Comments on: Flooded urban landscapes are frightening, beautiful, and a call to action by the landscape, architecture and urban design professions

By: Christine

Christine — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 02:41:59 +0000

I might be useful to get a sense of the hydrology of the events we are considering designing for also?
[ http://www.bom.gov.au/hydro/flood/qld/fld_reports/SE_Qld_Nov_2004_report.pdf ]

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 07:28:50 +0000

Thank you for a very intersting set of links. It looks as though considerable waffle landscape planning is in progress, both in Australia and Germany, but that it might be taking place on an individual basis instead of on a regional basis.

By: Christine

Christine — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 05:27:28 +0000

Rather than flooding being confined to a city, the extent of the flooding in the state of queensland alone, is said to be the equivalent of all of France and Germany being underwater.
[ http://www.3news.co.nz/Queensland-floods-Insurance-may-not-cover-repair-bill/tabid/417/articleID/193308/Default.aspx ]

Yet in some cases levy banks have been very effective in protecting individual properties and towns. [ http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/queensland-floods/goondiwindi-mayor-confident-levees-will-hold-as-flood-peak-nears/story-fn7iwx3v-1225987541658 ]. In Goondiwindi the levy held. [ http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/01/14/3113324.htm?site=southqld ]

By: Lawrence

Lawrence — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 01:27:58 +0000

Hamburg is a city where flooding occurs almost every year. [ http://www.flickr.com/photos/7321171@N08/1935198960/ ]. Both old and new buildings are equipped to deal with this. Floods are caused by storm conditions over the North Sea that prevent the Elbe from discharging its water. There are highest water level markers in many parts of the city [ http://www.flickr.com/photos/rodentizid/4061009576/ ]. The most famous flood was in 1962 when the dykes broke around Wilhelmsburg, flooding a residential area at the cost of 315 lives [ http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Hamburg_Sturmflut_017.jpg&filetimestamp=20070213213320 ]. The 1962 water level has been exceeded several times since then – in 1976 by more than 1 meter – but due to the engineering works that took place subsequent to the Wilhelmsburg disaster there have been no more major events. The height of the flood protection dykes – many of them very old and picturesque [ http://www.flickr.com/photos/christoph_bellin/4976608504/ ] – is a constant preoccupation. After Wilhelmsburg a minimum height of 7.2 m. over benchmark was achieved, the target for 2010 was a minimum height of 8.50 m. New dykes are unfortunately not as romantic as their historic predecessors [ http://www.velo-touren.ch/eigenesweb45/images/Deich.vor%20.Havel.600.96.jpg ] and their engineers hate it when people try to plant trees on them. The raising of the dykes can also have brutal effects on the architectural heritage [ http://www.velo-touren.ch/eigenesweb45/images/Haus.a.Deich.600.51.jpg ].

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 07:57:36 +0000

There is a long history of urban design responses to the flood problem but the willingness of a modern cities to adopt these measures will depend on the frequency with which they are exposed to floods. If the problem is only going to occur once or twice/century, the economists may calculate that it is better to let the city flood and clear up afterwards. But if I were a home-owner in a flood-risk area I would take my own precautions to protect against flooding and this would probably include the use of an earth bank with a clay core as my garden boundary.

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 06:06:17 +0000

ps. It is said that the increasing severity and frequency of the floods in Venice is caused by a combination of the silting of the lagoon and a rise in sea levels due to global warming.

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 05:57:45 +0000

In Venice by accident I suppose rather than by design they have a floodable square. There is the more usual high tide [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPQS0mdevlo ] and the less usual tide, plus rain event plus high winds causing tidal swell [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8428781.stm ] to challenge the City of Water.

With its usual tidal innundation Venice still manages to look chic and picturesque as it goes about business as usual.