Deforestation is a major problem in Haiti, with 98% of natural woodlands having been removed. This post highlights a recent suggestion by an NGO that deforestation may be in part a cause of the current cholera outbreak in Haiti. Whilst this idea is unproven, the need for afforestation to be a part of the rehabilitation of Haiti is undeniable.

The latest photos from the site, taken late yesterday, show that the retrogressive erosion of the channel is continuing to develop rapidly.  This image was taken at about 5 pm yesterday: The lower part of the channel has widened and, more importantly, the steep section has moved up channel considerably.  Bear in mind that this image is more than 15 hours old now.  The best illustration of the way that …

Flow through the spillway at Attabad has continued to develop during the day.  However, as I suggested in my post this morning, some of the higher discharge values being quoted are without foundation.  At 6 pm the discharge was about 360 cubic feet per second (10.2 cubic metres per second).  Thus, the discharge graph looks like this: At the moment there appears to be little evidence from these figures that …

Flow continues to increase at Attabad.  Inflow is still exceeding outflow and seepage, so the lake level continues to rise, to the detriment of the upstream communities. There has been some confusion about the statistics about outflow – it is now clear that NDMA discussions often use the combined spillway plus seepage figure, but that this is interpreted by the media as being the spillway flow.  According to the NDMA …

We are running a free workshop on erosion on 19th March 2010 in North Yorkshire, UK. Details in the flyer below, together with contact details (click on the image for a better view in a new window). Please do register to come along!

The Guardian has a slightly bizarre article today. It is entitled “The art of watching your house fall into the sea”. It tells the story of artist Kane Cunningham, who has bought a bungalow on the cliff edge at Knipe Point near to Scarborough. This site has been featured here before as recent landsliding has threatened to destroy a number of houses. He says in the article: “I’m going to …

The Discovery Channel has news of a very interesting example of rapid coastal erosion driven by the earthquake in Haiti. The site is at Petit Paradis to the west of Port-au-Prince. Eye-witness reports suggest that the town was struck by a highly localised tsunami in the earthquake, apparently killing 20. This is interesting in part because it is quite likely such a localised event would have been caused by a …

On Friday I gave a public lecture at the Badbury Centre in North Yorkshire (NE England), looking at the potential impacts of climate change on coastal erosion. The presentation was focused on the field site that we maintain at Boulby, close to the lecture venue. In the presentation I start by looking at our landslide database and then go on to talk about climate change. The main part of the …

One of the most emotive topics for local authorities in the UK is that of coastal erosion. Over the last few years in Britain we have increasingly taken a view that coasts should only be defended where absolutely necessary – elsewhere erosion should be allowed to occur at a “natural” rate. In most cases the view has been taken that protection of coasts in which erosion will affect domestic properties …

(Updated 10th Feb to include latest casualty numbers) The extraordinary wildfires in Australia are dominating the headlines in the UK, half a world away. Wildfires are quite common events, but the number of fatalities that this particular episode has caused is really quite unusual. Below in Figure 1 I have plotted the recorded worldwide recorded number of deaths from wildfires for the period since 1980, using data from the CRED …