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Friday 30 November 2012

Could amphibious homes prove a solution to floods? Floating houses among ideas touted as answer to yearly inundations

MydeaMedia

Could amphibious homes prove a solution to floods? Floating houses among ideas touted as answer to yearly inundations

  • House is fixed in a dock and designed to rise as waters fill the foundations
  • It is just one of a range of solutions being investigated by authorities
  • In the recent days more then 900 homes have been flooded in the UK

Houses that rise and fall with the level of groundwater have been touted as the latest solution to the now seemingly annual floods inundating portions of the UK every autumn.
Over the past week, days of torrential rain have flooded roads and more than 900 homes across the UK, leaving hundreds unable to return to their homes.
The Environment Agency has warned that the flood risk remains high across the country, with 277 alerts and 204 warnings in place in England and Wales.
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Amphibious living: This floating home, currently under construction on the banks of the Thames in Buckinghamshire, raises to safety when the river bursts its banks
Amphibious living: This floating home, currently under construction on the banks of the Thames in Buckinghamshire, raises to safety when the river bursts its banks
Now authorities are looking at a range of solutions for dealing with ever more frequent floods, including homes which float as waters rise.
Baca Architects were earlier this year granted permission to build Britain's first amphibious house along the banks of the Thames in Buckinghamshire.
The house, which is a replacement for another property, rests on land, but in the event of the river bursting its banks, it is able to rise with the water to keep its inhabitants dry.
The floating house is just one idea being looked at by the Environment Agency as it investigates new technologies for dealing with floods, the BBC reported.
 
Flood risk engineer Tony Andryszewski said the agency is keen to look at how other countries deal with repeat flooding, particularly the Netherlands which is seen as a world leader in flood management technologies.
Homes are frequently built on stilts in countries like Thailand, Burma, India and Bangladesh, which all have regions notoriously susceptible to catastrophic flooding.
But the more elegant solution of homes that float is more rare, although examples of different designs exist in Germany, Canada, the U.S. and even Taggs Island in the UK.
Rustic look: How the finished house will look in the leafy environs of Buckinghamshire. Amphibious houses are just one of a range of solutions being looked at by the Environment Agency
Rustic look: How the finished house will look in the leafy environs of Buckinghamshire. Amphibious houses are just one of a range of solutions being looked at by the Environment Agency
All mod cons: How the house will look inside, with its panoramic views across the Thames
All mod cons: How the house will look inside, with its panoramic views across the Thames
The Baca project currently under construction in Bucks will however be the UK's first fully amphibious house.
Part of the award-winning LifE (Long-term Initiatives for Flood-risk Environments) project, of which Baca is a partner, the house is designed as a free-floating pontoon resting in fixed foundations.
'The floating house is secured by four dolphins (permanent vertical posts) arranged close up to the sidewalls,' Baca explains.
'The assembly is sited within a wet dock comprising retaining walls and base slab. When flooding occurs the dock fills with water and the house rises accordingly.'
Every aspect is designed to stop any water penetrating inside so if  a flood strikes the owners can  stay put.
A carefully laid out garden will act as a natural early warning flood system, with terraces set at different levels designed to flood incrementally and alert the occupants well before the water reaches a threatening level.
The lowest terrace will be planted with reeds, another with shrubs and plants, another will be lawn and the highest step will be a patio with access into the dining room.
Floating mechanism: The house is sited within a wet dock comprising retaining walls and base slab. When flooding occurs the dock fills with water and the house rises accordingly
Floating mechanism: The house is sited within a wet dock comprising retaining walls and base slab. When flooding occurs the dock fills with water and the house rises accordingly
All the pipes, ducts and wires for water, gas, electricity and sewage disposal in such amphibious homes are flexible, designed to remain functional even when the house rises several metres from its usual position.

HOW DO THE DUTCH DO IT?

With most of the land mass of the Netherlands lying below sea level, it is perhaps no surprise that the Dutch have developed the world's best flood management technologies.
The inhabitants of the region of since the 12th century been draining delta swamps to create artificial dry land - areas known as polders - at first using pumps powered by their famous windmills, like those pictured below.
A set of windmills in the Netherlands
There are now about 3,500 low-lying polders in the Netherlands. Although enclosed by dykes, they easily collect water from rain, rivers and the sea so must be constantly pumped to keep waters at bay.
Dutch flood agency spokesman Jos Maccabiani told the BBC: 'Since the last major flood in 1953, in which more than 1,800 people died, this system has been upgraded to very high standards.'
Computer simulations have been used to demonstrate that the Netherlands' modern flood defences should be able to withstand an inundation so severe it would be expected only once every 10,000 years, he added.
'Nevertheless, with the ever-increasing urbanisation of our polders and flood plains, spatial planning is increasingly combined with flood resilience,' Mr Maccabiani said.
'There are projects under way where urban revitalisation of a city is combined with the widening of the river bed, lowering the peak water levels, and others that look into flood-proofing the country's highway infrastructure.'
With an estimated value of £1.5million, it will cost around  20 per cent more than building a conventional similar-sized home – but there should be major savings on insurance costs.
There will be no communities built using Baca's floating homes, since regulations restrict new homes being built so close to the river (the Bucks house is a replacement for another which will be torn down), however the Environment agency and its partners are also looking at other solutions to rising water levels.
The LifE Project envisages a new approach to development that embraces water and allows for the increased risks posed by flooding as climate change raises water levels across the world.
With the UK currently in the grip of a housing crisis, it is hoped the project will unlock sites that are currently not considered suitable for development by managing and reducing flood risk overall.
By building in features to developments that can both help prevent flooding, and lessen its impact when it is unavoidable, the project focuses on managing risk that can help homeowners, and insurers, plan for the future.
A spokesman for Baca said: 'Amphibious houses or sometimes known as 'can-float' homes are a new phenomenon in the UK.
'As the cost of flood events start to have a more significant bearing on the public purse and the insurance secure demand higher levels of protection from the individual, flood resilient homes will become more common place.
'In the future communities that are holistically planned - that is to consider landscaping, urban design, energy and architecture simultaneously will be better prepared for flood events and climate change.
'Dwellings will be low carbon, and organized around multifunctional landscapes that will help control surface water flooding or act a large flood storage areas.
'New communities will be made up of streets of flood resilient dwellings located on the highest ground with amphibious homes located in the transitional zones between development and the natural environment.
'The long-term goal is to design communities that function as normal, preserving continuity of daily life during droughts and floods. Our intention, through our research and built work is that we can demonstrate that the future is not far away.'

