South Africa inventions aim to stop slum fires

Terra Daily via AFP: South Africans social entrepreneurs have come up with inventions aimed at curbing deadly fires and floods in the country's crowded informal settlements. A turquoise detector no bigger than a pack of cigarettes is among the innovations being showcased at a technology exhibition in the capital Pretoria.

While a conventional fire detector is set off by smoke, Lumkani, meaning "be aware" in the Xhosa language, looks for another signal: heat. "Shack environments tend to be fairly smokey because of a lack of electrification," Lumkani's co-designer, University of Cape Town engineering lecturer Samuel Ginsberg, said.

"Shack dwellers often use fire inside their shacks for cooking. So a normal smoke detector, which is what you would use in your home, is not effective -- it would false trigger far too often." Lumkani's alarm is set off instead by a quick and unusual rise in temperature.

Fires spread quickly in the dense slums that ring many towns and cities in South Africa. Packed close together, the shacks of wood planks and plastic sheeting are often razed to the ground within minutes. A series of mid-summer fires in 2013, fuelled by gusty winds, tore through the Cape Town townships of Khayelitsha and Thembeni, leaving around 4,000 homeless in just two days...

Soweto, outside Johannesburg, shot by Medpro, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Act now on climate change or see costs soar, White House says

Roberta Rampton in Reuters: Putting off expensive measures to curb climate change will only cost the United States more in the long run, the White House said on Tuesday in a report meant to bolster a series of actions President Barack Obama has proposed to address global warming.

"Each decade we delay acting results in an added cost of dealing with the problem of an extra 40 percent," said Jason Furman, chairman of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. "We know way more than enough to justify acting today," Furman told reporters.

The report drew its conclusions from 16 economic studies that modeled the costs of climate change. It was released as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency holds public hearings on its plan to cut carbon emissions from power plants - the centerpiece of Obama's climate action plan.

Business groups have said the EPA's plan would hurt jobs in the coal sector and harm the U.S. economy. The White House and environmental groups have pushed back against that argument.

Last month, a bipartisan report commissioned by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson and environmentalist Tom Steyer forecast a multibillion-dollar price tag for climate costs such as property losses from storms, declining crop yields and soaring power bills during heat waves....

Carl Frieseke's 1914 painting, "Unraveling Silk"

France developing 'culture of risk prevention'

Dizery Salim on the website for the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction: Speaking at France’s first-ever conference on hazards, the UN disaster risk reduction chief, Margareta Wahlström, yesterday commended the French government for its efforts to implement disaster risk reduction nationally, saying that the country could be a model for others in Europe.

Speaking in Bordeaux, at the National Conference on Natural Hazards – Assises Nationales des Risques Naturels – Ms. Wahlström highlighted France’s active role in the European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction, at a time when Europe accounts for 14.3% of global economic losses due to disasters.

Two years ago, France was badly hit by tropical cyclone Xynthia, incurring $4.2 billion in damage as the storm whipped through western Europe in late February and early March 2010. About 50 people were killed and nearly 900,000 people were left without electricity. “Afterwards, the country did a remarkable job of mainstreaming the lessons learnt from Xynthia into national plans for disaster management and plans for infrastructure and for flood protection,” said Ms. Wahlström...

...Already, 7,700 municipalities in hazard prone areas have developed local plans for disaster prevention, with 4,000 more municipalities about to do the same. France has also strengthened its urban planning codes, which incorporate disaster prevention and risk reduction as key elements.

Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, France’s Minister for Environment, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing, told delegates that “France is rather good” at managing natural hazards, and a new attitude towards planning along the coast after Xynthia had led to “a number of constructions bans, changes in planning rules. But state policy would only be effective if the country adopts a culture of risk prevention,” warned the minister.

She cautioned against added risks posed by new technology, which she said could cause a “domino effect” when combined with commonly occurring natural hazards, such as floods, earthquakes, avalanches and landslides....

An extratropical cyclone named Xynthia brought hurricane-force winds and high waves to Western Europe at the end of February 2010, CNN reported. Winds as fast as 200 kilometers (125 miles) per hour reached as far inland as Paris, and at the storm’s peak, hurricane-force winds extended from Portugal to the Netherlands. Hundreds of people had to take refuge from rising waters on their rooftops. By March 1, at least 58 people had died, some of them struck by falling trees. Most of the deaths occurred in France, but the storm also caused casualties in England, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and Portugal.

As glaciers melt, Bhutan faces risk of 'mountain tsunamis'

Julien Bouissou in Yahoo News via Worldcrunch, via le Monde: The Kingdom of Bhutan, tucked between India and China in the foothills of the Himalaya mountain range, is paying the price for global industrialization. To the north of the country, a chain of Himalayan glaciers is rapidly retreating — by between 20 m and 30 m per year. Experts blame climate change and predict that by 2035, the glaciers could be gone altogether.

Water flows from these melting glaciers until it breaks the natural ice dams that hold it in place. That, in turn, can result in devastating floods like the one that occurred in 1994, when a torrent of mud killed dozens of people in Bhutan and wiped out entire villages. Western scientists call this phenomenon a glacial-lake-outburst flood, or GLOF. With 24 of its 2,674 glacial lakes considered unstable, Bhutan is preparing in the coming years for even deadlier "mountain tsunamis," as the phenomenon is sometimes referred to.

