Geography Picture of the Week - Highest resolution global map of ocean surface salinity

First up, the most observant of you will notice that I have changed my 'Geography Picture of the Day' to 'Geography Picture of the Week' as, in reflection, it was always high unlikely that I would post a picture everyday! Instead, hopefully, I will be more likely to post one weekly and although I am guessing that most will be linked to physical geography, I will try and find some relevant to our current human module........

So, what is my Geography Picture of the Week this week???

I apologise to any of you who are getting fed up with oceanography-related posts (my EPQ will be over very soon so hopefully I won't be so tempted to write about oceanography stuff all the time when I should really be writing about Development and Globalisation!) but I really couldn't resist posting this one!!!

The above image was released by NASA and represents the one of the first and high resolution global map of ocean surface salinity made, using data acquired by the Aquarius/SAC-D satellite, launched in June this year with the map itself only incorporating the first 2 and 1/2 weeks of data since Aquarius became operational on the 25th August. Scientists have been able to measure ocean salinity for decades by lowering instruments from ships or by deploying robotic floats, but the technology to gather data from orbit is a recent innovation.

The generation of this map has been long anticpated by oceanographers and meterologists so I am guessing there are a few very happy scientists around the world at the moment! If you have followed any of my highly unorganised posts on oceanography you might be able to appreciate why........

Well, our ability to map and thus determine salinity (basically the 'saltiness') will improve our understanding of ocean circulation, the risks of future alterations to it and also an understanding of a few key climatic processes (note that the oceans and atmospheres are incredibly closely coupled with, in simple terms, the oceans provided the memory for the climatic signals generated in the atmosphere).

So, what excatly does this map show? Well, the red and yellow colours represent areas of high salinity with blues and purples denoting those with low salinity and black showing areas with no data(note no data retrival on land). The maps clearly shows well-established, large scale features, significantly the major salinity differences between the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. With the Pacific ocean by far the 'freshest', supporting the absence of deep-water formation sites, and the Atlantic by far the most saline. The salinity of ocean water is intrinsic to ocean circulation, although most precisely thermohalince circulation, which is soley driven by density differences (salty water is denser than less saline waters and so is forced to sink, thereby helping to drive the circulation). Also apparent is the corespondance between areas of lower salinity and rain belts and the areas of high evaporation found in the subtropics (regions of evaporative enrichment). Smaller-scale features are also possible to identify like the freshwater outflow from the Amazon River which acts to dilute immediate Atlantic surface waters.

The goal of the Aquarius mission is to retrieve salinity with a resolution of 0.2 parts per thousand (a concentration change equivalent to about one millilitre of salt in six litres of water). Aquarius carries three high-precision radio receivers that will record the natural microwave emissions coming up off the water's surface; emssions varying with the electrical conductivity of the water - a property directly related to how much dissolved salt it is carrying.

Smos global salinity map

The Nasa-Conae spacecraft is not the first ocean salinity mission in orbit as Europe already have a satellite in operation (Smos) which was launched in 2009, producing the first ever global salinity maps generated from space. The intention is to inter-calibrate and combine the Aquarius and Smos measurements as, together,these spacecraft are now acquiring volumes of salinity data that dwarf all the information ever gathered in this field of study.

ENSO: a kind of synopsis

It looks like we are going to be doing a lot of purely Human Geography for a while and so, as well as writing a post about what I learnt about development this week I thought I would write a post on ENSO, a purely physical topic, that, if I am honest, really really fascinates me but is unfortunately no longer on the A-level syllabus. Just incase you don't manage to get to the bottom of this post, I am planning on writing up atleast one detailed case study that could be used in our essays (sorry to remind you all!) and so I am looking for some suggestions on which one to do - I have a few ideas but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

So, anyway, this one is for all you Physical Geographers out there!

What excatly is the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO)?
The term 'El Nino' has been applied, in the past, to somewhat different oceanographic events in the tropical Pacific but, nowadays, is commonly used to describe the anomalous warming of the sea-surface temperatures (SST) that occurs every few years in that region, although typically focused in east-central equatorial Pacific. El Nino events last several months and are associated with widespread changes in the climate system (dominating climatic flucuations observed on interannual timescales). These climatic changes have huge socio-economic impacts on countries, affecting agriculture, infrastructure, health, energy and, of course, development.

