Modeling Pakistan's flooding

A fact sheet on DSS-WISE

2010-10-10

(Press-News.org) The catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, which began with the annual monsoons towards the end of July 2010, has affected nearly 62,000 square miles — or one fourth of the entire surface of the USA and Alaska. Six million are homeless. Eight million children are at risk of disease. More than 1,600 are dead already. Flood waters have washed away entire towns, thousands of miles of roads and railways, and damaged the infrastructure of a large portion of the country. Thousands of health facilities are destroyed and rising waters have inundated crop-producing areas, threatening a food crisis. The Pakistani government now struggles to rescue and provide aid to millions - while still fighting with militant Islamist forces in many of the hardest-hit regions.

To help Pakistani authorities cope, a new Dept of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate computer model is being used by hydraulic engineers at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) - Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL) and forwarded to their counterparts in Pakistan. Under S&T's Infrastructure and Geophysical Division the new computer model simulates the flooding, estimates the total drawdown of the floodwaters, and predicts how long it will take the waters to recede. DSS-WISE (Decision Support System – Water Infrastructure Security) incorporates and integrates thousands of data points – from historical, geographical, economical, and satellite info – and paints a current picture and prediction scenario to help with Pakistan's disaster efforts.

The flooding scenarios are set up with a GIS (geographic information system)-based user-friendly pre-processor. DSS-WISE provides two-dimensional accurate predictive maps of flood arrival times, flood depths and velocities for the specified scenarios. The results provided by the numerical model (CCHE2D-FLOOD) can be directly imported onto a GIS environment to be displayed as maps and overlaid on various types of satellite imagery and background maps.

Flood simulations carried out by ERDC-CHL cover very large areas and the simulation times are relatively long (more than a month). The simulations are aimed not only for the propagation of the flood during the rising period but also for predicting the time required for the flood waters to recede. That is where the extremely robust algorithms implemented in DSS-WISE, which take into account wetting and drying, prove their worth.

The model was developed for S&T by researchers at the National Center for Computational Hydroscience and Engineering (NCCHE) at The University of Mississippi (UM). The model is the product of a research project of the Southeast Region Research Initiative (SERRI), a program funded by the DHS S&T. S&T's Mike Matthews is the program manager. The feedback given to S&T by the ERDC-CHL personnel while using the DSS-WISE software is extremely valuable to the NCCHE-UM researchers (http://www.ncche.olemiss.edu/) who are preparing for the next phase of model development through sponsorship from SERRI (http://www.serri.org).

Pakistan's flood disaster has given a demanding workout to the DSS-WISE software," says Matthews, " but, it has proven it can provide accurate and timely predictions even under very challenging modeling requirements."

INFORMATION:

The Program Manager for DSS-WISE is DHS S&T's Mike Matthews: 'Mike.Matthews@dhs.gov' Any media inquiries should be directed to John Verrico: john.verrico@dhs.gov 202 254 2385

[Attachments] See images for this press release:

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

UCLA-led research team finds that bacteria can stand up and walk

2010-10-10

Many drug-resistant infections are the result of bacterial biofilms, structured aggregates of bacteria that live on surfaces and that are extremely resistant to environmental stresses. These biofilms impact human health in many ways — cystic fibrosis, for example, is a disease in which patients die from airway bacterial biofilm infections that are invulnerable to even the most potent antibiotics. Now, UCLA researchers and their colleagues have found that during the initial stages of biofilm formation, bacteria can actually stand upright and "walk" as part of their adaptation ...

Titan's haze may hold ingredients for life

2010-10-10

In an experiment exploring the chemical processes that might be going on in the hazy atmosphere enshrouding Saturn's largest moon, a University of Arizona-led team of scientists discovered a variety of complex organic molecules – including amino acids and nucleotide bases, the most important ingredients of life on Earth. "Our team is the first to be able to do this in an atmosphere without liquid water. Our results show that it is possible to make very complex molecules in the outer parts of an atmosphere," said Sarah Hörst, a graduate student in the UA's Lunar and Planetary ...

