"With water comes life":Peter Hancock

In this article, the author Peter Hancock discusses the positive and negative impacts of the biggest Okavango floods in living memory. He maintains that although the floods have had some positive impact on the ecosystems, they have also impacted negatively on the people who live in and around the Okavango. Bursting at the seams, the Delta has escaped from the constraints of the Buffalo Fence, expanding into human settlements and livestock areas and restoring pastures. Fish have bred prolifically in the shallow new floodplains and re-colonised previously dry lagoons. Keta Mosepele, Fisheries Biologist at ORI, commented that this development is unsurprising as the fish fauna of the Okavango Delta is geared to flood cycles. The cichlids (bream species) are able to increase quickly by reproducing at a younger stage, filling the new available habitats. However, one of the negative impacts of the floods has been on the the herbivore population. Richard Fynn, Rangeland Ecologist at ORI, maintains that since the floods have inundated the traditional alluvial floodplains, animals have been forced off to feed on new floodplains in less productive sandy areas.

New at ORI Library: Clumsy floodplains

The book "Clumsy floodplains:responsive land policy for extreme floods" by Thomas Hartmann describes how spatial planning can be used to minimise the extensive damage caused floods in floodplains. He maintains that although water management agencies. policy makers for all agree on this challenge, attempts to make space for rivers to provide retention are generally not very successful. Adopting an innovative interdisciplinary approach, the book examines how society can manage the use of the floodplains along rivers in the face of extreme floods. The book is available in the ORI Library.

ORI Seminar:Climatic and hydrological changes in the Okavango Delta.

During the period of 2009-2010 several parts of the world have experienced remarkably extreme meteorological events. In the wetlands of the Okavango Delta, the 2009-2011 floods were unexpectedly high, reaching magnitudes last seen 30-40 years ago, and considerably affecting life of local populations and the economically important tourism industry.In his seminar presentation, Climatic and hydrological changes in the Okavango Delta, ORI Professor, Piotr Wolski's paper was an attempt at identifying the climatological causes of these events in the context of their predictability using seasonal weather forecasts and to assess the extent to which these events are attributable to GHG-driven climate change as opposed to natural variability. The study is based on an ensemble of runs of the HadAM3P model, forced by a) observed SST fields (GHG world) and b) SSTs with effects of historical anthropogenic forcings removed (non-GHG world). Changes in inundation distribution within the Okavango Delta are, however, not just a product of exogenous or climatic influences. Endogeneous changes related to geomorphological and vegetation development of the system can cause redistribution of water which result in some parts drying, while others are subject to more extensive flooding.

Remote sensing based tech being introduced in Pakistan to forecast floods

Remote sensing based climate and flood warning technology is being introduced to upgrade flood management. This project will help build the capacity of Pakistan Meteorological Department and other agencies responsible for flood forecasting, early warning and management at the national, provincial and district levels.
This could be a milestone in achieving the better capacity to mitigate extreme floods not only in areas like Pakistan but even in Africa where flooding is a constant phenomenon. The article is available at:http://www.thenews.com.pk/NewsDetail.aspx?ID=20594&title=High-tech-sys-to-forecast-floods

Five Feet High and Rising : Cities and Flooding in the 21st Century

Statistics appear to indicate that flood events are becoming more frequent.
Recent flood events in Pakistan, Brazil, Sri Lanka and Australia show floods can sometimes overwhelm even the best prepared countries and cities. Due to the large uncertainties in projections of climate change, adaptation to the changing risk needs to be flexible to a wide range of future scenarios. This article is available at:http://water.worldbank.org/water/node/83729

Droughts, heatwaves, floods Why extreme weather is the new normal

What was, until quite recently, predictable, temperate, mild and equable weather, guaranteed to be warmish and wettish, ensuring green lawns in August, now sees the seasons reversed and temperature and rainfall records broken almost every year. Sober government scientists at the centre for hydrology and ecology are openly using words like "remarkable", "unprecedented" and "shocking" to describe the recent physical state of Britain this year, but the extremes we are experiencing in 2011 are nothing to the scale of what has been taking place elsewhere recently. Read more on this topic at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/13/extreme-weather-flooding-droughts-fires

Climate change adaptation is mainly about water

Water directly influences the Earth's ecosystems and therefore people’s livelihoods and well-being. Already, water-related climate change impacts are being experienced in the form of more severe and more frequent droughts and floods. Higher average temperatures and changes in precipitation and temperature extremes are projected to affect the availability of water resources through changes in rainfall distribution, soil moisture, glacier and ice/snow melt, and river and groundwater flows; these factors are expected to lead to further deterioration of water quality as well. The poor, who are the most vulnerable, are also likely to be affected the most. Article available at: http://www.wsscc.org/sites/default/files/publications/un_water_climate_change_adaptation_is_mainly_about_water.pdf