What is La Nina and the ENSO cycle?
La Nina is the term used to describe episodes of cooler than normal SST in the tropical Pacific (easiest way to think of it is the opposite of El Nino). The Southern Oscillation bit of ENSO is the term used for the atmospheric changes that occur in the tropical Pacific and accompany El Nino and La Nina events. Both events involve strong interactions between the oceans and atmosphere and tend to alternate (although not always the case) and this whole process is referred to as ENSO cycle. The ENSO cycle is not regular with various sizes and durations in both events but ENSO is a natural phenomenon and proxy evidence (principally from coral growth rate measurements) suggests ENSO has existed for thousands of years.

What causes El Nino?
As simply as I can put it, the ENSO cycle is the consequence of slow acting feedbacks in the ocean-atmosphere system, helped by strong air-sea interactions in the tropics that permit long-lived long-range connections to operate in the system.

Normally, the equatorial Pacific ocean has a pool of relatively warm water in the upper ocean to the west and a shallower layer of relatively cool water in the east; easterly surface winds are intrinsic to the maintainance of this balance. The first few tens of metres of oceans are well-mixed and lie above a thin thermocline, with cold water below.

The exact trigger of El Nino events is still debated and, due to a lack of observations, not a great deal can really be said about them with much certainity.There are a few possbile triggers though - Raised SSTs in central/east Pacific can be caused either through the action of westerly windbursts (short-lived storm-like events in West Pacific), or the gradual development of the ocean waveguide which moves the thermocline. Increased SST influences the atmospheric winds which, in turn, influence the upper ocean and the thermocline such that the SST is further increased = positive feedback. Only when the conditions are favourable will this feedback generate an El Nino event  where you get increased SSTs, reduced easterly winds and a 'flatter' (for want of a better word) thermocline across east to west Pacific.

La Nina

El Nino events then also cause gradual changes throughout the tropical Pacific ocan which develop in such a way that the SST across the equator slowly returns to normal, thus ending this event. However, the system normally overshoots and the feedbacks act to amplify small cooler anomalies, initiating a La Nina - as said before, it is basically the opposite with strengthened easterly winds and a increase in thermocline gradient. As this process is self-limiting the cycle continues....

What are the meteorological consequences?

Global impacts of El Nino

If you have managed to stick with this to this point, this is probably the bit that will interest you the most - bringing in a bit of Human Geography you could even link this to the development essay as ENSO has, arguably, hindered development in countries across the world!

 During El Nino events changes in SST, alterations to atmospheric circulation, temperature and precipitation occur; with these alterations, via atmospheric dynamics, extending far beyond the tropical Pacific region. As the impacts vary with location, it is practically impossible to identify a general pattern but generally speaking the eastward shift of precipitation in western Pacific tends to provoke huge deficits in the Philippines, Indonesia, north and east Australia, whilst central Pacific experiences increased rainfall.


Global Impacts of La Nina

I was fornutate enough to get to quiz an ENSO researcher at the Met Office,  about everything related to ENSO and I saw lots and lots of similar maps to those opposite - one question that instantly came into my mind was why excatly do the maps suggest that ENSO has no impact whatsoever on Europe. Well, in short, the European region is only relatively weakly effects and there is substantial variability in the observed conditions. Therefore, only when you analysis a long historical record of events will you see the impacts. Such analysis suggests that there is a clear late winter response associated with moderate strength El Nino events; with the tendency for cold conditions in northern Europe and mild southern Europe, with an increased precipitation in a wide band across central Europe (accompanied by decreases elsewhere). Due to this though, it is hard to distinguish between the different factors, with El Nino just one, that are capable of generating such climatic anomalies.

