http://www.e-senss.com
http://www.salixoec.com
(from erosion control)
These are good link to stabilize river bed and embankements with respect to the environment.
Very sustainable indeed. Really usefull for those who are found of waterscape (and also, gardening)

Geo-net website/Le Monde french news paper title announcement this morning 60km west of Christchurch an earthquake magnitude 4.2 on Richter Scale.
Earthquake risk normally is about impacts on livelyhoods and people properties. casualties can be high according to the magnitude of the phenomenum.
A country like Haity begining of the year was striken by one. 7.2 RS magitude, it tells with the strength how disastrous for the natural hazard can be for the economies (it is not just about shaking leaves from trees)
Hopefully, there is no tsunamy or flood that go often with the submarine earthquake.
Crisis group and operation teams should be ready to help if local government is unable to succeed alone.

More news later (and confirmation of the one first...)

This fish may help to understand a bit more about adaption to climate change maybe! Anyway, I found interesting to know that this rare fish specie (they are 14 of the same family) that managed to adapt to seawater temperature dscrease.
When South America and Australia separated from Antartica, it created a huge seawater ring/wall of freezing water around Antartica that many fish species died (fish is cold blood animal)- bones have been found on Seymour islands.
From this time an exotic or temperate fish travelling from the various Oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, Indian) and Austral sea could make the trip (with sea currents) up to 50 degree celsius of south latitude.
Cold blood animal like fish-also snakes cannot control their body temperature and their blood starts to freeze or heat up if there environment is too cold or too warm.
It is said that in Antarctica, seawater under the banquise is - 2.0 degree celsius.
It is too cold for almost all fish species to live there. Except for nototheioides fish that developped an antifreeze for its blood, the molecule is like a sugar (dissacharide) that helps to keep the blood plasma warmer.
So freezing temperature is lower - 2.2 DEGREE C.

My reflexion is lost between the quality of answers to people need in disaster, what they want they want, what we want or what wecan offer and they can accept with a certain level of satisfaction.From ancient time, there was pro and con for aids (as today, if you have read surveys on appeals for Pakistan). One fact is these disasters look like never ending from one year to another and we don't know how many of these crisis that do not get media attention.
Data are missing, we use imperfect modelling...still to reduce these crisis, we still need more innovation new thinking, willing , motivation to make a better place to live in. Easy to say and difficult to materialize.
+Population growth and birth rate reduction is one way to make the sustainability development works, less consumption means less environmental destruction. Crazy idea, isn't?
+Educating people our fast can one teach to take about the environment. Programs change all the time, today there are lots of talk about education, still I believe quality of education has been downgraded compared to our ancestors to assimilate volume of knowledge that could be useless. Plenty of education hardwares and softwares but if you do not have the skill
+regulations and incentives like subsidies or grants or taxes there are also critics, there are not perfect (I don' t give examples, they are too many). I think if we have to survey law makers, we may discover we spent more monies to make laws than their goal oriented returns
+other approaches: difficult to assess, still humankind cannot stand still but need to act for others under the umbrella of eternity.
Hopeffully better days will return for these zone at risk if everybody give a hand, we may got it right: global warming, flood, food crisis...WITHOUT LOOSING SOULS.

Weather outlooks are these organizational-WMO, NOAA, some private firms...) weather deliverables to tell the quality of the atmospherical , hydological elements.
This end of year 2010 Prime Minister Putsine put a ban on export of grains because of the drought (and wood fires) in parts of Russia.
Which countries have suffered most from the disasters. I believe it is Egypt and MENA region, throught the impairement of the virtual water trade.
ACCORDING TO the weather news, this year, eastern Europe has warmer and dry summer, and as consequence this lead to price increase (which is good) for western European farmers (like France...) that saw an increase in their revenue compared to last year (and no strikes or less).
ALL IS LINKED the weather and the economy and the price fixing for goods, so the interest of forecast methods to control output of industries.
Question: why the price of milk for farmers went up?
-answer: weather is bad in some part of the world (a disaster) in another part (selling more wheat to them ) it is an opportunity. Demand for wheat or another food for cattles-cows- increases, to refrain the demand sale prices have increased to cover cost excess in the new margin.
Note: could we produce more and keep the price low. Not worth it after a crisis comes the recovery. Here we are. This virtual mechanism in fixing the price is like the invisible hand of ADAM SMITH inside the efficient fontiere.
Similarly, in flood prone regions , people would come out from the disaster in better shapes with all the sediments that have loaded and fertlized their lands...

