Devastating flooding in Nigeria has killed 500, injured 1546, destroyed 272 square miles of farmland, and ruined 45,000 homes, according to the Washington Post. It sounds like another Harvey half a world away, except that these floods had nothing to do with a hurricane. Nigeria lies south of the Sahara desert in Western Africa.
Location of Nigeria. Red marker in center of image.
Reuters featured some of the most impressive images. The devastation, on top of bone-crushing poverty, is just heartbreaking. Washed out roads are already causing fuel shortages in parts of the country. “The scale of the disaster …is colossal,” said Mustapha Habib Ahmed, director general of the National Emergency Management Agency.
All stories blamed the Nigerian flooding on a combination of heavier than normal rains and the release of water from a dam in neighboring Cameroon. Shades of the Lake Conroe release during Harvey!
Before/During NASA Images
To understand the scope and severity of the flooding, visit NASA’s Earth Observatory. This pair of false-color images from last year and this, show how how much of the country has been affected.
Not only have the rivers swollen, a giant lake (bottom middle) has suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The false colors make it easier to see the difference between water and land.
Toward the top of the image, says NASA, floodwater had inundated numerous communities along the banks of both rivers. Near the rivers’ confluence, floodwater inundated Lokoja, the capital city of the state of Kogi.
Flooding continued to the south, including a noticeably widespread area spanning southern Kogi and the northern part of Anambra state. The natural-color images below show a detailed view near this area. They were acquired by the Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) on Landsat 9 on June 12 and October 2, 2022.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 10/13/22 with thanks to NASA and Reuters
1873 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Posted by Bob Rehak
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/nigeriaflooding_oli2_2022275.jpg?fit=720%2C802&ssl=1802720adminadmin2022-10-15 20:22:362022-10-15 20:25:57Harvey-Scale Flooding Half a World Away in Nigeria
The homes didn’t flood. And they didn’t lose water, electricity or the Internet. They did lose a traffic light, a couple stop signs and some palm trees, but that was about it, even though surrounding communities experienced structural damage and power outages.
Building Techniques and Standards Increase Resiliency
How can that be? The story cited:
The location – 30 miles inland to avoid coastal surge.
Buried power lines shielded from high winds.
Retention ponds ringing the development.
Homes elevated high above street level
Solar energy with natural gas and generators for backup.
Higher than normal building standards for the area.
A community center designed to double as a reinforced storm shelter
Master planning
Sustainable, “hardened” water and sewage systems.
One of the engineers who designed the community lives there. She said that it might not survive a direct hit from a stronger storm, but everything performed as planned during Ian for the most part. Hurricane Ian provided “proof of concept” for the community’s design.
She added “The developers of Babcock Ranch welcome imitators. Communities elsewhere in the U.S. might benefit from what has been learned here.”
America’s First Sustainable Solar-Powered Town
A local TV station quoted the developer as saying, “It just doesn’t make sense to rebuild the same way every time, knowing that the next time a storm comes by, we end up in the same place.” He proudly calls the 18,000 acre community “America’s first sustainable solar-powered town.”
Nearly 700,000 solar panels create enough clean energy (150 megawatts) to power nearly 30,000 homes. They not only power the growing community of nearly 2,000 homes, but also feed the region. They’re tied to the grid owned by Florida Light & Power.
“There needs to be a lot of thought that goes into how to build, if we’re going to be along the coast, in a way that is resilient,” said Sydney Kitson, the developer.
“Recovery Took Nearly a Day”
Even as residents breathed a sigh of relief after the storm, they were reaching out to help those in less fortunate neighboring communities.
The story of Babcock Ranch and Hurricane Ian was so remarkable that even CBS’ 60-Minutes did a segment on it. See it 10 minutes into the video.
In it, Kitson says that he jumped in his car and drove around after the storm cleared. “We lost a few shingles,” he said. “Recovery took nearly a day.”
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/20221013-Screen-Shot-2022-10-13-at-4.13.44-PM.jpg?fit=1200%2C672&ssl=16721200adminadmin2022-10-13 16:24:052022-10-13 16:44:32Hurricane Ian Provides Proof of Concept for Sustainable Community
A hot-spot analysis of subsidence in the Houston metro area during the period from 2016 to 2020 revealed total subsidence of up to 9 centimeters in some areas. Rates of subsidence approached 2 cm per year. (Two centimeters equals 0.8 inches. Nine centimeters = 3.54 inches.)
The scientific study, named “Surface Deformation Analysis of the Houston Area Using Time Series Interferometry and Emerging Hot Spot Analysis” appeared in a scientific journal called Remote Sensing. Authors included Shuhab D. Khan, Otto C. A. Gadea, Alyssa Tello Alvarado and Osman A. Tirmizi from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Houston.
Correlating InSAR Data with Well Data
The authors correlated observations of surface deformation using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data with an analysis of 71,000 water and and 5,000 oil-and-gas wells in the Houston area. They collected the InSAR data over 5 years and the well data going back 31 years.
