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Tokyo Preparing For Floods 'Beyond Anything We've Seen' (tampabay.com)
In the face of an era of extreme weather brought on by climate change, global cities are working to improve their defenses. The New York Times reports (Warning: may be paywalled; alternative source) of Tokyo's $2 billion underground anti-flood system that consists of tunnels that divert water away from the region's most vulnerable floodplains. The city is "preparing for flooding beyond anything we've seen," says Kuniharu Abe, head of the underground site. From the report: But even in Tokyo, the onset of more frequent and intense storms has forced officials to question whether the region's protections are strong enough, a concern that has become more urgent as the city prepares to host the 2020 Olympic Games. Across Japan, rainfall measuring more than 2 inches an hour has increased 30 percent over the past three decades, the Japan Meteorological Agency estimates. The frequency of rainfall of more than 3 inches an hour has jumped 70 percent. The agency attributes the increase of these intense rains to global warming, heralding a new era in a country that is among the world's wettest, with a language that has dozens of words for rain. [...]
Experts have also questioned the wisdom of erecting more concrete defenses in a country that has dammed most of its major river systems and fortified entire shorelines with breakwaters and concrete blocks. Some of these protections, they say, only encourage development in regions that could still be vulnerable to future flooding. In eastern Saitama, where the Kasukabe facility has done the most to reduce floods, local industry has flourished; the region has successfully attracted several large e-commerce distribution centers and a new shopping mall. Still, the Kasukabe operation remains a critical part of Tokyo's defenses, say officials at Japan's Land Ministry, which runs the site. Five vertical, underground cisterns, almost 250 feet deep, take in stormwater from four rivers north of Tokyo. A series of tunnels connect the cisterns to a vast tank, larger than a soccer field, with ceilings held up by 60-foot pillars that give the space a temple-like feel. From that tank, industrial pumps discharge the floodwater at a controlled pace into the Edo river, a larger river system that flushes the water into Tokyo Bay.
Experts have also questioned the wisdom of erecting more concrete defenses in a country that has dammed most of its major river systems and fortified entire shorelines with breakwaters and concrete blocks. Some of these protections, they say, only encourage development in regions that could still be vulnerable to future flooding. In eastern Saitama, where the Kasukabe facility has done the most to reduce floods, local industry has flourished; the region has successfully attracted several large e-commerce distribution centers and a new shopping mall. Still, the Kasukabe operation remains a critical part of Tokyo's defenses, say officials at Japan's Land Ministry, which runs the site. Five vertical, underground cisterns, almost 250 feet deep, take in stormwater from four rivers north of Tokyo. A series of tunnels connect the cisterns to a vast tank, larger than a soccer field, with ceilings held up by 60-foot pillars that give the space a temple-like feel. From that tank, industrial pumps discharge the floodwater at a controlled pace into the Edo river, a larger river system that flushes the water into Tokyo Bay.
30 years ago whenever the monsoon struck or if there was a flood, number of dead were in the hundreds, sometimes, thousands
Today's China, the death have fallen drastically due to a lot of extra-ordinary water channeling projects China has undertaken
I'm amazed about the willingness of people to believe fake news such as global warming. Scientists have yet to present credible evidence that humans are causing global warming. The propagandists continue to promote their message that humans are responsible, but without hard evidence, we shouldn't believe that humans are causing the Earth to get warmer. There may well be legitimate reasons to prepare for possible dosasters, especially in an area that experiences powerful typhoons. But that isn't a reason to invoke the myth that humans are causing global warming.
You are the only one to invoke it, there is not a single word about human causes in TFA and it's entirely irrelevant in its context.
"When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
So the summary basically boils down to Japan is dammed if they do, damned if they don't.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Troll.
Humans are causing global "warming" and that is more complicated than just warming, it's causing weather extremes, changes in food (food absorbs more carbon, becomes less nutritious and much larger) and sea level rise from melting ice.
If all ice melts today, the entire eastern seaboard of the United States will be flooded up to I95. The West coast will fare a bit better.
At the rate things are going right now, humans will not be around much longer. It will simply get too hot, and we haven't figured out how to grow vegetables in climate controlled environments. Nuclear war isn't going to be the end of us, failing to adapt will. If the United States is unwilling to pay attention to the evidence today, then the United States is going to end up being the Somalia of 22xx, where it has to steal supplies from it's neighbors, where as countries that decided to adapt will be the only ones able to produce anything.
