North Sea Floods 1953 - Case Study

North Sea flood of 1953

(By Tom.H - U6th)

Physical causes:

·         A combination of a high spring tide and a severe European windstorm over the North Sea caused a storm tide; the combination of wind, high tide, and low pressure led to a water level of more than 5.6 metres (18.4 ft.) above mean sea level in some locations.

·          The flood and waves overwhelmed sea defences and caused extensive flooding. 

·         The Netherlands, a country with 20% of its territory below mean sea level and 50% less than 1 metre (3.3 ft.) above sea level and which relies heavily on sea defences

Human Causes:

·         At the time of the flood, none of the local radio stations broadcast at night, and many of the smaller weather stations operated only during the day. As a result, the warnings of the KNMI (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute) did not penetrate the flood-threatened area in time

·         People were unable to prepare for the impending flood. As the disaster struck on a Saturday night, many offices in the disaster area were unstaffed.

Effects;

Economic:

·         The ferry MV Princess Victoria was lost at sea in the North Channel east of Belfast with 133 fatalities, and many fishing trawlers sank.

·        47,300 buildings were damaged, of which 10,000 were destroyed. Total damage is estimated at 1 billion Dutch guilders.

Social:

·          1,836 deaths in the Netherlands and the emergency evacuation of 70,000 more, Most of the casualties occurred in the southern province of Zeeland

·        In England, 307 people were killed in the counties of Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. 19 were killed in Scotland.

·        28 were killed in West Flanders, Belgium.

·       The ferry MV Princess Victoria was lost at sea in the North Channel east of Belfast with 133 fatalities, and many fishing trawlers sank.

·       One of the most devastating natural disasters ever recorded in the United Kingdom. Over 1,600 km of coastline was damaged, and sea walls were breached, inundating 1,000 km². Flooding forced 30,000 people to be evacuated from their homes, and 24,000 properties were seriously damaged

Environmental:

·          Floods covered 9% of Dutch farmland, and sea water flooded 1,365 km² of land.

·        An estimated 30,000 animals drowned

Responses:

Long term;

·         Realising that such infrequent events could recur, the Netherlands particularly, and the United Kingdom carried out major studies on strengthening of coastal defences.

·         The Netherlands developed the Delta Works, an extensive system of dams and storm surge barriers.

·         The UK constructed storm surge barriers on the River Thames below London and on the river Hull where it meets the Humber estuary.

·         In the UK the Permanent Secretary to the Home Office Sir Frank Newsam coordinated the immediate efforts to defend homes, save lives and recover after the floods. After the flooding, major investments were made in new sea defences. The Thames Barrier programme was started to secure central London against a future storm surge; the Barrier was officially opened on 8 May 1984.

·        In 2013 a service was held at Chelmsford Cathedral to mark the 60th anniversary of the Great Flood, attended by Anne, Princess Royal. Acts of remembrance were also held in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex

Short term;

·         As telephone and telegraph networks were disrupted by flood damage, within hours amateur radio operators went into the affected areas with their equipment to form a voluntary emergency radio network. These well-organized radio amateurs worked tirelessly, providing radio communications for ten days and nights, and were the only people maintaining contact with the outside world.

·        The U.S. Army sent helicopters from Germany to rescue people from the rooftops. Queen Juliana and Princess Beatrix visited the flooded area only a few days after

·         A large aid program came on apace, supported by the radio. A national donation program was started and there was a large amount of international aid. The Red Cross was overwhelmed and decided to send some of the funds to Third World countries.

Year 10 Assesment of the UK Floods

10o1-GG2 have researched why the UK flooded before Christmas. Two interesting pieces of work on it are below as promised!!! Read and enjoy. (click on an image to make it larger)

UK Flooding Interactive Map

G.Lilley-Moncrief has used ArcGIS Explorer Online to create an excellent case study of flooding in the UK. Whilst it focuses mainly on the floods of 2012, there are some others there too. It will work best if opened into a bigger browser window using the link uner the map..



View Larger Map

UK Storms October 2013 - Collaboration Project

Below is an opportunity to collaborate on a case study project for any Bedford School Geographer, or indeed anyone else there. Just Click a space on the wall and post your most interesting information about the UK storms. We challenge you to be the most interesting. Mr Gracie will provide some edible German confectionery to the most interesting post.