Look excellent as secondary source of water. You get fresh water into your hand from the undergroung.
Spain: plenty of well tubes (particularly in Barcelona)-so need to buy water during your holidays.
Paris very few ones. Still, the one at gare de Lyon is a delight. While in some parts pof the world people fight to get drinking water. This pump is an archaic one but functional and with good quality water.
Hope only, this water does not become contaminated with human activities by the time of crisis. and also, these pills.
Sweden,and Stockholm the city of water. Suprisingly, I have not seen any tube wells (except in the country side in some parts by some lakes.)
These tubes need to be rediscovered and protected.

Often stakeholders may not agree on assessment it is because it is not same viewpoint like an indicator is different. People would argue stakeholders do not have the same views on how vaccines are needed to stop a disease, how many litres of drinking water, how many tents,...AND SO ON.
I think indicators make all the difference who you are representing. You may allocate the scarced resources, and it will be just a baseline as I AM SURE it would change later for more. Best policy would be to plan a certain percentage of resource reserve to cover for th risks. For example when planning the Heathrow airport (terminal 5), project managers in charge had underestimate the cost of the new building and they had to change the baseline budget .
Disaster managements are special case because some hazard are not obvious. If it is an earthquake for instance, WMO satellite would be a precious tool to assess aids needed in the aftermather and post recovery operation.
It become unclear when the disaster is not very well defined in space and time like a flood or cholera, particularly also, when is added man made disasrers (war...), helping people moves from a technical aspect of responding to people needs to a cahotic industry of removing the confusion between help and politics, and off course you can't.I think it is why some humanitarian assistance look unclear and you don't know how to mitigate.
There is also, the case that debates in the news between experts and bosses of organizations, again indicators may not be the same. For instance, in the flood that occurred in Pakistan head of UN was call Mr more (more aids), while some disaster expert like former boss of MSF(Medecin Sans Frontière) is Mr less (aids).
Truly their baseline for ressource allocation was different. UN head was thinking the aids not only on a short time, the crisis itself but also, a bit longer during and in the recovery operation while the expert view was narrow and framed on vaccines and immunizations.
The only solution as Dr E F Schumacher has advocated (and also one forefather of decentralization of production units is the long-term sustainability.
Also, I AM CERTAIN with all these indicators in mind that help to produce forecast help to produce lean with short lead time thus reduce gaps between various disaster responses and their contexts and customize people needs. For example World bank said lessons learned in Tsunami 26 Dec 2004 in SE Asia helped the relief in Haity.
My viewpoint all is good and it is what multinational like World Co makes . They have a lean, no waste and short lead time production because the company has a store, Obermeyer is its name and the forecast (OBERMEYER forecast ) is a perfect store for mean average of supply and demand in its worldwide branches in Africa, Asia,...from the Obermeyer forecast, the company adjusts for their branches abroad with the PLAN DO CHECK ACT SYSTEM....wi

Few years ago, I was raising fund for a charity (www.itdg.org). I was in Pakistan. Pakistan is a beautiful country between the sea (Indian Ocean, south), Himalaya mountains (7000-8000 meters , north and bordering with China- if you travel one day through the Kunjerab pass 5000 Meters to enter China or Pakistan, wear very warm cloth like cashmire because the place is very windy and very cold. Just expect to see a small house, the police immigration office. You may queue there like in a ED OR TESCO or LIDL supermarket. then here you are on the roof of the world ready to go to TIBET or XINJAN or BEIJING. The other way opposite is the dirty track -they call it THE KARAKORAM highway, it is on all asian maps, beware these highways are not comparable with US highways, or la route du MIDI in Fance, when you leave Paris to go to the sea mediteranean one. The highway is a stone road following the river bed-like in northern KENYA If you are not well seated on your vehicle/bike you may injured your testicules and get pains and urinate blood due to the inflamation -Until you reach Islamabad- then from Islamabad, an administrative city-like Sao Paolo, but very busy with crowded buses, scooters, people in the warm streets) . Then, you can imagine yourself travelling by all means with the asian standards (car, train, bicycle,...) to KARACHI (by the sea).
Noneless to say the country is very contrasted between the Himalaya and the sea, there is an impressive slope. You could make the trip by bike in a few without effort-pedalling. I think this is whatthe rivers are making, during the monsoon, river flows amplify in volumes in the rivers, river discharges inundate th road and with the kinetic energies created by the slope, it has a disastrous impacts on river nearby villagers communities, and the flood velocity carries all these unwanted materials, like stone rubbles, pollutions and water sources are contaminated.
Once, I made a trip through this contrasted region (east is desert and India, also, south west with IRAN. I was in what my charity/NGO called "race against poverty or sponsor me per mile, if I Make 1KM YOU GIVE $1 or €1 AND SO ON. I did not get so far in my effort after few days cycling, I got water/FOOD poisoning with headache, stomach cramps, fever,...I FELT DIZZY and stopped my journey, left the road and just popped into any house where I was offered a kind of bed made with ropes (like sudanese beds). I HAVE RESTED fewhours, then when I found confortable I LEFT THE PAKISTANESE people. Everywhere I WAS GOING IN THE COUNTRY LATER I GET INVITED, found food accomodation and shelters.
In 2005, there was a huge People have raised funds for this cause...In 2010, it is the same scenario...What Maslow tells us about needs is their motivation, during my ascent to the himalaya, I HAD also needs (and there was no flood).
During a flood, what is the motivation of Pakistanese people, MASLOW TELLS IN HIS PYRAMID FROM BOTTOM TO TOP
1-physiological needs, like eating, sleeping
2-security, protecting their families, babies, properties, livelyhood
3-social needs: school, hospital, electricity
4-esteem: a need to feel human, nice to people
5-recognition, facing each others, one can see each others in making great thing to improve social & business lives....

