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Links to Other Projects:
FLOOD WORKING GROUP
Following two catastrophic floods in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), where the Northern Forum was involved in providing assistance to the victims of the flood, several regions decided to cooperate on flood forecasting and monitoring, using the latest technologies available. In 2004, the participants in the 1st Workshop on Flood Satellite Forecasting created the Northern Forum Flood Working Group, which has been meeting every year since. The Working Group is also working with the Arctic Council's Committee on Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response (EPPR) as the EPPR Committee has extended its mandate to include natural disasters.
The FWG has been partnering for the past four years with C-CORE, a company based in Newfoundland, that was able, within a program entitled "Polar View" to provide the regions with free satellite imagery to monitor ice jams likely to result in flooding. As the funding for "Polar View" is switching to the European Union, the Flood Working Group has expanded to include European Russia as well. A new provider of emergency satellite imagery, UNOSAT, under the auspices of the United Nations Environmental Program, is now also providing satellite imagery to two pilot projects in Russia.
4th Flood Working Group Workshop Alaska July 16-20, 2007
The 4th Flood Working Group Workshop was held in Anchorage, Alaska (US) as a NATO Advanced Research Workshop. The focus was on satellite imagery for flood forecasting, flood warning processes, coastal erosion and climate change related issues and flood preparedness. The Workshop was followed July 23-27 by a training session at the Alaska-Pacific River Center for designated trainees from Sakha and Khanty-Mansiysk.
3rd Flood Working Group meeting, Yakutsk, Sakha Republic, Yakutia (Russia) March 9-12, 2006
The 3rd meeting was held in Yakutsk, hosted by the Ministries of Environmental Protection, Emergencies and External Affairs of the Sakha Republic. Over 60 specialists participated in the meeting, which included a full day of presentations, a field day on the Lena River to study preventative measures against flooding and two days of meetings dedicated to the provision of satellite images by C-CORE and the development of a concrete work plan for the coming two years. It was agreed that training sessions would be organized in the summer of 2006 in Alaska and Alberta, and work would be started regarding the translation of specialized literature in English and Russian. The work group will continue to collaborate on refining mathematic and physical modeling of flooding in order to provide a better assessment of flood risks.
2nd Flood Working Group meeting Whitehorse, Yukon (Canada) February 2005
The participants received a presentation by C-CORE, a Canadian company that provides images from the Radarsat satellite, which is of great interest to Northern regions because the images can be received even in cloudy weather or at night. Canadian regions already benefit from this technology and Alaska has an agreement with C-CORE to receive these images as well. The workshop allowed several Russian participants to enter into agreements to get these images too. The other highlight of the workshop was the development of close cooperation between several regions on developing models for break-up, ice jams, and flood forecasting. The supercomputer available at the Ugra Institute for Information Technologies in Khanty-Mansiisk, the host of the first workshop, will be a very valuable tool to work out models. The participants also agreed that translating materials and documents into English and Russian should be given a priority, in order to avoid duplicating work and disseminating important information.
Lena Volkova learns to use an electric auger on the Yukon River
1st Workshop on Flood Satellite Forecasting Khanty-Mansiisk (Russia) May 2004
The workshop was hosted at the Ugra Research Institute for Information Technologies (URIIT), which features a Sunfire Supercomputer, an Earth Remote Sensing Center, a large antenna and very advanced GIS and mapping technology. The workshop featured presentations on flood satellite forecasting by Russian, Canadian and Alaskan speakers and Integrated Decision Support Systems applied to floods from Alaska and Colorado. A Working Group was formed as a result of the workshop, and a protocol of agreement signed to continue cooperation between participants.
2001 flood in the Republic of Sakha
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