Bias has never been a problem for people who can think.
I'm amazed about the willingness of people to believe fake news such as global warming. Scientists have yet to present credible evidence that humans are causing global warming. The propagandists continue to promote their message that humans are responsible, but without hard evidence, we shouldn't believe that humans are causing the Earth to get warmer. There may well be legitimate reasons to prepare for possible dosasters, especially in an area that experiences powerful typhoons. But that isn't a reason to invoke the myth that humans are causing global warming.
Just because you're too stupid to recognize credible evidence about global warming doesn't mean that there isn't any. I'll start believing that global warming is fake news once people like you start producing credible evidence that the warming is natural.
Statistics are your mathematical friend. Last we heard, critters other than humans were not digging up long buried hydrocarbons in statistically significant ways and dumping them into the atmosphere to catch those beautiful sun rays.
But will they be prepared for the surge of water when a 100 m tall monster rises from Tokyo Bay and rampages through the city?
38M is greater Tokyo region, quite a large area and not that many people at risk if a huge event occurred. However the city center with wards like Edogawa at sea level with multiple rivers running on both sides could be swamped if sudden & or prolonged heavy rain over ran existing drainage. The system upstream can help alleviate heavy rain flooding more proactively. It wonâ(TM)t stop all flooding but should help minimize and most of all hopefully avoid a catastrophic flood.
When I was a child, my family lived in the Tokyo area for a while. The first couple of years we were there, we lived in a suburban area that was pretty crowded, albeit with mostly low-rise residential and commercial properties.
Our rental house sat about halfway up a fairly steep hill, at the bottom of which was an open-air market crowded with noodle vendors and the like. When I was five, there was a pretty intense typhoon. As I recall, it rained continuously for three days - and I mean it just bucketed down to the point where it was difficult to see the houses across the one-and-a-half-lane street.
The fourth day was clear, bright, and almost cloudless, so I finally got to go outside again. I wanted to visit the marketplace, but I couldn't, because the bottom of the hill was submerged under about 10 feet of water.
So, local severe flooding is nothing new for Japan - although I have no doubt it's getting worse - and addressing it via infrastructure improvements is certainly non-trivial in a nation whose population is almost entirely urban nowadays.
(BTW - I also experienced my first major earthquake in that house. It had to have been at least a 6.5, because it lasted at least half a minute. But that's a story for another time ... )
Check out my novel.
History shows, again and again, how nature points out the folly of men.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Scientists have yet to present credible evidence that humans are causing global warming.
OK, then. You explain the increase in rainfall that has been observed in Japan over the last 30 years.
Your explanation must be backed by sound theory, historical evidence, and peer-reviewed research. We're all looking forward to receiving your wisdom. Best of luck, and godspeed.
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
Tokyo is preparing even weirder foods? I'd read about that.
Oh, floods. Boo.
Move along, no sig to see here.
Humans are causing global warming but so is everything else. Everything affects everything else.
That statement is so vague as to be almost meaningless, but, yes, for a restricted set of "everything", it is true.
The vagueness lies in the unaddressed question, how much global warming is caused by humans, and what is the effect of that? The answer is, an estimated 3 plus or minus 1.5 degrees of global warming is caused by humans due to each doubling of carbon dioxide concentration in the air, and the effects of that are hard to calculate, but will definitely include sea level rise, shifts of growing areas, and very likely changes in the severity of storms.
The "true" part, however, is also important to keep in mind: anthropogenic global warming does not occur instead of natural causes of variation; it is in addition to natural causes of variation. There will still be natural flucturations on top of the more or less steady increase in temperature due to human actions.
So the raw data is available. Why hasn't anyone posted graphs based on that? The answer is because they still show warming. In fact if you go back 100 years the raw data shows a higher rate of warming than the adjusted data (mainly because of the way sea surface temperatures were measured before WW II with buckets thrown over the side that cooled some before they got them on deck to measure the temperature).
This is fake news.
The "tunnels for floods" is a cover up.
The real reason for the network of tunnels is to provide hidden burial places for Akira and Galatea.
Nuff' said!
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!