june 2006

27-06-2006
Political agreement on draft EU flood risk directive
The European Environment Council reached political agreement on a draft directive on the assessment and management of flood risks. Key documents concerning this agreement may be found here.

24-06-2006
Denmark starts programme to monitor Greenland ice sheet
For several years there has been much uncertainty about how fast the inland ice on Greenland is melting. Given the relation of this trend with sea level rise this is particularly relevant for climate adaptation policies and coastal management. On June 23, Denmark announced the initiation of a programme to systematically monitor the melting of the Greenland ice, according to a press release by the Ministry of environment.
Read more here or try your best with the Danish pressrelease.

07-06-2006
US Katrina reports online available

Quite recent the US American colleagues have published two very interesting reports reflecting the reasons for the New Orleans "Katrin disaster". Find both reports here: http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/~new_orleans/ and https://ipet.wes.army.mil/

In the end, it is concluded that many things went wrong with the New Orleans flood protection system during Hurricane Katrina, and that the resulting catastrophe had it roots in three main causes: (1) a major natural disaster (the Hurricane itself), (2) the poor performance of the flood protection system, due to localized engineering failures, questionable judgments, errors, etc. involved in the detailed design, construction, operation and maintenance of the system, and (3) more global “organizational” and institutional problems associated with the governmental and local organizations responsible for the design, construction, operation, maintenance and funding of the overall flood protection system.