April Seminar Focuses on Newest Methods to Reduce Flood Damage

The best methods to date for reducing flood damage will be presented at a national symposium at Rice University April 15 through 17.

"Mitigating Severe Weather Impacts in Urban Areas," will feature experts from the National Weather Service, the National Severe Storms Laboratory, the Texas Medical Center, the University of Oklahoma, Rice and other institutions around the nation. A special session will focus on the effects of Tropical Storm Allison, the most damaging urban flood in U.S. history.

"Communities vulnerable to natural hazards often have little control over severe weather impacts on infrastructure, energy and water-supply systems," said Dr. Phil Bedient, professor of engineering at Rice. "Our goal is to develop public and private partnerships to create a disaster-resilient community through improved planning, engineering design and technology. The conference should improve our understanding of how technology can help create better operations and designs for communities of the future."

The conference will begin with an afternoon of short courses on the use of radar rainfall in hydrology, hydrologic modeling software, and flood planning and emergency response, followed by two days of presentations and keynote addresses examining such topics as coastal flooding and subsidence, floodplain mapping, and insurance and risk management for severe storms.

Presentations should be of interest to engineers, weather personnel, city planners, policy makers, developers and builders, insurance agents, floodplain managers, consultants and the general public.

Keynote addresses include "Impact of Severe Weather on the Texas Medical Center and How To Mitigate that Impact," by Dr. Richard Wainerdi, president and CEO of the Texas Medical Center; "Tomorrow’s Weather Forecasts: Just in Time, on Time and Where They’re Needed," by John Snow, National Weather Center at the University of Oklahoma; "Urban Stormwater Modeling 2002," by Wayne Huber, Oregon State University; and "Recovery and Lessons Learned from T.S. Allison," by Art Story, Harris County Public Infrastructure.

The symposium, a follow-up to one held last year in Tulsa, is sponsored by Rice’s Environmental and Energy Systems Institute and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Texas Medical Center, and the University of Oklahoma’s International Center for Natural Hazards and Disaster Research.

Dr. Bedient, also a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice, is lead author of the textbook "Hydrology and Floodplain Analysis" and designer of a state-of-the-art flood alert system in the Texas Medical Center. He organized the conference with Dr. Baxter Vieux, professor of civil engineering and environmental science at the University of Oklahoma and director of the International Center for Natural Hazard and Disaster Research. Dr. Vieux is an expert in the development of engineering hydrologic applications using NEXRAD radar, the world’s foremost weather radar system.

Registration fees are $350 for the symposium and $50 for three related short courses. The schedule of speakers and application forms are available online at http://www.rice.edu/flood. For more information contact Dr. Bedient at (713) 348-4953 or bedient@rice.edu.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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