What are El Nino 'flavours'?
I had never, ever heard of this idea of El Nino 'flavours' before and my knowledge is limited to what I am about to write (definetly requires a bit of further indepth research on my behalf!) but I thought I would mention it anyway as its quite an interesting idea. This topic has recieved quite a bit of attention in recent years, due to the slightly differing impacts. The 'normal' El Nino witnesses SST warming in eastern and central Pacific, while the 'dateline' or 'modoki' (apparently Japanese roughly translating to 'similar but different') type primarily experiences warming in the central equatorial Pacific. It has been suggested that the main difference is the influence in Atlantic tropical storms, with such storms typically fewer in 'normal' El Nino years, with 'modoki' events not reducing hurricane activity.
So, I think that is probably the basics of ENSO and I think, before I move on to talking about modelling it and how is it measured, I will probably have to write a post on the basics of climate modelling (it will be the real basics as all this modelling stuff is like a totally seperate science which I won't be able to tell anyone about in any great detail - trust me, its tricky stuff!) and, when I get my head around some scientific papers on ENSO the Met Office provided, I will also write a post on extrinsic forcing factors that effect ENSO. Just one last think to leave you with, follow the link to see up to date measurements taken in the Pacific as part of the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean project.

Taken yesterday (14/09/2011)

I am guessing that most are probably aware that we have just come out of a La Nina (cause of flooding earlier this year in Australia etc.) but at the moment scientists are divided over what will happen next as, although SSTs in Nino 3.4 started to rise again, they have since started to fall again - causing a split amongst researchers as to whether we will remain in the 'normal' state or go back into a La Nina (no one really seems to think we are going to go immediately into an El Nino). If you are interested and catch me around college, I have some plots, and ensemble forecasts which illustrate this.

I hope this made some sense (and was interesting), let me know if you didn't quite get everything as I realise that I am not great at explaining things but I am more than happy to try my best to explain it in a more understandable way if necessary. I am quite intrigued by the idea of El Nino 'flavours' and so if anyone knows anything more about it, please let me know!!! Especially things like what dictates whether an El Nino turns out to be of the 'normal' type or 'modiko' type?

There is some development stuff on the way, along with a few book reviews and a post primarily for all the new AS Geographers on 'Flooding, Farming and the Future'. Millie has emphasised the importance of knowing some case studies really well, with reference to development and colonialism, so I thought I would try and write a post on atleast one, sometime over the next few days, so let me know which one you would most like me to write about - its up to you!

Darfur - A student's film review

My Geography film of the week this week was Darfur - a film that was suggested we watched for the Development and Globalisation module. Before I write any more I have to emphasise that Millie's warning about this film is one to strongly consider before watching it as it is very graphic (really not one for the faint hearted) and is a film that I would suggest you watch with a cushion nearby to hide behind - trust me, it is more graphic and horrifically shocking than 'Shooting Dogs', that film Millie made us watch at Christmas!

This film tells the story of the journey taken by a group of international journalists in the Darfur region as they search for evidence that suggests genocide has/is happening. Unaware of what they might find, this group of international journalists visit a small village in Darfur under the protection of the African Union (AU). They manage to persuade their guide to take them to a village in Janjaweed territory and when they arrive, the journalists see how the Sudanese live daily in fear of rape, torture and murder by the government and rebel militia. Whilst interviewing the Sudanese men and women for accounts to take back home to convince the UN that genocide has occured, the Janjaweed militia turn up and threaten to kill the journalists if they do not live immediately.......



I am not quite sure how much you will know about what has happened in Sudan, before it split this year, and the events that this film is losely based on, so I will attempt to summarise some of the key points.  Civil conflict has occured on and off in Sudan for decades but in 2003, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) began attacking governments targets after accusing Khartoum of oppressing black Africans in favour of Arabs. Most of the tension built up in the Darfur region which had already experienced decades of violence and tension over land and grazing rights between the mostly nomadic Arabs and farmers from Massaleet and Zaghawa communities. Government response to this rebellion wasn't approved by the international community as they admitted to mobilising what they classed as ' self-defence militia'. However the President denied all accusations that they had links to the Arab Janjaweed militia who were accused of trying to drive out black Africans from large expanses of Sudan. Refugees from this conflict say that this is wrong as air raids by government aircraft were followed by Janjaweed attacks, who would ride into villages on horses and camels, slaughtering men, raping women, taking children and stealing whatever they could find.