USGS calls InSAR an effective way to measure changes in land-surface altitude. The images are compiled by using radar signals with a very high degree of resolution bounced off Earth from orbiting satellites. By measuring the time for the signals to travel to earth and back, researches can measure altitude. And by superimposing images taken at different times, researchers can measure changes in altitude over time.
Documenting Link between Subsidence and Groundwater Pumping
Khan and his team sought to determine how much groundwater pumping contributed to subsidence (sinking ground). They performed the same analysis for oil and gas pumping.
The researchers found the greatest subsidence – which had not been previously reported – in some of the region’s fast-growing suburbs – Katy, Spring, The Woodlands, Fresno and Mont Belvieu. They identified groundwater pumping as the primary cause in the first four, and oil and gas pumping as the primary cause in Mont Belvieu.
Otto Gadea, a graduate student from Khan’s team is quoted in Phys.org as saying, “We determined for the suburbs that excessive groundwater extraction appears to be the primary driver of subsidence.”
Population Growth Drives Groundwater Pumping
With population growth, groundwater extraction has become more prevalent in the Houston area. But subsidence is no longer substantial in areas that regulate it through entities such as the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District.
The Appearance of Regulation as Cover for Private Interests
Website’s such as StopOurSinking.com have long linked excessive groundwater pumping in Montgomery County with a host of issues ranging from subsidence, flooding, pavement breaks, and foundation shifting to pipeline problems. However, the LSGCD Board has cherry-picked scientific evidence that supports unlimited groundwater pumping.
This latest study by the UH team will make that harder. It validates many of the claims StopOurSinking has made for years. Khan’s team even concluded that subsidence may even cause fault movement in the area.
Link to Fault Movement, Too
“If current ground pumping trends continue, faults in Katy and The Woodlands will likely become reactivated and increase in activity over time,” the authors write. No seismic activity is reported along these faults yet they say. They believe the movement is happening by “aseismic creep.” However, Khan and his team found evidence of fault activity in “damages to roads, buildings and other infrastructure in the vicinity of these faults. Displacement along some is measured by up to 3 cm/year.”
Posted by Bob Rehak on 10/12/22
1870 Days since Hurricane Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/20221012-Screen-Shot-2022-10-12-at-12.21.48-PM.jpg?fit=1180%2C1200&ssl=112001180adminadmin2022-10-12 20:23:112022-10-12 20:23:16New UH Study Finds Subsidence Increasing in Houston Suburbs
Harvey-Scale Flooding Half a World Away in Nigeria
Devastating flooding in Nigeria has killed 500, injured 1546, destroyed 272 square miles of farmland, and ruined 45,000 homes, according to the Washington Post. It sounds like another Harvey half a world away, except that these floods had nothing to do with a hurricane. Nigeria lies south of the Sahara desert in Western Africa.
Global Media Coverage
The BBC estimated the number of flooded homes closer to 90,000. It added that flooding has affected 27 of the country’s 36 states.
Reuters featured some of the most impressive images. The devastation, on top of bone-crushing poverty, is just heartbreaking. Washed out roads are already causing fuel shortages in parts of the country. “The scale of the disaster …is colossal,” said Mustapha Habib Ahmed, director general of the National Emergency Management Agency.
All stories blamed the Nigerian flooding on a combination of heavier than normal rains and the release of water from a dam in neighboring Cameroon. Shades of the Lake Conroe release during Harvey!
Before/During NASA Images
To understand the scope and severity of the flooding, visit NASA’s Earth Observatory. This pair of false-color images from last year and this, show how how much of the country has been affected.
Not only have the rivers swollen, a giant lake (bottom middle) has suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The false colors make it easier to see the difference between water and land.
Toward the top of the image, says NASA, floodwater had inundated numerous communities along the banks of both rivers. Near the rivers’ confluence, floodwater inundated Lokoja, the capital city of the state of Kogi.
Flooding continued to the south, including a noticeably widespread area spanning southern Kogi and the northern part of Anambra state. The natural-color images below show a detailed view near this area. They were acquired by the Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) on Landsat 9 on June 12 and October 2, 2022.
Here’s one of the heartbreaking Reuters images by Afolabi Sotunde that shows what the flooding looks like from ground level.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 10/13/22 with thanks to NASA and Reuters
1873 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Posted by Bob Rehak
Hurricane Ian Provides Proof of Concept for Sustainable Community
On October 6, 2022, NPR published a fascinating story by Scott Neumann about a Florida development that survived Hurricane Ian “with barely a scratch.” The community, called Babcock Ranch, is just north of Fort Myers. It didn’t bear the full brunt of the Cat 4 storm, but it did weather 100-mph winds with barely any disruption because of the way it was built.
The homes didn’t flood. And they didn’t lose water, electricity or the Internet. They did lose a traffic light, a couple stop signs and some palm trees, but that was about it, even though surrounding communities experienced structural damage and power outages.
