Water Conference at UMass

[kleigh]

I went to a water conference at UMass yesterday. It had great discussions and overviews of all kinds of environmental research going on I wanted to share with you.

Regarding global climate change, here is the consensus of research and scientists for changes we will be seeing in New England:

1. warming trend between 3.5-4.0 degrees F
2. less snow but more rain
3. increase in the volume and frequency of precipitation events
4. 20-30% increase in winter precipitation
5. earlier snowmelts
6. increase frequency & volume of smaller flooding events

These things will put more pressure on existing and future stormwater systems (are they designed to handle this increase?) and it is anticipated that they will also cause the depths and widths of stream channels to deepen and widen, thereby dramatically altering riverine flooding patterns and river and riparian habitats. We should keep this in mind when reviewing stormwater and riverfront area projects.

USGS data indicates that the CT River Valley will experience a 15-20% increase in volume and frequency of 24-hour, 100-yr storm precipitation events and that Boston is expected to experience over 35% increase in these precip events. Areas between CT River Valley and Boston somewhere in between 20-35%.

One discussion ended with this video of a culvert failure in Freeport Maine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_uqPR4Ir5o

Or just search utube for Freeport culvert failure.

Karen

[mmc]

Hi,

The video is amazing. I'm auditing a wetlands course at UMASS with Scott Jackson. He showed us this video for the stream crossing segment of the course.

[patrickgarner]

The video was first shown at an AMWS conference three years ago. I invited the man who took the footage to speak, and he narrated the "long version" as the crossing slowly collapsed. Quite amazing, and what should be a must-see for all DPW directors throughout Mass. No, throughout New England. No, throughout the world.

[JMD1986]

Amazing the powers of Mother Nature at work.

It ain't nice to fool Mother Nature!