There has been a lot of controversy over whether or not it should be classed as a genocide as firstly they are unsure excatly how many were killed and many of those that died, died due to starvation or disease. Many human rights groups and the US have said that genocide has infact taken place but, after an investigation in 2005, the UN concluded that war crimes had been committed but there had been no intent to commit genocide. The UN has estimated that since 2003 over 300,000 people have died (mainly believe that the actually figure is much higher) whilst 2.7 million have been displaced - mainly to refugee camps near the main towns or to neighbouring Chad where, as it has a similar ethnic make-up to Darfur, the violence has spilt over. The situation in Sudan has been incredibly unstable and unsecure for years and so many aid agencies have been unable to reach those that most need the help with some even being banned from northern Sudan following the arrest warrant for the President in 2009 for alleged war crimes.
I am guessing that most of you will know enough about what has happened most recently in Sudan, with reference to its split, but if you don't there is plently to read about it on the internet!

Is this a good geography film? Well, before I watched it my brother asked my what it was all about so I told him a bit about the background to the film and his first remark was to question what excatly genocide and the recent events in Darfur have got to do with Geography. Whats the answer.......well genocide effects both people and the environment and geography is all about people and the environment and how the interact. Going down the more human geography route first, genocide has impacts that can fill all the parts of S.P.E.E.D. Often the conflict can stem from social unrest, which can be generated via political unrest, and results in huge long-lasting societal and political changes. Geopolitics can become involved due to the view taken and role played by the international community. This can, in turn, lead to trade embargoes and cause fluctutations in the global market and thus effect the economies in countries across the world aswell as the country in which the conflict occurs.  Demographically, bites would become visible in population pyramids of that country whilst bulges in others due to forced migration. The mass migration away from the affected regions provokes the development of refugee camps which further increase issues with food and water availability, sanitation, spread of disease and all the other problems that are generated by the shear volume of people in such a small area being dependent on already previously limited resources. Migration to other countries only allows the violence and detrimental impacts of the conflict to spill over into neighbouring countries - an action in some cases that only sustains the violence. You can then link it to issues with aid getting to the people who need it and what types of aid are best in these situations etc. Honestly, this list could go on and on and I am sure you could think of a dozen more links to human geography straight away without too much thought; so what about physical geography? This is slightly harder but not impossible, especially if you look into what provoked the conflict. In a previous post I have already touched on the link between climatic changes and conflict and, with particular reference to the Darfur crisis, there is debate over the role played by regional climate changes in the initiation of the conflict with many arguing that drought and desertification played an influential role in stimulating civil unrest. You then have all the impacts that the conflict has on the environment so for example, if you can remember back to when we did that assignment for the energy module which included questions on the use of appropriate technology in Rwanda to help the coffee farmers as the conflict has destroyed much of the plantations and left the land unusable which then obvisouly have knock impacts on society. So, hopefully this proves the link between genocide and geography (I did manage to persuade my brother they were linked, although not to watch the film) so now I need to answer whether or not this is a good geography film.......

This film seems to have the sole purpose of shocking the watcher and it very successfully does this by presenting some truly horrific scenes. In terms of educational content, it definetly replicates what life in Darfur in the height of the conflict would have been like for people but it leaves a lot of questions unanswered - something which, to a certain extent, can be good as it should inspire you to go away and do your own research/reading into the topic. I think in relation to our geography course it is a film to watch and then link it to what you know about development, factors that affect it and the current situation in that part of the world etc. The current situation in Africa definetly sprung to mind: why didn't NATO and other international organisations get involved straight away to provide protection for the people when they rather rapidly got involved in Libya this year? For me, as a geography film from an educational perspective, I think it focuses too much on shocking the audience than necessarily educating them, although it does pick on a few key points like issues with aid agencies and the role of the international community, and I think most people will end up spending rather a lot of the time not actually watching the film but looking away (I certainly did!).  I have to admit though that although I recognise that in some cases people need to be shocked into realising/accepting/understanding/taking action etc., I am not a big fan of it and I personally feel that this film went a little bit to far down that route. Despite this, there are many things that you can learn from the film and it is, without a doubt, very thought provoking! If you have a strong stomach then watch it and read up on the details about the Darfur Crisis afterwards, the knowledge you will gain from doing so will really help with geography in general as it can be linked to some many different topics - I think you could possibly even link it right back to colonialsim in relation to how colonial powers literally chopped up Africa, with no consideration of how they were dividing cultural and ethnic groups and, certainly in Sudan, the north saw far greater development than the south. After watching this film you will certainly be able to understand why both North Sudan and South Sudan are at their currently levels of development.

