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POTENTIAL TO REDUCE RIVER FLOODING
Could your home be flooded by the Brisbane River? Southeast Queensland has been visited in many years by one or more tropical cyclones. Rain has fallen downstream of the Wivenhoe and Somerset dams, preventing their flood relief. Then the flood height reached has depended on the capacity of the river channel and floodplain to carry away the floodwater.
Low-lying suburbs flooded previously could be flooded again, but also suburbs not previously flooded could be submerged when the downpour falls on them. Flooding could also be worsening because the river channel is being blocked by sediment from farm run-off, dredged until 1996. The river channel is also being obstructed by concrete bridge support islands. The combined backwater effect of numerus obstructions built in the river channel and on the floodplain could raise flood heights and bring flooding to suburbs so far unaffected.
Brisbane River Anti-Memoir examines potential to reduce flooding now, rather than being a historical record or personal data. Martin Knox is an engineer who uses philosophy to analyse physical and statistical evidence, as well hearsay, all in a phenomenological framework that discovers potential for important flood mitigation.
The conclusions apply widely to Brisbane River flooding, as a guide for needed government action and for home preparation for evacuation, including by people who have so far been lucky.
The novel: Brisbane River Anti-Memoir is available from Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/24jad5ku
Reviews and excerpts from Knox’s seven published novels are on his blog: martinknox.com
RIVER FLOODING: WHAT CAN BE DONE
The arena in which public policy about Brisbane River flood management is debated has not been transparent to those threatened by further flooding. The government appears disinterested in the following.
Brisbane River flooding is being worsened by:
- Obstructions constructed in the river.
- Sediment accumulated from erosion of farmland and ending of dredging.
- Flood plain flow reduction by building and earthworks on it.
- Reduced mitigation of floods by dams, due to excessive storage of town supply water.
- Inadequate forewarning of rainfall events and consequences.
These issues have had little action and seem to have been hurriedly removed from government agendas without resolution. Player interests are established, concealed, possibly with conspiratorial bias against Brisbane residents who are flood prone. Little is being done to protect them from further flooding.
Much could and should be done. The February 2022 flood impacted 23,400 properties. In the next flood there could be many more, due to a cyclone encountering a deteriorated Brisbane river flow channel. This is a community problem, not victims’ alone. Shame!
My new book Brisbane River Anti-Memoir analyses the Brisbane River flooding problem from the engineer’s Cartesian perspective and then by philosopher Heidegger’s phenomenology, which considers the potential for reducing flooding, including how to prevent more incursions on the river flow channel.
Book available from Amazon. My blog martinknox.com has information about my books.
