he had ever seen. The floods affected around 20 million people and claimed the lives of nearly 2,000. Ravaging infrastructure and... View full entry
Renderings for the waterfront park to be built alongside the massive housing development Greenpoint Landing have been released. Flooding from Hurricane Sandy ravaged the area only a few years back, so it comes as no surprise that locals were concerned with how developers would protect the area... View full entry
Many major U.S. coastal cities will face a huge surge in the number of tidal floods they experience as sea levels rise due to climate change, a new report has warned. The study, conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), covered 52 cities on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, from Portland, Maine, to Freeport, Texas, and predicts a dramatic increase in flooding linked to high tides over the next few decades. — Al Jazeera
The Fox River has shown little respect for Mies' brilliant juxtaposition of the natural and the man-made. In the past 18 years, the river has inundated the [Farnsworth] house three times. [...]
Confronted with the prospect of more flooding, the house's owner is carefully weighing how to preserve and protect the house, two goals that potentially conflict... Such are the choices in an era when disastrous "100-year floods" seem to occur every few years.
— The Chicago Tribune
"what is unprecedented here is the capacity...people are going to have to wait...there is going to be contractor backlog" - Sammy Chu — NPR
Charles Lane of WSHU in Long Island reports the rush to lift houses has regulators scurrying to catch up. View full entry
Above freezing temperatures and continued rainfall has left the Fox River that runs next to the Farnsworth House in a state of rising flood waters today, March 11, 2013. The house is fully surrounded by river water, but neither the lower deck nor the upper deck has yet to be breached. — miesglasshouse.wordpress.com