So, if you think you can cope with the simply horrific and disturbingly graphic scenes which run throughout this film then watch it, as I have said you will learn things from it, but I just hope you heed mine and Millie's warnings beforehand - it really isn't one to watch if you haven't got a strong stomach, it is probably a good idea to watch it with some who has so they can tell you to look away at certain points and it will leave you feeling rather depressed, shocked and horrified afterwards that these sorts of things have actually occured - feelings only intensified by the realisation that similar events have occured on the same, and large scales, in other countries around the world.

Is there a link between climate patterns and conflict?

Peru's civil war erupted during an El Nino year

Ok, so this summer holidays I had planned to try and link various topics to development but, so far, I havent got very far down my lists of ideas and, as we go back to college fairly soon, I thought I had better start! Here goes for one of my first, the link between climate and civil conflict which, of course has/had a knock-on impact on development.......

A recent study has made the first link between global climate patterns, specifically ENSO, to the onset of civil conflict and, perhaps most interestingly, a factor that is being placed on a par with poverty. Researchers at Princton University have been looking at conflicts that have occured between 1950 and 2004 that killed more than 25 people a year and then compared those years with whether or not we were in a El Nino or La Nina. The analysis included 175 countries and 234 conflicts, with more than half being responsible for 1000 deaths, and concluded that the risk of conflict in tropical countries rose by 3% during La Nina to 6% during El Nino; with this affect being absent in those countries who only experienced a small impact thanks to the climate cycles (essentially countries with a temperate climate). This study has shown that 1/5 of the conflicts that have erupted since 1950 are a result of the cyclical changes in climate which have, primarily, triggered reductions in food production.

Although ENSO has wide and varied effects, I think it is quite unsettling to think that cyclical short term variations in climate can seem to have such an impact when the predicted changes as a result of global climate change are likely to be much more extreme and long lasting - so just how are we going to adapt to those???

Is it just coincidence that cyclical climatic changes have occured
just before the eruption of civil conflict in many developing
countries?

Anyway, this doubling of the risk of conflict is quite large, and the study seems to suggest that the imapct of El Nino is immediate, with the onset of conflict erupting within months of the start of an El Nino event - a correlation independent of other local weather events which are also capable of generating tension. The study related outbreaks of violence in countries from southern Sudan to Indonesia and Peru to the cuts in food production triggered by El Nino. Using southern Sudan as an example, warfare broke out during 1963 (an El Nino year) and then again in 1976 (again an El Nino year) and then in 1983 (a very intense El Nino year), with the conflict lasting for more than 20 years and leaving more that 2 million people dead and millions displaced. In contrast, Australia, whose climate is also controlled to some extent by ENSO has had no civil conflicts which suggests that less developed countries lack the resourcse to adapt to the varability generated by these cyclical climate changes and so are more vulnerable to its impacts - a fact that suggests that climate still hinders the development of countries today.....

Hopefully provides a general idea of the varying
impacts of El Nino on the climates of many
countries

So, what is it about El Nino that increases the risk of conflict? Well, the study is yet to explain this and doing so is going to be hard due to the global variability in the impacts of El Nino. Best guesses, at present, seem to point towards increased temperatures in some regions leading to droughts, thus reducing crop yields which, in turn, would provoke a hike in global food prices - something that, thanks to the international market, would spread the climate signal around the world. Although most believe it is the impact on food production that triggers the violene, other ideas include a rise in unemployment and an increase in natural disasters.

This seems to be the first clear link between civil conflict and climatic cycles and I think it only reinforces the idea of our dependency on climate and the dictatorial role it has played and, perhaps, continues to play in terms of development (post on this idea hopefully on its way soon!). I must admit that it does concern me that if ENSO, an example of a short term cyclical climatic change which we are forever understanding and predicting better, can have such an impact on social unrest; how is mankind going to cope with the sea-level rises, droughts, famines, more natural disasters etc. that are predicted to accompany global climate change - a change in climate whose impacts are going to be much further reaching...........

Dealing with the aftermath of flooding

This is slightly off topic (if you can bear the length there is a link to climate change right at the end) but I have been trying to keep ontop of some of the population and rivers stuff and so I thought I would try and write a blog post which discussed how different countries deal with the aftermath of flooding. I have also tried to explain how the La Nina oscillation caused extreme rainfall in Australia and Sri Lanka but it is rather complicated - don't fret it is no longer on the syllabus!

Over the past few weeks the news has been filled with stories about flooding across the globe. It is believed that they have all been caused by the same thing – the La Niña oscillation. This oscillation is rather complicated and scientists don’t really understand why or how it happens but I am going to try and explain some of the basics (as I understand them). La Niña occurs when the surface temperature of the water in the eastern Pacific cools and the western waters get warmer. This increase in surface temperature to the west means that the water has more energy and so heavy rainfall and storms become more frequent. The cold water from the deep depths of the ocean gradually rises upwards and collects off the west coast of South America. Strong easterly trade winds pull the cold water across the Pacific. This causes warm water and high pressures to build up along the east coast of south-east Asia and Australia where it becomes trapped which results in heavy rainfall. La Niña has varying impacts on the climate in different parts of the world. Usually the parts of the world that normally experience dry weather become drier and those with wet weather become wetter. The Atlantic and Pacific hurricane activity often increases with La Niña and the effects of severe droughts are likely in those already dry parts of the world.

Although it is believed that the recent floods in Australia and Sri Lanka were caused by the same weather system; the precipitation that fell has had very different impacts on these regions and the two different countries have taken very different approaches to deal with the aftermath of the flooding. Brazil has also experienced floods but it is unclear if this was caused by La Niña as the Met Office claim that La Niña should have made Brazil drier this year. This is an example of how scientists are still unsure about La Niña and also El Nino which has the opposite effect on the climate. The El Nino Southern Oscillation is created when the trade winds that blow along the South American coast from the south east weaken and the temperature of the sea along the South American coast begins to rise. The atmospheric pressure decreases in the eastern Pacific and rises in the western Pacific which causes the warm air and water to move to the eastern side of the Pacific where it replaces the colder water supplied by the Humboldt current. Usually this causes increased levels of precipitation for the western and southern areas of South America and, the lower ocean temperatures create exceptionally dry weather in the countries in the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific. It is unclear what causes the switch between a La Niña and an El Nino and scientists don’t really know if there is any pattern to when they switch.

In Australia the floods, so far, are believed to have claimed 35 lives but there are still some people missing. The floods forced thousands of people to abandon their homes and their belongings. The flooding was caused because the annual monsoon rains coincided with La Niña. These two different weather phenomena do not usually occur simultaneously but, as I am sure you are all aware, when they did the impact on Australia was vast. Last year Australia experienced many bush fires and droughts and the conditions required to provoke these events were created by the El Nino Southern Oscillation. This meant that the ground was extremely dry and so flash floods became a possibility if enough precipitation fell in a short time. As you are all aware, this is exactly what happened as the La Niña oscillation at the beginning of the year, which has been suggested to be the strongest one on record, created an awful lot of rain. Australia experienced its wettest December on record in Queensland with around four times the average rainfall in places and between 400mm and 1200mm (up to 4ft) of rain fell during that four-week period in coastal areas of Queensland. It is not just Queensland that has been hit by flooding. The south eastern state of Victoria has also experienced floods. The Victorian floods are estimated to have killed at least 6,000 sheep and washed away 41,000 hectares of crops, costing the agricultural sector as much as $2 billion in lost production and damaged infrastructure. The impacts of the flooding in Australia vary from the destruction of infrastructure and the loss of materialistic items to the impacts it will have on the Great Barrier Reef. Fortunately only a small percentage of people who were affected by the flooding have lost their lives but, especially in developing countries, this is often not the case. The next problem facing the Australian government is how are they going to deal with the aftermath of the flooding and ultimately who is going to pay for the massive clean-operation.