Bhutan is one of the first countries in the world to make GLOF prevention a national priority. In 2005, the government received environmental-protection funds financed in part by the U.N. Development Programme. The money was earmarked in part to help Bhutan drain water from Thorthormi Glacial Lake and reinforce its natural dams. But at that high altitude, the work is difficult, dangerous and ultimately costly. (See photos of Bhutan's new king.)

..."Thanks to satellite imagery, it's possible to identify the most dangerous glaciers. But it's impossible to say when or where a catastrophe will happen," says Pradeep Mool, an engineer with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, based in Kathmandu, Nepal...

A mountain view in Bhutan, shot by Thomas Wanhoff, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Floods effects greatly underestimated

I know it's a press release, but it's still a worthwhile point, from insurer Allianz: Hardly any region in the world is safe from floods. One need only think of Mississippi River floods in April and May 2001 causing record losses in the billions of dollars. Or the rushing masses of water that enveloped parts of southern China and Pakistan earlier in the year or Thailand right now.

Nonetheless, people often underestimate the destructive power of water, as the latest Allianz Risk Pulse shows. "Risk awareness of natural catastrophes is not sufficient. This also means that people often do not take enough precautions," says Clement B. Booth, member of the Allianz SE Board of Management

Flooding is the most commonly occurring natural catastrophe in the world. In 2010, the international disaster database EM-DAT counted roughly 400 natural catastrophes with at least 100 people affected or 10 deaths. Nearly half of those catastrophes were floods (182 cases), affecting some 179 million people all over the world. The causes were mostly man-made: whether through climate change or massive interference in the natural flow of rivers and flood plains greatly aggravated flood risks.

"More and more natural drainage areas are being sealed off, for instance by road-building. On top of that, ever more housing developments are going in near rivers. Both of these factors add up to floods with massive economic and humanitarian effects," says Markus Stowasser, an expert on the Cat Research & Development Team at Allianz SE Reinsurance.

People are still very reluctant to invest in prevention. As a result, floods cause not only a lot of damage to buildings but also to the objects in them. And damage is not just limited to river-front property. Heavy rains can result in flooding everywhere...

Widening Missouri River, reducing risk, key to flood control

STL Today (St. Louis): From his fourth-floor cubicle next to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' emergency operations center in downtown St. Louis, engineer Matt Hunn keeps an eye on the Missouri River. Using graphs, maps, phone and email, Mr. Hunn serves as one of the region's chief flood fighters. Lately, he's been busy.

Every day, he and numerous other state and federal officials from several agencies map out a plan to fight what is quickly becoming the historic flood of 2011. Just don't call it the "Great Flood," Mr. Hunn said. "There's nothing great about it."

To engineers like Mr. Hunn, floods provide an important data point. Each one is different from the last, responding to constantly changing variables. Some are out of our control; others are not. After the 1993 flood that wreaked havoc in this region, Mr. Hunn remembered a great hue and cry for better flood-control measures across the Missouri River basin. But the energy dissipated as the water receded. "From my perspective, you've got a two- to four-year window," Mr. Hunn said. "People forget."

That is why now is the time, as the floodwater still is high in the northern basin and is heading our way, to begin a serious discussion about improving the flood-control measures and the overall management of the multi-state Missouri River basin. River historian Robert Kelley Schneiders, author of "Unruly River: Two Centuries of Change along the Missouri," endorses the concept of "democratizing" Missouri River management. "I think the river can be a lot more than it is right now for a lot more people," Mr. Schneiders said.

...How do we get there? Based on our conversations with veterans of river management debates over the past couple of decades, we offer three suggestions as a starting point: Widen the river, reduce risk and put navigation in its proper context....

Eppley Airfield in Omaha on June 16, 2011 during 2011 Missouri River floods. US Army Corps of Engineers

July 4 fireworks banned for fear of wildfires

AP: From Arizona to Florida, there will be fewer oohs and aahs at the rockets' red glare this Fourth of July: Many cities and counties across the nation's drought-stricken southern tier are banning fireworks because of the risk of wildfires.

New Mexico's governor prohibited fireworks on state and private wildlands and pleaded with people not to buy or set off pyrotechnics. Authorities in the lone Georgia county that banned sales shut down roadside vendors and made sure fireworks were off store shelves. Dozens of Texas cities have canceled shows, from large events in Austin and San Antonio to small-town celebrations where folks usually sit on blankets at parks and lakes.

"People are, of course, disappointed, but they know what could happen if the fireworks show did go on," said Sherri Davis, a city clerk in Saint Jo, a 1,000-resident farming community about 70 miles north of Fort Worth.

Parts of nearly a dozen states, from the Southeast to the West, are in a severe drought. And wildfires have charred thousands of square miles in recent months.

Some parts of the affected region already ban the sale or use of fireworks — or at least the types that explode or scatter fireballs, such as bottle rockets and Roman candles. This Independence Day, more expansive restrictions are in place, with many areas outlawing even sparklers....