We think this format may have the power to do some quite special collaborative work too, so please do contribute if you find anything interesting... You can click on the wall below to post or open it in a new window with this link: http://padlet.com/wall/BSStorm

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Pakistan Earthquake

Below is a storify of various sources showing the causes, effects and responses to the earthquake in Pakisatn on tuesday the 24th of September:

UK Heatwave - Causes, Effects and Responses

We are in the midst of a heatwave and though its the school holidays, it makes for a great case study for A2...

You can see a Q and A transcript from the BBC weather team here.

Try the BBC Heatwave Quiz here. (Can you beat Mr Gracie who got 5/7?)

Wednesday 17th saw temperatures rise up to 32.2 degrees in places which moved the UK up to a level 3 warning. Ths video gives an overview of this weather.

What are the Causes of it?

The Causes and why warnings are issued are explained HERE. It is a result of a blocking anticyclone

This video explains how long it may last and why

What makes a heatwave?

What are the effects of it?

Numbers of grass fires have increased - The London fire brigade have been tackling 21 grass fires a day compared to 5 a day last year.

Ambulance Callouts are up too

Its predicted to have claimed up to 760 lives

Negative effects may be enhanced by us being ill prepared as explained here.

Positively - the hot weather increases natural sugar levels in grapes improving the 2013 UK wine vintage

Some holiday parks have reported bookings have much improved - so the UK tourist industry has received a boost.

This outdoor pool in Leicestershire for example has seen numbers swell.

How have we responded?

There are national warnings as mentioned above, mostly given by the Met Office. An example of the NHS health warnings

There are lots of public health warnings going out to givwe advice on how to respond
This video explains who is most at risk and how to respond

Various media outlets have also given their own advice such as this BBC one.

Nintendo: A Global Company

A. Arshad has produced an excellent review of Nintendo's operation as a global company which is below. It demonstrates well placed examples at times and is an example of how to make a presentation visually interesting:

Oklahoma Tornadoes

There has been a huge tornado in Oklahoma, part of a series of large twisters this month. Though relative to a tropical storm the area covered is more narrow, the damage from the hazard of strong winds is very severe with winds thought to have reached 200mph. At least 2 people died and 21 were injured on Sunday. The storm has been classified as EF-4 on the enhanced fujita scale. You can see how tornadoes form and 2 storify versions of the event below:

Animated guide to Tornadoes

Cyclone Mahasen - A Case Study

Cyclone Mahasen is beginning to make landfall in the Bay of Bengal today...

A useful study for A level students is below:

Causes
A quick reminder of Hurricane formation is here. The shallow coastal shelf and warm seas in the Bay of bengal will channel Cyclones and magnify their strength as they approach land.

The path of the storm and its storm surge can be seen below:

Hazards
Tropical storms bring the fourfold hazard of strong winds, heavy rain, storm surges and large waves.As it goes these are not as severe as they could be since it satarted to make landfall at low tide and the winds have only been clocked at 60mph thus far. It has been reported as not being severe in twerms of these primary hazards but Bangladesh's low lying and flat terrain still make it susceptible to the secondary hazard of flooding from storm surges and the heavy rain may induce a secondary hazard - landslides.

Effects
Thus far, 2 people have been reported dead in Bangladesh and up to 50 Rohingya muslims being evacuated may have drowned as an evacuation boat capsized.
Dozens of houses collapsed in Patuakhali district as it inundated the land with waist deep water.
Though ti did not make landfall in Sri lanka, the heavy rain triggered mudslides and floods which killed 7 people.

Responses
Bangladeshi authorities have given out a warning level of 7 out of 10 for the incoming storm in the low lying areas around Chittagong and Cox's bazaar; a good example of identifying areas most at risk and focussing strategies to mitigate for hazard risk.
The main response has been the evacuation of large numbers of people from areas at risk. At least 956,372 people have been evacuated in Bangladesh to more than 3200 storm shelters. All schools and colleges and some hotels have been declared cyclone shelters. In Burma more than 160,00 people have been evacuated.
Bangladesh has also shut airports in the areas at risk.

Magnifying the Hazard
The presence of tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims displaced by internal conflict last year in temporary refugee camps in Rakhine state has increased the overall risk from this storm.