The clean-up operation is going to be a gigantic task as houses will have to be cleaned, redecorated, refurnished and have all the electrical systems replaced. Fortunately, in developed countries, most insurance companies will provide the funds for most of this. This will have to be done in every house in every one of the 80 communities that was affected by this flooding. Also other infrastructure, especially bridges and roads, will have to be repaired and the cost of this is going to huge. The backbone of the recovery effort is being provided by aid assigned by the Government, charitable donations and help from the military but this is not enough to rebuild the areas hit by the floods. To help foot the bill the Australian Government, from the 1^st July, is implementing a 12 month flood tax for all those who earn over A$50,000 and who were not affected by the floods. The new tax will charge an extra 0.5% on those earning A$50,000-A$100,000 and 1% more on those earning more than A$100,000 and this tax is expected to raise about A$1.8bn. Australia is developed country and so has the resources, and economy, to recover fairly quickly on their own but for other, less developed countries, it is a different story………….

Sri Lanka also experienced wide scale flooding over the last few months. It is believed that as many as 390,000 people have been driven from their homes and at least 3,744 houses have been destroyed, according to the country's Disaster Management Centre. Although, at present, only 37 people have been killed; in developing countries the secondary effects are often worse than the primary effects. It is believed that 400,000 children could starve as the floods have destroyed 21% of the rice crops in the country and so food shortages are an impending issue. Developing countries often have very poor sanitation and so the spread of water borne diseases, like cholera, is likely. Once the water supplies become contaminated it is very difficult to contain the spread of the disease and this is exactly what happened in Haiti and the outbreak has killed over 1000 people. In terms of the cost of repairing the damage, in Sri Lanka it is a lot lower than the cost of rebuilding the Australian states affected. The cost of rebuilding Sri Lanka is estimate to be around £315 million but the country cannot afford to foot this bill. The reason for such a difference in the cost of repair is due to the fact that the damage done in Australia was mainly to the infrastructure which is costly to rebuild. In Sri Lanka the damage to infrastructure would be minimal in comparison as there is not as much developed infrastructure in the country. However, in Sri Lanka, the human cost is going to be a lot higher. In developed countries insurance companies pay out to provide the money need for the cost of repair to houses and taxes are then used to pay for the repair work needed on infrastructure etc. In Sri Lanka this is not the case and instead they have to rely on aid from other countries. So far medical units have been sent to the area to help those who have sought shelter in crowded relief camps and the government have sent military helicopters to distribute aid and used transport aircraft to move aid from the capital, Colombo. Four camps have been set up to help flood victims and troops have been deployed to distribute food and medical supplies. India has sent a plane loaded with food supplies as well as blankets and water purification tablets. The US said it was sending aid and has supplied boats to rescue the stranded and distribute bottled water, cooking materials and tarpaulins. Reaching those in remote areas is often an issue and countries often rely on the helicopters and boats provided by countries like the US to reach those in danger as they, themselves, do not have the resources to do so.

Australia will recover a lot quicker from the flooding than Sri Lanka will. The flooding that occurred in Pakistan 6 months ago is still causing problems in the country today. Over 1000 people died in Pakistan itself and around a 100 more in neighboring Afghanistan whilst thousands lost everything. The biggest issues provoked by the floods were the spread of diarrhoea and cholera and shortages of food and clean water. Pakistan had to depend on aid from other countries in a similar way in which Sri Lanka are doing so now. The UN provided £6.5 million in aid for the relief effort and the UK provided £10 million. The US also offered aid and as well as $10 million they provided 12 temporary bridges to replace most of those that were destroyed by the floods. The worrying fact is that, 6 months on, people are still dying due to the secondary impacts created by flooding. Some blame Government inefficiency, for example, the Sindh area is in desperate need of around 500,000 blankets but so far the Government has only sent 13,000. So the question is, how long will it take Sri Lanka to recover from the flooding and how sufficient and effective is just sending monetary aid?

