After Sandy, Not All Sand Dunes Are Created Equal

Nit-pick: not all dunes were created equal before Sandy, either. People are just paying more attention now.

Dune creation/nourishment always an interesting discussion. As infrastructure goes they're relatively cheap to create are somewhat self-maintaining. Meanwhile, they absorb much of the initial damage of coastal storm impacts and can protect vast areas of infrastructure, from roads to entire towns. However, dunes are more effective, and more self-sustaining, when they're given enough room to self-create and maintain themselves with a lot of spare beach, which means larger setbacks. The required setbacks in the Netherlands on barrier islands, for instance, are 500m or more, whereas setbacks in the US can be as small as 15 feet. The dunes I saw on Schiermonikoog were three or four deep, meaning there were several layers of defense if the first line of dunes were to be destroyed in a storm. Villages are still protected while the dunes rebuild.

Part of any coastal resiliency plan should include what areas are precious enough to merit hard and soft infrastructure protection, and which areas should be given over to nature. Removing a few blocks of houses and declaring it protected beachfront is more feasible in some areas than others, based on the cost of the houses, their condition, etc. If the local, state or federal governments can triage the coastline quickly enough, they may be able to make decent offers on damaged homes and allow those beachfront residents to relocate and save a lot of other homes in the process.

From what I understand, though, the beachfront properties in some of the hardest-hit areas on the Shore are different than a lot of more resort / vacation rental / second home situations in the rest of the country, which adds a whole other dimension. Some of these homes were passed down through generations and are now the primary or sole residence for middle or low-income families and seniors, so demolition/relocation runs headlong into tradition, socio-economic disparity and cultural impacts that have to be handled much more delicately. These houses might be 'cheaper' in the economic sense but not in the emotional one.

After Sandy, Not All Sand Dunes Are Created Equal : NPR:

'via Blog this'

The Giant, Underestimated Earthquake Threat to North America

This is a slightly old article but that doesn't affect the information in it, or the quality of the writing. A good basic overview of the Cascadia fault and why we only recently started planning for it.

The Giant, Underestimated Earthquake Threat to North America:

I found this article in Byliner's 102 Spectacular Nonfiction Stories of 2012.

'via Blog this'

The Complete Guide to What To Do Before, During, and After a Disaster

The Complete Guide to What To Do Before, During, and After a Disaster:

'via Blog this'

Sketch of the day - baby rhino!

This is Jamil.

Sketch of the day

Lizard? Gecko? Also courtesy of Jaclyn. She's an Instagram addict so she has plenty of pictures for me to reference.

Sketch of the day

Dr. Fred's pup, courtesy Jaclyn

Sketch of the day

Jaclyn's caribou from Christmas. 10 minutes.

New York State Storm Panel Recommends Major Changes

Sounds like a good range of cheap to expensive, hard to soft, manmade to natural solutions to pick from. The next step is going to be doing a cost-benefit analysis, identifying funding sources & then prioritizing / selecting action items based off of that information. That is, not all of these are going to be the final ideas, and not all of these are going to be rated the same when it comes to picking which project gets funding. Naturally people who aren't familiar with this sort of planning aren't going to be aware of that, so I hope somebody makes that clear to the media.

I love the answer to 'we didn't make a plan to sandbag the tunnel entrance because of funding'. Writing plans aren't that expensive compared to the damages, and can pay themselves back with avoiding even minor damage from common storms or other events. Sandbagging the tunnel surely would have been cheaper than closing it down, draining it, then replacing all the damaged interiors & infrastructure, but of course that's a hard argument to make when the sun is shining and the budget is tight. Concentrating on the numbers and bringing up what happens to politicians when they let their city flounder in a disaster should be the first and last bullet points when making presentations to decision makers. Still, you can lead a horse to floodwater...

New York State Storm Panel Recommends Major Changes - NYTimes.com:

'via Blog this'

Sketch of the Day

I've been inspired by my friend Amanda's daily self-portraits for two years, but didn't know what daily 'thing' I wanted to do. Since I now have a smartphone, a tablet, a stylus and SketchBook Mobile, there's no reason why I shouldn't start doing a daily digital sketch. That's my current goal, although I just made it 2 days ago and I'm already behind. I'll do a few extras to make it up. In the meantime, here's Jan 3rd: Puma and Jan 5th: James. 

By the way, check out her new series of Daily D'Art (art inspired by her cat, D'Artagnan).

12 tsunami-struck areas to raise ground level to aid rebuilding

My main concern with this is whether this mounded dirt will leave the area more vulnerable to major earthquake damage, subsidence, liquefaction etc. Perhaps there is some way of stabilizing the fill with modern technology? I just know that usually areas built on fill have the most structural problems during a quake. That being said, generally if there is a threat that is location specific, relocation is a good solution. You can't move the tsunami, but you can move your house. I'm curious how it will all work out.

12 tsunami-struck areas to raise ground level to aid rebuilding : National : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri):

'via Blog this'