Measurements of CO2 and CO in China's air indicate sharply improved combustion efficiency

2010-10-10

Cambridge, Mass., October 7, 2010 – A collaborative, six-year study of carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in Beijing and surrounding provinces suggests that combustion efficiency, a component of overall energy efficiency, is improving in the region. The findings, published in the September 21 issue of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, are generally consistent with official Chinese government statistics and could bolster their credibility as international negotiations proceed on commitments of China and other nations to combat climate change. A team of atmospheric scientists ...

Experts say direct-to-consumer genetic tests need innovative oversight

2010-10-10

HOUSTON, Oct. 8, 2010 – Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests available from retailers and the Internet let people learn about their genomes without going to a doctor, but they raise the question of who is responsible for oversight and regulation of these tests. Critics worry about safety risks if consumers base important lifestyle or medical decisions on inaccurate or misunderstood test results. A group of four leading bioethical, legal and medical researchers believes the solution will require an innovative approach that combines premarket studies done before tests ...

Redescription of Cobitis longipectoralis Zhou from late early Miocene of East China

2010-10-10

The family Cobitidae is a group of small, bottom dwelling, primary freshwater fishes . They are widely distributed in Eurasia and Morocco, with the greatest diversity in southern Asia. However, known fossil cobitids are scarce, and only include a few species of Cobitis and a species of Sabanejewia. Most of the materials consist of either detached suborbital spines or poorly preserved skeletons with little information about the suborbital spines. †Cobitis longipectoralis Zhou, 1992, from the late early Miocene of Shanwang, Shandong Province, eastern China, is the only species ...

'Miracle rice' finding proves we can never stop rice breeding

2010-10-10

Los Baños, Philippines – Environmental changes are to blame for a 15% drop in the yield of "miracle rice" – also known as rice variety IR8 – since the 1960s when it was first released and lauded for its superior yields that helped avert famine across Asia at the time. IR8 used to produce 9.5 to 10.5 tons per hectare, significantly more than other varieties in the 1960s when average global rice yields were around only 2 tons per hectare. But, when grown today, IR8 can yield only around 7 tons per hectare. "IR8 still performs very well considering global average rice ...

Popular prostate cancer treatment associated with bone decay

2010-10-10

Chevy Chase, MD—Using novel technology allowing "virtual bone biopsies" researchers have found that a common treatment for prostate cancer called androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is associated with structural decay of cortical and trabecular bone. The study has been accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men worldwide and estimates suggest there are currently 600,000 men in the United States with the condition who are being treated with ADT. Prostate ...

Frequent inaccuracies in testosterone testing lead to call for standardization

2010-10-10

Chevy Chase, MD—The use of testosterone assays for patient care and research is on the rise as new research links testosterone to a variety of diseases and conditions. Although the assays are heavily used, discrepancies and inaccuracies in measurements resulting from the various assays are widespread. Seeking to address this critical health issue, a multidisciplinary group of experts convened by The Endocrine Society and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just issued recommendations for improving and standardizing testosterone testing in a consensus statement ...

Stem cells repair damaged spinal cord tissue

2010-10-10

Researchers at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have shown how stem cells, together with other cells, repair damaged tissue in the mouse spinal cord. The results are of potential significance to the development of therapies for spinal cord injury. There is hope that damage to the spinal cord and brain will one day be treatable using stem cells (i.e. immature cells that can develop into different cell types). Stem cell-like cells have been found in most parts of the adult human nervous system, although it is still unclear how much they contribute to ...

Oxidation mechanisms at gold nanoclusters unraveled

2010-10-10

Researchers believe that the puzzle of catalytic gold is now partially solved. Gold can catalyse an oxidation reaction by first oxidising itself. New research evidence on gold-oxide phase at room temperature and atmospheric pressure help us to finally understand the oxidation mechanisms of catalytic gold nanoclusters in these conditions. "This is vital if we want to design oxidation catalysts that could use ambient oxygen in the reaction process. Catalysts that function at low temperatures are significant in terms of energy efficiency in the future," says Academy Research ...

Researchers from MARE ULisboa discover that the European catfish, an invasive species in Portugal, has a prolonged breeding season, enhancing its invasive potential

Modeling Pakistan's flooding

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: