Research briefs

A year after Storm Desmond struck the UK and at a time when the UK's Committee on Climate Change has called for urgent action to address the risks to the UK from climate change, a group of world-leading geomorphologists explain how their discipline can help policymakers and practitioners develop more effective storm and flood-damage limitation and mitigation strategies.

ClimateWise, a global network of 29 insurance industry organizations which is convened by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, has warned of the urgent need to address the growing $100 billion annual climate risk 'protection gap' in two new reports; Investing for Resilience and the ClimateWise Principles Independent Review 2016.

At century's end, the number of summertime storms that produce extreme downpours could increase by more than 400 percent across parts of the United States — including sections of the Gulf Coast, Atlantic Coast, and the Southwest — according to a new study by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

According to new research, the Northeastern coast of the USA could be struck by more frequent and more powerful hurricanes in the future due to shifting weather patterns. New York and other major cities could come under increased threat from these severe storms and need to be better prepared for their potential impact.

There are many different factors that determine which coastal homes or suburbs are most at risk of inundation or erosion. A new review investigated the causes of extreme sea levels and coastal impacts in Australia, how they have changed, and how they might change even more. While significant progress has been made over recent decades, many questions remain.

A new study published in Hydrological Processes sheds light on sources of streamflow variability and change in Alberta’s headwaters that can affect irrigated agriculture in the Prairies. This provides the knowledge base to develop improved water resource management to effectively adapt to evolving river flow conditions.

While droughts are a natural feature of the Australian environment, the Millennium drought had major social, economic and environmental impacts. A new study has sought to document what is known and unknown about drought in Australia and to establish how Australia’s scientists and engineers could best investigate those unknowns.

UT Dallas researchers and their colleagues have developed geospatial science methods to help the Egyptian government avoid flooding in a coastal mountain region. Researchers determined a variety of factors that affect flooding and by layering all the features on one map, the scientists developed a GIS model to identify the most vulnerable areas.