The Bureau of Meteorology has also just released a Special Climate Statement on the exceptional heavy rainfall across southeast Australia

Feel free to use these quotes in your stories.   If you would like to speak to an expert, please don’t hesitate to contact us on (08) 7120 8666 or by email.

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Dr Andrew Watkins is Manager of Climate Prediction at the National Climate Centre,  Bureau of Meteorology

“Explaining the high levels of rainfall over South Eastern Australian is not as simple as putting it down to just the effects of a La Nina system. La Nina has been backing off quite rapidly over the last few weeks with the Southern Oscillation Index (one of the indicators the development and intensity of El Niño or La Niña events in the Pacific Ocean) dipping back into neutral territory. However we still have some warm ocean temperatures around Australia which are clearly playing a role in what we are seeing at the moment. Temperatures in the Coral Sea are around half a degree warmer than average and the southern half of Western Australia is also experiencing near record warm sea surface temperatures. The high pressure systems we have seen of late have also tended to be further south than usual which can lead to more rainfall across the south east. The recent trough that extended down from the tropics was influenced by one of these highs, and lingered longer than normal across inland areas. The chaotic nature of weather also means that sheer randomness will always plays a part in how much rain will fall during any event.”

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Dr Rob Roggema is Senior Research Fellow at Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures (SURF), Global Cities Research Institute, RMIT University. He was the inaugural international visiting fellow at the Victorian Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Research Centre (2010-2011)

“We cannot control the amount of rainfall. However, in dealing with the rainfall, and preventing it turning into floods, we could and should do much more. Our cities, villages and landscapes are designed in ways that create and exaggerate floods. By trying to discharge rainwater as quickly as possible we create flash flooding and inundations in areas where we don’t want it to happen.

We should change our urban and landscape design to create spaces where large amounts of water can be temporarily stored. After the rain has gone the water can then be released at a slow pace. These areas can be designed as nature reserves, ‘green’ rivers or public spaces, which are filled up in times of heavy rain and can be emptied after the peak flood risk has passed. This way landscapes can function as a sponge and no longer as a drain. The idea to remove vegetation from riverbeds is contradictory with increasing flood resiliency.”

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We have brought together four of the leading authors who can discuss their suggestions for decision makers and the public as Australia learns to live with these natural disasters.
The report from the Office of the Queensland Chief Scientist has been put together by the Queensland Floods Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) panel.

Listen in to the briefing to ask questions such as:

• Are big floods going to be more common in the future?
• How much money/damage do floods cost us at the moment?
• Should we be planning for 1 in 50 year events as they are now more common?
• What can we specifically do to better deal with floods and are we talking individuals, local councils or looking at a state/federal level?
• Do building and town planning regulations need to be improved? What specifically should they include?
• Should we actually give up on high-risk flood areas and be building elsewhere?
• What can be done to improve flood warning systems and what will it take? Are we talking buying some super-computers or putting more data collection devices around the country?
• How much notice can we expect to get for flash floods? How good can those warning systems get?
• Do we need to be teaching about flood warning systems in our schools as they do elsewhere with earthquakes or bushfires?

Follow the full briefing (including powerpoints) by clicking here.   A pdf copy of the PowerPoint is available here

SPEAKERS (bio notes):
• Dr Geoff Garrett, AO, Queensland Chief Scientist
• Mr Tony McAlister, Civil engineer and Managing Director of BMT WBM, Brisbane
• Mr Mark Babister, Flood hydrologist and Managing Director of WMAwater, Sydney
• Professor Neville Nicholls, ARC Professorial Fellow in the School of Geography and Environmental Science at Monash University, Melbourne

Audio of presentations | Audio of Q&A session 

BRIEFING DETAILS:
DATE: Thu 14 July 2011
START TIME: 11am AEST
DURATION: 40 min
VENUE: Online

Audio files will be posted here shortly.

For further information, please contact the AusSMC on 08 7120 8666 or email.

We often hear about rising greenhouse gases and pollutants caused by our love of cars, cheap flights and latest gadgets, but there are also emissions spewing forth from natural events such as volcanic eruptions, forest fires and underwater vents. How do these scales of emission compare and how should we be focussing our efforts? We had three top experts who are speaking at the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) conference in Melbourne on hand to discuss all the issues.

The briefing addressed questions such as:

• Who is the bigger emitter of greenhouse gases – man or the natural environment?
• How can we tell where the gases have come from?
• What other pollutants is the earth spewing out and do they overshadow man’s efforts?
• Does it actually matter whether only a minority of emissions are man’s if that’s enough to tip the balance to global warming?
• There are huge efforts looking to reduce man’s emissions, could we be doing anything to trap the Earth’s?