Scale
In terms of the strength of the primary hazards it is not as large as it could be, but the scale in terms of area covered is still large - affecting 3 countries and millions of people. By contrast the Tornadoes in Granby in Texas (link here) have kileld at least 6 as a result of much more forceful wind but have affected a much smaller area of land, thus decreasing the overall risk of the hazard.

A link to the BBC news story on the event is HERE

Proper Geography Revision...

J.Herbert has set standards high with his revision strategy for IB Geography below:

The start of term is an ideal time to share your revision ideas. Tweet them using #bsrevision. Lets share ideas and create a positive twitter revising phenomenon!!!

UK Snow - an OCR A2 Case Study example

The recent bad weather can make an excellent case study for the climatic hazards section of the OCR A2 Global issues Paper:

The syllabus looks for:

"The study of high and low pressure systems and air masses to illustrate the formation of hazards, ie heavy snowfall and frost, and how they represent hazards to people through blizzards and cold spells. They then look for the impacts associated with these weather features for named areas at the local, regional and global scale, including impacts on: 
– transport; 
– agriculture and forestry; 
– health; 
– economic activity. "

So lets take a look...

Videos:
A number of issues looked at around the Isle of Arran, W.Scotland

Causes:
The Jetstream has fixed in a position south of the UK drawing in colder air masses from the North. Explanation Here. A blocking anticyclone is sitting to the North of the UK which is drawing in predominantly North Easterly air masses due to its clockwise rotation. This has brought the cold and its blocking nature is the reason why the original cold weather has become a Cold Spell.Video The reason it snowed a lot at first was down to warm moist air from our regular prevailing South Westerly winds meeting cold air masses. This forced the warmer air to rise but also cool and condense. The extreme cold means that it fell as snow rather than rain. ie Heavy Snowfall. This has very much been a national scale hazard with most parts of the UK experiencing both heavy snow and the cold spell. The scale is caused by the movement of the jetstream which draws weather down from the North for the whole of the UK and also affected parts of Western Europe. The area covered by the anticyclone is large but the winds rotating around it can easily cover an area the size of the UK.

Impacts:

Transport:
A school group from Calder High school in Arran were trapped at a fieldtrip centre in Yorkshire since driving conditions became too treacherous.
Extreme rural areas have been cut off for a number of days in the Peak District, Cumbria and Wales. Link.

In South West Scotland, drivers on the A75 in Dumfries and Galloway were trapped overnight in their cars.
Road, rail, ferries and flights were all disrupted in Northern Ireland.
All flights at Humberside airport were briefly stopped.

Agriculture:
The conditions came in at lambing season threatening the lives of sheep stuck in drifts and therefore nthe livelihoods of pastoral farmers. This has especially been true in rural parts of Northern Ireland and Scotland.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21936592
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21936873

Health
 A small number of people were killed as a result of exposure by getting trapped in poor conditions int he snow. Some of these were as a result of taking part in riskier activities such as hillwalking in the Scottish Highlands.
One example can be seen here

Economic Activity
Many sporting fixtures were lost which bring revenue in at both a local and regionals cale depending on their significance. The transport disruption meant many people lost working days.

The first section of this paper will also look for

Management
Regional Scale
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21921896
Teams of engineers have been dispatched to areas of Arran without power. This has taken longer in rural communities. This could be appropriate because of Government assistance in emergency funding and the UK having a well trained workforce in this area.

National Scale
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-21917589
Multiple agencies in Northern Ireland have coordinated rescue efforts together. This is possible due to mixtures of public and private funding. High levels of training and effective communication and transport infrastructure.

At a smaller scale, farmers on the Isle of man have coordinated at the community level to assist in rescuing liovestock and to find extra shelter and food from other farmers and locals for them.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21945465

In the UK, a number of key agencies transmit important safety information widely via the internet and social media sites such as twitter. the include the BBC, the Met Office, The Environment Agency and National Rail. This allows people to maximise the time they have to prepare for a hazard or plan their personal responses to it, such as travel routes.

Specially trained rescue teams resued drivers stuck on roads. Link

Links
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21907837

Evaluation of Coastal Management at Swanage

J.Hutchings (Y9) has written an evaluation of coastal management at Swanage. Click on the image to enlarge it, then read the evaluation underneath.

Do you agree with his assesment of the current strategies?
Would you manage it differently?
Would you manage it at all?