Building Techniques and Standards Increase Resiliency
How can that be? The story cited:
One of the engineers who designed the community lives there. She said that it might not survive a direct hit from a stronger storm, but everything performed as planned during Ian for the most part. Hurricane Ian provided “proof of concept” for the community’s design.
She added “The developers of Babcock Ranch welcome imitators. Communities elsewhere in the U.S. might benefit from what has been learned here.”
America’s First Sustainable Solar-Powered Town
A local TV station quoted the developer as saying, “It just doesn’t make sense to rebuild the same way every time, knowing that the next time a storm comes by, we end up in the same place.” He proudly calls the 18,000 acre community “America’s first sustainable solar-powered town.”
Nearly 700,000 solar panels create enough clean energy (150 megawatts) to power nearly 30,000 homes. They not only power the growing community of nearly 2,000 homes, but also feed the region. They’re tied to the grid owned by Florida Light & Power.
“There needs to be a lot of thought that goes into how to build, if we’re going to be along the coast, in a way that is resilient,” said Sydney Kitson, the developer.
“Recovery Took Nearly a Day”
Even as residents breathed a sigh of relief after the storm, they were reaching out to help those in less fortunate neighboring communities.
The story of Babcock Ranch and Hurricane Ian was so remarkable that even CBS’ 60-Minutes did a segment on it. See it 10 minutes into the video.
In it, Kitson says that he jumped in his car and drove around after the storm cleared. “We lost a few shingles,” he said. “Recovery took nearly a day.”
I’ll bet a lot of people in Florida right now wish every developer thought like Kitson. He seems to have lived up to all the accolades heaped on his development. It all starts with respecting the power of Mother Nature.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 10/13/22
1871 Days since Hurricane Harvey
New UH Study Finds Subsidence Increasing in Houston Suburbs
A hot-spot analysis of subsidence in the Houston metro area during the period from 2016 to 2020 revealed total subsidence of up to 9 centimeters in some areas. Rates of subsidence approached 2 cm per year. (Two centimeters equals 0.8 inches. Nine centimeters = 3.54 inches.)
The scientific study, named “Surface Deformation Analysis of the Houston Area Using Time Series Interferometry and Emerging Hot Spot Analysis” appeared in a scientific journal called Remote Sensing. Authors included Shuhab D. Khan, Otto C. A. Gadea, Alyssa Tello Alvarado and Osman A. Tirmizi from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Houston.
Correlating InSAR Data with Well Data
The authors correlated observations of surface deformation using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data with an analysis of 71,000 water and and 5,000 oil-and-gas wells in the Houston area. They collected the InSAR data over 5 years and the well data going back 31 years.
USGS calls InSAR an effective way to measure changes in land-surface altitude. The images are compiled by using radar signals with a very high degree of resolution bounced off Earth from orbiting satellites. By measuring the time for the signals to travel to earth and back, researches can measure altitude. And by superimposing images taken at different times, researchers can measure changes in altitude over time.
Documenting Link between Subsidence and Groundwater Pumping
Khan and his team sought to determine how much groundwater pumping contributed to subsidence (sinking ground). They performed the same analysis for oil and gas pumping.
The researchers found the greatest subsidence – which had not been previously reported – in some of the region’s fast-growing suburbs – Katy, Spring, The Woodlands, Fresno and Mont Belvieu. They identified groundwater pumping as the primary cause in the first four, and oil and gas pumping as the primary cause in Mont Belvieu.
Otto Gadea, a graduate student from Khan’s team is quoted in Phys.org as saying, “We determined for the suburbs that excessive groundwater extraction appears to be the primary driver of subsidence.”
Population Growth Drives Groundwater Pumping
With population growth, groundwater extraction has become more prevalent in the Houston area. But subsidence is no longer substantial in areas that regulate it through entities such as the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District.
The Appearance of Regulation as Cover for Private Interests
Other counties have set up entities to regulate ground water withdrawal, such as the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District (LSGCD) in Montgomery County. However, the elected board chose not to include a subsidence limit in its desired future conditions. Many of the board members were backed by money from Quadvest, the area’s largest private groundwater pumper.
Website’s such as StopOurSinking.com have long linked excessive groundwater pumping in Montgomery County with a host of issues ranging from subsidence, flooding, pavement breaks, and foundation shifting to pipeline problems. However, the LSGCD Board has cherry-picked scientific evidence that supports unlimited groundwater pumping.
This latest study by the UH team will make that harder. It validates many of the claims StopOurSinking has made for years. Khan’s team even concluded that subsidence may even cause fault movement in the area.
Link to Fault Movement, Too
“If current ground pumping trends continue, faults in Katy and The Woodlands will likely become reactivated and increase in activity over time,” the authors write. No seismic activity is reported along these faults yet they say. They believe the movement is happening by “aseismic creep.” However, Khan and his team found evidence of fault activity in “damages to roads, buildings and other infrastructure in the vicinity of these faults. Displacement along some is measured by up to 3 cm/year.”
Posted by Bob Rehak on 10/12/22
1870 Days since Hurricane Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.