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Ajmal Kasab hanged at Pune's Yerawada Jail this morning

Ajmal Kasab hanged at Pune's Yerawada Jail this morning Mumbai: Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist caught alive during the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai, was hanged to death at Pune's Yerawada Jail at 7:30 this morning, in a swift and secret execution. An hour later, Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil announced the hanging and said the execution took place after sufficient chance given to the terrorist to prove his innocence. The minister recounted that the death sentence handed to him by a special trial court was upheld both by the High Court and the Supreme Court; Kasab faced charges ranging from treason to waging war against India. President Pranab Mukherjee had rejected Kasab's mercy petition on November 5, but the execution was kept under wraps and an announcement was made only after he was hanged. The Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist was shifted from Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail to Pune's Yerawada Jail this Monday. Yerawada Jail is one of the two jails in Maharashtra where prisoners on death row are hanged. 4:13 Ajmal Kasab hanged at Pune's Yerawada Jail this morning 8:00 No mercy for Kasab, recommends Home Ministry in report to President 166 people were killed in the 26/11 attacks in 2008, when 10 men from Pakistan sailed into Mumbai. They split into pairs and spent 72 hours targeting the city's landmarks. A hospital was attacked; so was a Jewish centre. Kasab was the only terrorist who was caught alive. The execution comes one day before the Winter Session of Parliament begins. Since his arrest in 2008, Kasab was kept in a high-security bulletproof cell in Mumbai's Arthur Road jail. He had moved the Supreme Court on February 14 this year against the High Court verdict of October 10 last year, which upheld a lower court order sentencing the 25-year-old terrorist to death. The lower court had pronounced its judgement on May 6, 2010, 18 months after he was captured. Kasab's mercy petition was filed first with the Maharashtra Home Ministry, which rejected it in September, and forwarded it to the Union Home Ministry. Then, in October, the Home Ministry recommended that President Pranab Mukherjee reject his plea. In his plea before the Supreme Court Kasab had said that he had not been given a fair trial. But the Supreme Court had rejected that contention and Justice CK Prasad had observed, "I am more than certain that the planning and conspiracy to commit the crime were hatched in Pakistan, the perpetrators of crime were Pakistani trained at different centres in that country, and the devastation which took place at various places in the city of Mumbai, were executed by the appellant in furtherance thereof." There had been an overwhelming demand among people in India since 2008 that Kasab be executed for his role in the Mumbai attacks. Also, as Kasab's trial continued, the cost of keeping him alive had been a huge burden on the state exchequer. While the Government has spent over Rs. 5 crores on his high security cell at Mumbai's Arthur Road jail, his security, entrusted to the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), has cost the state over Rs. 19 crores
NEW DELHI: Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist Ajmal Kasab, accused for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, was today hanged at Yerwada Jail in Pune at 7:30 am after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his mercy petition. According to Maharashtra home minister R R Patil: "26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Ajmal Kasab's mercy petition was rejected on November 8. He also confirmed that Kasab was hanged at about 7:30am on Wednesday. Earlier, the Lashkar-e-Toiba operative was shifted from Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail to Pune's Yerawada Jail. The entire process was excuted very secretly, the report added. The President's rejection came two months after the Home ministry rejected Kasab's mercy petition. Kasab and nine other Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists had sailed into Mumbai on November 26, 2008 from Karachi and killed 166 people.

Wednesday 14 November 2012

Drinking even small amounts of alcohol while pregnant 'can affect child's IQ'

Drinking even small amounts of alcohol while pregnant 'can affect child's IQ'

By author mail

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Even small amounts of alcohol consumed during pregnancy can adversely impact the IQ of a child, new research shows.
Drinking by pregnant women has been a controversial topic, with no scientific unanimity. While some experts propagate total abstinence from alcohol, others have favoured moderate consumption
The new study, which used a genetic approach to study the impact of alcohol, has concluded that children whose mothers consumed alcohol during pregnancy had lower IQ when they were eight, compared to kids who were not exposed to any alcohol in the womb.
 Even small amounts have adverse affect on kids IQ
Even small amounts have adverse affect on kids IQ
Researchers from the universities of Bristol and Oxford used data from over 4,000 mothers and their children to arrive at the conclusion. The study will be published in scientific journal PLOS ONE on Thursday.
In order to separate the impact of alcohol from other lifestyle factors such as smoking and diet, the researchers used genetic data.
They found that four genetic variants in alcoholmetabolising genes among 4,167 children studied were strongly related to lower IQ at age eight.
There was no effect seen in children whose mothers abstained during pregnancy, Dr Ron Gray from University of Oxford who led the research said.
When a person drinks alcohol, ethanol is converted to acetaldehyde by enzymes.
Variations in the genes that 'encode' these enzymes lead to differences in the ability to metabolise ethanol. In 'slow metabolisers', peak alcohol levels may be higher and persist for longer than in fast metabolisers', scientists explained.
It is believed that the fast' metabolism protects against abnormal brain development in infants because less alcohol is delivered to the fetus.