Snakes, Rats & Floating Corpses

It happened in July 2016. A flash flood roared through Ellicott City, Maryland, killed two people and caused tens of millions of dollars in damages to the historic buildings along Main Street. The experts said it was one of those rare 1,000-year flood events. The city set about the job of rebuilding. It takes a long time – often years – for a community to recover from a devastating flood.

Ellicott City in the 2016 flood.

Then last May, while Ellicott City was still getting over the 2016 disaster, it happened again, another one of those “extremely rare" 1,000-year floods.

For something that has only a 0.1% chance of happening in any given year, there are a lot of those floods going around lately. There have been nine 1,000-year events since 2010 in the United States. Three of them took place in the first seven months of 2016. In the likely event we'll have more of them, it will be important to make a distinction between 1,000-year floods and 1,000-year rains. A record rain does not necessarily result in a record flood. It depends on things like how fast and relentlessly the rain falls, how much moisture plants and soils can absorb, and how much impermeable surfaces a city has. It was concrete, asphalt and rooftops that made the damage in Houston so severe during Hurricane Harvey last fall.

Read the post from blogger Bill Becker -  “Snakes, Rats & Floating Corpses.”

Gina Rinehart-backed Lakes Oil loses bid to have Victorian fracking ban overturned

A company part-owned by Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart has failed to have the Victorian government’s fracking ban overturned or to be awarded $2.7bn in damages.

 Victoria’s supreme court rejected Lakes Oil’s claims, finding
 the legislation banned all petroleum exploration work.

Between 2002 and 2013 two subsidiaries of Lakes Oil, of which Rinehart is the second-largest shareholder, obtained four exploration permits and two retention leases under Victoria’s Petroleum Act 1998. A retention lease grants the right to any petroleum discovered during the permit period.

Some of the petroleum exploration intended by the Lakes Oil involved hydraulic fracking, a technique used to extract unconventional gas found in coal seams, shales and tight sandstones. The companies also planned to explore for conventional gas.

Read the story by Melissa Davey from The Guardian - “Gina Rinehart-backed Lakes Oil loses bid to have Victorian fracking ban overturned.”

Many people feel lonely in the city, but perhaps ‘third places’ can help with that

Loneliness is a hidden but serious problem in cities worldwide. Urban loneliness is connected to population mobility, declining community participation and a growth in single-occupant households. This threatens the viability of our cities because it damages the social networks they rely on.

Third places are most effective when, like Waverley Community Garden
in Sydney, they appeal to people of all ages and backgrounds.

One response to these trends involves “third places”. These are public or commercial spaces that provide informal opportunities for local people to mix socially on neutral ground.

The concept of third place, developed by Ray Oldenburg, is distinct from first and second places. A first place is the private space of home. Second places are where people spend significant time, often formally. These include schools, universities and workplaces.

Read the piece on The Conversation by a PhD Candidate from Griffith University, Joanne Dolley, and a Lecturer in Urban and Environmental Planning, also the Griffith University, Tony Matthews - “Many people feel lonely in the city, but perhaps ‘third places’ can help with that.”