How technology will help us survive next extreme weatherevent

Video will begin in 5 seconds.

Floods 2011: 'a rolling wave of water' QFES rescuers relive the "incredible" moment when a wall ofwater tore through the Lockyer Valley on January 10, 2011.

PT11M34S 620 349

A major flood is on the way down Brisbane River and the fridge tells us the groceries being home-delivered will be coming with extra disaster management supplies.

f.jpg" width="288" />

As the coffee is percolating, the machine reminds us what our priorities are for the next few daysand tells us to check on our family and friends, while our electric cars and traffic lights connect tothe cloud, communicating our movements to government agencies and emergency services.

Local communities will be very powerful in their ability to self-organise, bypassing existingauthorities.

Dr Amisha Mehta

These were the predictions presented to the 2036 "Flood Hypothetical" conference at theQueensland University of Technology by DrAmishaMehtaof the university'sCentre for Emergencyand Disaster Management, and Professor Axel Bruns.

In the future our cars may be able to detect which roads are accessible in extreme floods. Photo:Michelle Smith

"In 2036, the way we interact with technology will be very different [and] what will be interesting iswhether privacy is still important to us, and on what level," Dr Mehta said.

"Local communities will be very powerful in their ability to self-organise, bypassing existingauthorities."

Dr Bruns said nearly every device we would usedwouldbe networked and wouldcommunicatewitheach other in providing information to diagnose natural disasters.

Brisbane City Council's redrawn flood-risk map. Photo: Brisbane City Council

"Every street light, every traffic light, our cars, our phones all of these constantly generatedata andinformation, and this may become useful to generating situational awareness.

"We can use the sensors in our cars and see those movement patterns to see what roads are stillaccessible and those that are not. We can see the patterns on the ground that our emergencyservices can't see," Dr Bruns said.

Dr Bruns said the information would have to be used effectivelyif it was to protect Brisbaneresidents.

"We will be deluged by the data as much as we are by the flood itself.

"We will need data processing and analysis approaches to deal with this information to figure outwhat is situationally relevant."

At the conference more than 100 planning experts from government, emergency services, utilities,insurersand research bodiesdiscussed planning issues for managing future extreme floods. Mostagreed technology wouldbe at the centre of the disaster management and recovery process.

Conference organiser Dr Piet Filet of the QUT Business School said an extreme weather event of asimilar scale to the 2011 floods was inevitable and forward planning neededto start.

"The Brisbane River catchment has 48,000 kilometres of rivers and creeks that collect and funnelthe flow through greater Brisbane and right past the CBD.

"An extreme scenario would be to move Brisbane. That's not feasible so we must adapt and buildresilience to floods," he said, on the fifth anniversary of Cyclone Yasi.

The flood scenario presented was one of 5000 produced by SEQ Water as part of a responseoptimisation study in the wake of the 2011 Brisbane floods.

Don't miss important news stories. Like us on Facebook.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/brisbane-floods-how-technology-will-help-us-survive-next-extreme-weather-event-20160204-gmm0jl.html