Shot of fireworks by DustyDingo, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or any later version

An Iowa flood study taking shape this fall

Laura Millsaps in the Ames Tribune (Iowa): The city of Ames will partner with Iowa State University, Story County and the Iowa Department of Transportation this fall to study the community’s ability to respond to flooding in the future. At the Ames City Council meeting Tuesday, city staff proposed holding a series of public meetings with affected businesses and homeowners, research experts, emergency responders and surrounding communities, to be followed by meteorological and engineering studies of the area.

The information gathered would be combined to construct flood response and prevention scenarios that could include changes in the city’s building codes, public infrastructure projects and beefed-up disaster-response policies. The City Council first requested the study in September in reaction to flooding in August that had left Story County awash and the city of Ames without clean drinking water for days.

A similar study was launched after flooding in 1993. Completed in 1996, that study suggested widening and straightening stream channels, clearing bridge channels and building upstream reservoirs. However, those projects were considered too costly, and only modifications to the city’s flood plain development standards were implemented.

Assistant City Manager Bob Kindred told the council the new plan was intended to take into consideration all aspects of local flooding, including current and future development, current infrastructure, changing weather patterns, public policy and regulations. “One very important difference from the process we followed, after the floods of 1993, is the addition of the step to assess prediction of future intense rainfall events,” Kindred said....

In Ames, Iowa, Squaw Creek overflows its banks and inundates area businesses. Hundreds of residents were evacuated from their homes and were forced to boil their drinking water. Jace Anderson/FEMA

Sarasota businesses take small steps to confront climate risks

Alyson Kenward in Climate Central: To the casual observer, some of Sarasota, Florida’s small business owners must seem rather irrational. Even though the city’s downtown lies in prime hurricane territory along Florida's west coast, and may only become more vulnerable to damaging storms as sea level rises, a new study shows that only a few restaurants and shops in the area have taken significant steps to prepare for future storms.

In fact, according to the study, the closer a Sarasota business is to the waterfront — usually the riskiest place to be during a hurricane — the less likely it is that the owner is preparing for the worst, even though they probably know the risks.

“Amongst the business owners, there is pretty broad acknowledgment that climate change is real and that sea level rise will have an impact on the city of Sarasota,” says Peter Howe, a researcher from Pennsylvania State University who has been digging deeper into the unexpected behavior of Sarasota business owners. In a recent survey of over 250 Sarasota businesses, Howe investigated how the Florida locals perceive hurricane and climate change risks, and what motivates them to prepare for the impacts. The results will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Global Environmental Change.

…“Many of the folks that live here today have seen bad storms somewhere else. They remember Hurricane Andrew, for example. And that visceral image just sticks with them, so they want to be prepared themselves,” Queior explains. Moreover, he says that a lot of people in Sarasota also realize that sea level rise can cause hurricane storm surges to increase, and therefore hurricanes in the future may be more damaging than they are today.

But one insight from the study is that that even if the community does know they are threatened by climate change and they want to be prepared for it, Howe found that business owners may only take small precautionary steps while avoiding actions that would do more to minimize storm damage….

A pelican hunting fish at sunset in Sarasota, shot by Kolossos, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Saving lives and minimizing destruction in natural disasters

Relief Web: On Monday specialists convened at the China Center for Economic Research (CCER) for the China launch of a joint World Bank-United Nations report showing how preventive measures can lower vulnerability to natural hazards such as earthquakes, storms, floods and droughts. Natural Hazards, UnNatural Disasters: the Economics of Effective Prevention, first released last November, estimates that the number of people exposed to storms and earthquakes in large cities could double to 1.5 billion by 2050. Damages from disasters can be catastrophic, as the world is witnessing now in the tragic aftermath of Japan's quake and tsunami. However, prevention is critical, a lesson that surely saved many lives in Japan.

According to the report, by 2100, even without climate change, damages from weather-related hazards may triple to US$185 billion annually and factoring in climate change could push costs even higher. In the case of tropical cyclones it would add another US$28-68 billion, says Natural Hazards. But the report argues that much can be done to reduce the toll from such hazards—even in the face of increased risk from climate change.

…"The report could not be timelier, when various countries—both developed and developing—are suffering from the devastating impacts of natural hazards," said Justin Yifu Lin, the World Bank's Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. "Preventing and managing disasters is as much a development issue as a humanitarian one. That fundamental understanding underpins this analysis, which goes a long way in changing mindsets towards a culture of prevention."

A central message of the report is that "prevention pays, but you don't always have to pay more for prevention". Cost-effective preventive measures include greater access to hazard-related information and regulatory changes to remove distortions, such as abolishing rent and price controls and providing secure titles to encourage better repair and upkeep of buildings. The report also proposes cost-effective, hazard-specific infrastructure: for example, schools that double as cyclone shelters or roadways that double as drains. Sometimes increased spending is warranted—for example to develop and maintain early warning systems—and "even modest increases, and greater sharing of data internationally, can have enormous benefits", says the report…

Collision between troop train and passenger train, Almonte, Ontario, Canada. December 1942