AusSMC - Australian Science Media Centre » Floods http://www.smc.org.au Australian Science Media Centre Fri, 18 May 2012 06:34:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 ONLINE BRIEFING: Learning to live with floods – new report http://www.smc.org.au/2011/07/online-briefing-learning-to-live-with-floods-%e2%80%93-new-report/ http://www.smc.org.au/2011/07/online-briefing-learning-to-live-with-floods-%e2%80%93-new-report/#comments Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:54:18 +0000 georgina http://www.aussmc.org/?p=7789 report-coverFloods cost Australia more than any other type of natural disaster, averaging hundreds of millions of dollars per year. We cannot stop floods from happening but there are many things that we can do to manage our flood risk and reduce the negative impact of floods. A new report, entitled Understanding Floods: Questions and Answers, brings together for the first time all the latest information that we have on floods and how to cope with them.

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.



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