(Comment Below or tweet @bsgeography)

Evaluation

Judging by the fact that the officials in charge of the area (described on annotated map) have a main focus of ensuring a sustainable future for the coastal area of Swanage, I think that there is little to be done regarding changes.  It is said that plans dealing with the future of the coast are currently being reviewed, processed and produced, but in the meantime they are continuing to allow the defences already set up to prevent erosion getting out of hand.

Regarding the defences themselves, however, I think that a different approach would have been more adequate.  Having a long system of groynes stretching across some of the coast is good, as it helps to stabilise the beach and keep it in one piece.  The sea walls do their job, but it doesn’t quite meet the needs of a sustainable balance.  They are particularly expensive (one of the most expensive coastal defence concepts) and are also unappealing to the public.  While it may meet the needs of the environment, it fails to do the same socially and economically.

There are no ideal options when it comes to social sustainability, as even though there may be more suitable solutions in terms of appearance, none contribute significantly enough to make it worthwhile.  However, perhaps a series of rip-raps or gabions could have been used, as these are less expensive than sea walls and still manage to absorb the waves’ energy relatively successfully.

Lost Continent Discovered

·         21^st February 2013: Scientists have discovered huge pieces of a continent from millions of years ago in the Indian Ocean.

According to the “National Geoscience”: scientists from England, South Africa, Norway and Germany have discovered land which is at the bottom of the Indian Ocean and has a width of 25- 30 km from 50-80 million years ago from a continent called Rodinia.

Scientists think that thisland was removed as a result of volcanic explosions which broke the land off from the main continent. Then gigantic waves caused by earth quakes sent the island to the bottom of the Indian Ocean. Scientists named this piece “Mauritia”.

Scientists say that the continents today are all detached from Rodinia and made today’s world in the last 1 billion years.

It is 2 thousand km away from Africa’s southeast, in the 115 islands of the Seychelles and the island of Maritius. While scientists were investigating the sand pieces there, they discovered that the pieces belonged to a volcanic explosion which had happened 9 million years ago.

According to the Norwegian scientists, the pieces of the sand which they took the sample from Seychelles include Zirconium. They thought the Zirconium in the sand came from another piece which had met the bottom of the Indian Ocean as a result of the volcano and the waves.

With sonar and seismic submarines, it has been proved that there was this land with a width of 25- 30 km under the Indian Ocean.

By N. Aslanoba (y9)

Cyclone Rusty: Case Study

Cyclone Rusty is hitting the North west Coast of Australia today.

You can follow the storm's progress live here.

It started out as a tropical storm in the pacific last weekend (video) and has become more organised into a tropical cyclone, potentially category 4.

It was upgraded to a category four storm early on Wednesday, one notch short of the top category.

At its centre, it had intensified to a strength of 230km/h (143mph), with satellite data indicating the eye of the storm was 20 nautical miles wide, Australian media reported.

600mm of rain is being forecast in a 24 hour period. Given that the UK averages somewhere around the 900mm mark per year, that is a significant amount.

Some of Rusty's other terrifying statistics

• Winds of at least 230km/h
• Cloud temperatures colder than -52C surrounding the eye of the storm
• Recorded rainfall of over 138 millimetres per hour near Rusty's western side
• Thunderstorms in Rusty's eye reported to have reaching heights of over 12km (7 miles)

Early video as the storm approached:



BBC Video of the storm's predicted path

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has predicted the storm's likely path and has issued warnings for the various hazards that it may bring. See them HERE

 You can See BBC Video of residents preparing as storm makes its initial landfall HERE

The Pilbara region, close to where Rusty has hit, is the world's largest source of Iron Ore. Residents in the area have also prepared to be locked indoors for a few days as they prepare for the storm to pass over. Video

The slow movement of the storm is a concern as it may amplify the flooding and storm surge hazards it will bring. Web Article The residents should be fairly well prepared since the area has experienced gale-force winds from 49 cyclones, seven of which caused destructive gusts in excess of 170 km/h [106 mph]. Cyclone Joan produced the strongest gusts ever recorded at Port Hedland -208 km/h [130 mph] in 1975.

The most destructive tropical cyclone to strike the area since Joan in 1975 was George, which delivered wind gusts estimated to have reached around 200 km/h [125 mph] in March 2007. In the Port Hedland area most residential and commercial structures performed well, and structural damage was sustained by fewer than 2 percent of buildings, most of which proved to have weaknesses due to poor maintenance.