Watch the full briefing here (Webex)

SPEAKERS:

• Dr Ian Galbally, Chief Research Scientist, Marine & Atmospheric Research, CSIRO | Listen (mp3)
• Dr Fred Prata, Senior Scientist, Climate and Atmosphere Department, Norwegian Institute for Air Research | Listen (mp3) | Fred’s PowerPoint presentation
• Dr Michael MacCracken, Chief Scientist for Climate Change Programs with the Climate Institute, Washington, US, and past president of the International Association for Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences | Listen (mp3)
• Listen to the Q and A session here (mp3)

BRIEFING DETAILS:

DATE: Tue 5 July

START TIME: 10.30am AEST

DURATION: 40 min

VENUE: Online

For further information, please contact the AusSMC on 08 7120 8666 or email.

Natural disasters are bad enough, but what happens when they topple our desalination plants or wipe out our power stations? The recent situation at the nuclear plant in Fukushima is just one example of what can happen. Governments, businesses and the public need to know whether our most important structures can be made invulnerable to the worst disasters, or whether they can ever be built anywhere that is safe. We had four top experts who were speaking at the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) conference in Melbourne.

The briefing addressed such questions such as:

• How much damage can these events cause – is every big structure just a disaster waiting to happen?
• Can a city such as Christchurch be quake-proof? Can Brisbane be protected from the floods?
• How do you protect against nuclear disasters when there are earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis to contend with?
• Should we just accept that places near fault lines and volcanoes will never be safe and stop trying to live in areas that will always pose a risk?

Watch the full briefing here (Webex)

SPEAKERS:

• Dr Mark Quigley, Senior Lecturer in Active Tectonics and Tectonic Geomorphology at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand | Listen (mp3)
• Prof Kevin Furlong, Professor of Geosciences, Department of Geosciences, The Pennsylvania State University | Listen (mp3) | Kevin’s PowerPoint presentation
• Prof Neville Nicholls, Professorial Fellow in the School of Geography and Environmental Science at Monash University | Listen (mp3)
• Dr Stephen Self, Senior volcanologist and visiting Professor in the Volcano Dynamics Group, The Open University and Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission | Listen (mp3)
• Listen to the Q and A session here (mp3)

BRIEFING DETAILS:

DATE: Mon 4 July 2011

START TIME: 12pm AEST

DURATION: 50 min

VENUE: Online

For further information, please contact the AusSMC on 08 7120 8666 or email.

As the year kicked off with severe flooding and storms in Queensland and Victoria and severe bushfires in WA, a question began to appear – just how vulnerable are we to such extreme events when they occur in quick succession? How many cyclones or extreme flooding events can one town, region or country manage and over what time period? This question is not unique to Australia.  Extreme weather events throughout the world are likely to be exacerbated by climate change, with a strong chance that warming will lead to more intense storms, floods and heatwaves. We may be looking at a future in which serious extreme weather can no longer be called “one-off” or “1-in-100 year” events. How can we better manage the risks and prepare ourselves for more natural disasters in future?

A number of key scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are meeting on the Gold Coast in Queensland from May 16-19 to discuss this highly topical issue. The AusSMC has organised an online briefing with some of the key people.

The briefing included:

• An update on the latest science of extreme weather events and disasters in relation to climate change
• An update on the IPCC special report, Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation, scheduled for release later in the year

View the full presentation here (Webex)

SPEAKERS:

• Dr Rajendra K Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Bio (pdf) | Listen (mp3)
  
• Professor Vicente Barros, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group II of the fifth Assessment Report due out in 2013 and is currently Emeritus Professor at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. Bio (pdf) | Listen (mp3)
  
• Professor Thomas Stocker, Co-Chair of the IPCC Working Group I of the fifth Assessment Report and is currently Professor of Climate and Environmental Physics at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Bio (pdf) | Listen (mp3)
  
• Professor Neville Nicholls is a Professorial Fellow in the Regional Climate Group at Monash University, has contributed to IPCC assessments for many years and is a lead author on the IPCC special report on extreme events. Bio (pdf) | Listen (mp3)
• Dr Padma Lal, Technical Advisor, Oceania, IUCN. Listen (mp3)
• Listen to the Q and A session here (mp3)
  
  

BRIEFING DETAILS:

DATE:  Monday 16 May
START TIME: 12.30pm AEST
DURATION: 45 min
VENUE:  Online

For further information, please contact the AusSMC on 08 7120 8666 or email us.