In terms of development Brazil is probably in between Australia and Sri Lanka. The floods, which then led to landslides, killed over 800 people in Rio de Janeiro and over 500 people are still missing. Brazil is taking a totally different approach to dealing with the aftermath of the flooding. The Government has proposed to build 8000 ‘free’ houses to replace those that were destroyed by the flooding. President Dilma Rousseff has said 6,000 of the proposed homes would be paid for by the state and federal governments and the other 2,000 would be donated by a consortium of construction companies. The houses would be given to families living in shelters after their homes were destroyed and to those who were being removed from areas considered at risk of further flooding and landslides. It is planned that the proposed homes will be built on public land and the construction cost subsidised by the federal government and private companies, with the Rio state government then paying the monthly purchase instalments on behalf of poor families who move in. As well as trying to deal the aftermath of flooding, the Brazilian Government are also trying to implement measures to reduce the impacts if such an event was to occur again. The Government are directing funds to projects which involve mapping out areas that were prone to flooding and landslides and clamping down on unauthorised building in danger zones. Federal money is also being made available to rebuild roads and bridges and fund drainage and hillside stabilisation projects. The hope is that these new measures will reduce the impacts that future floods and landslides will have on the area and the people of Brazil.

These three countries have taken very different approaches to dealing with the aftermath of flooding but is there a right or wrong way to deal with the impacts of flooding? I think that it depends on the area as less developed countries could not implement a temporary tax to foot the bill of the clean-up. Developing countries have to rely on aid to recover after a disaster instead but often monetary aid alone is not enough. Advisors and medics are often needed more than just money to help ensure that the aid actually reaches the people that need it. I think the approach that Brazil has taken to floods is quite sustainable as not only are they trying to deal with the present situation but also prevent a similar one from occurring in the near future. Poor sanitation and unstable buildings in the favelas in areas like Rio de Janeiro escalate the impacts of flooding as they make landslides more likely and the spread of diseases more probable and by making building regulations stricter hopefully the conditions in the favelas can be improved and therefore the secondary effects of future floods less damaging.

Now I am going to try and link flooding to the current module. A recent report that investigated the flooding that the UK experienced during 2000, which damaged 10,000 houses and caused £1.3 billion worth of insurance loss, has blamed climate change for the flooding. This is the first time that anyone has linked a single weather event to climate change since Al Gore implied that human induced climate change caused Hurricane Katrina. Two reports that were released this week have suggested that the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, which has caused the average global temperatures to rise, has significantly increased the risk of flooding as warm air holds more moisture than cold air. Record high sea temperatures are believed to be the reason for La Nina being so strong this year and having such a devastating effect. It is believed that as we increase our greenhouse gas emissions the probability of severe floods occurring across the global will increase. The method used to come to this conclusion was to compare two climate models which were based on two different scenarios. The first one was classed as a realistic scenario and was based on the greenhouse gases that were present in the atmosphere during 2000 whilst the other one was based on a world where humans had not created and emitted any greenhouse gases. The conclusion of the report that used this method was that human greenhouse gas emissions "significantly increased" the likelihood of the 2000 floods and, they claimed, with a 66 per cent confidence level, that emissions nearly doubled the risk of the 2000 floods. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20141-blame-human-emissions-for-british-floods.html

 The other report, which was carried out between Canada and the UK, studied the increase in the frequency of extreme precipitation events that occurred in the Northern Hemisphere between 1950 and 2000. They concluded that, although there have been some variations, extreme rainfall events have become more common and the only explanation of this trend is the slow steady increase in temperatures provoked by greenhouse gas emissions. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12484314

Both of these reports suggest that the possibility of floods, like those experienced in Australia, Sri Lanka and Brazil this year, occurring has significantly increased. This means that countries are going to have to be more prepared and have more efficient ways of dealing with the aftermath of flooding. So, is this really a great time for the government to announce that they are cutting the funds for flood denfences by 8%? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12402284