The West.co.au reports:

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services warned there was a possible threat to lives and homes in Marble Bar, Nullagine and De Grey Station because of rising rivers and streams.

Residents near the Yule and Turner river catchments near Port Hedland were also preparing for flooding.

The bureau’s Neil Bennett said a 3.5m to 4m storm surge was predicted, which could increase to 10m if Rusty crossed at high tide at midday.

“But it’s likely to cross later in the day, so it’s going to be bad but not the worst it could be,” he said.

“This is a nasty system.

“It’s going to lead to issues with flooding, roads being cut, structural damage, power lines are likely to be down and add that to the water everywhere and that’s going to be a dangerous environment for people to be moving around in.”

Mr Daccache said a 4m surge would inundate the town’s west end. “We’ve got pumps ready to flush the water out as quickly as we can,” he said.

UK Floods - an avoidable hazard?

Have a scan through the Wallwisher discussion below. Matching planning and investment to the potential costs of flood events is a tricky business. What is your opinion, were the floods avoidable?
If nothing else, the video links are worth a follow up:

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Santa Cruz Aftershocks

Large earthquakes will often be followed by many aftershocks. The one near the Solomon Islands yesterday has had a number. The map below illustrates it excellently:

A number of the aftershocks have been greater than 5 on the richter scale.

A couple of questions that might guide your thinking:
Why might aftershocks still cause much damage though they are smaller than the original earthquake? Can people prepare for aftershocks?

Click on the map above to go to its live site hosted by the USGS, or click below to see another aftershock map of the area from earthquaketrack.com HERE.

Sustainable Management in Lapland

Year 12 students began a single lesson with an outline of how management of Cold Environments works. They then had the rest of the lesson to research an example and fit it into the syllabus framework. The points on Lapland by B.Thrasher and P.Ramsbotham would support an essay on this very well when used with specific locationed examples.

Further work from this class can be found on their blog.


What was the short term gain?

Money from tourists coming to the area and the option to create more infrastructures to be able to sustain more and more tourists each year

What management strategy is being used?

Tourism in Lapland is based primarily on the region's clean and unique nature. Nature has been protected more extensively in Lapland than in other parts of the country. This is an opportunity and richness for tourism provided that protected areas can be and are used for tourism in a sustainable way.

They have started controlling the way in which the tourists interact with the land and the local communities and their objectives have been outlines below:

·         to ensure that the water supply systems of the main tourist resorts in Lapland meet modern requirements by 2007 (This means that there is less water waste)

·         to complete the environmental restoration projects at the tourist resorts by 2007 (To update everything to the most efficient economically and also to use less fuel)

·         to continue to use employment schemes (160 person-years) extensively to carry out work promoting tourism and improving the natural environments

·         to promote the use of protected areas in tourism

·         to encourage the sustainable development of resorts

How does it meet socio economic needs?

A lot of money is still being generated by the ever increasing amount of tourists coming to Lapland to come and see 'Father Christmas' This creates jobs for people in the local communities surrounding areas, e.g. working in a hotel or pretending to be Father Christmas. The money also increases the life style and standard of living for the people affected as a lot more money is being injected into the economy from outside tourists.

How does it meet environmental needs?

All of the dedicated tourist areas have been carefully set up as to make sure that each of them have the most up to date machinery, for example fuel efficient vehicles. Also other aspects have been taken into consideration for example noise pollution and light pollution, where bans have been put in place to make sure that tourists treat the area with care and respect. Here is a quote from a tourist website:

"Mother Nature is our main partner in production and we do all in our power to take good care of her. At this moment over 50% of our snowmobile fleet is equipped with 4-stroke engines which are more environmental friendly than the 2-stroke"

Solving Global Water Problems

Year 10 pupils were set a task to research global water supply issues and attempt to solve them. Two excellent offerings are below:

Bangladesh Water Crisis from BSGeography

Water Shortages in China (and possible solutions) from BSGeography

Arctic Oil Rig Grounded

The grounding of the Kulluk rig in the Arctic sea has been in the news this week. For a summary particularly relevant to L6th Geoggers see below:

Kyoto Protocol: Excellent Intro

The video below from Canada's CBC network gives an excellent introduction to the Kyoto protocol and how Canada and other countries have followed it up. The article it is taken from is a must read to add facts and figures to the picture presented by the video.