Kajima anti seismic infrastructure is making building standing earthquake richter scale magnitude 7, 8 AND maybe more...
Kobe in JAPAN, earthquake over 6 (6.2) destroyed city infrastructure , kills OVER 2000 people and made millions homeless...ETC.2 YEARS LATER japan kajima technologies against earthquake was borned. In 2005 AN earthquake even higher richter scale 8 DID NOT even moved a glass vase of flowers from the shelf to the floor, the kajima technology made all building stable so they could stand the earthquakes again and again.
IN THE CASE OF HAITI EARTHQUAKE RS 7.2 no buildings stand the violence of the choc, house stones crushed people in their house. At the same period of the year a same earthquake destroyed few houses and few casualties. ONE HAD EXPLAINED THE DIFFERENCE of impacts in the presence (or the absence) of metallic structures in buildings. Chile buildings were more resilient because of metals and steel. Most houses in HAITI did not follow the urbanism code (like in other countries that are quick to build and there is no...). Now, if I had the choice to rebuild HAITY do I choose wood and modular wood house as raw material and house fabric, as I READ in an official, or do I USE modular metallic (or wood or bamboo) scaffolds as I DECRIBED IN MY WAER PROJECT ACCESS FOR WATER DURING A FLOOD, or do I USE STEEL SHIPPING CONTAINERS FROM A CANADIAN ARCHITECT FOR MODULAR HOUSING IN HAITY....

Various wayS to price . Price would be cost and profit for the added values of these goods. Or a fixed price would be determined by the supply and demand of goods at equilibrium of the equation. Too much demand or low supply and price go up and the reverse if supply is bigger than demand (more goods to give away than buyers). Rather looking at the quantity side too much goods would be considered as loss (for the seller/manager) and not enough goods a potential loss of incomes for the salesman. But there others ways to assess value of goods and the stock policy. I WON't COME TO THEM IN THIS WINDOW. I am more interested to fill in gaps between the supply and the demand for products and services. Forecasting supply and demands for goods help.
For instance, in countries currently assisted (like Haity, for example), there is a no risk status as I remember WHO President Dr. Margaret CHAN saying, luckily we were (talking about the fresh water supply) due to the fact that within 4 DAYS after the earthquake, the first drinking water delivery was given to people. This is great as Haity is in a permant status of international aids and it was much easier to divert previous aids or programs (like the previous hurricane one. This extremely interesting, but can this works in other difficult multi-hazardous countries. What about other alternatives, choices....

They may not be fully operational, drone air robot male or hale could be useful for weather and hydrology prediction.
Project WAER access to drinking water targets the water supply through drops of 2 OZ Pocket Water Purifiers in non-stop flights of drones over inundated regions at risk of water poisoning DURING THE DISASTER.
Of course the earlier the better. But, if one cannot extend survival straw from their traditional user segments like army soldiers or tourists on a water scarcity or bad quality water journey, one could use these drops as ultimate resort (particularly when there a flood caused by hurricanes.
I think most countries either developped or emerging as a drone program...I think there should be some uses for humanitarian actions within the real time of flood solving issue and nowcasting. After all, US AirForce has dropped frozen water bags from their aircrafts during world wars in the sahara when advancing troops have their drinking water supplies cut off. Perhaps, with all these bases in the world (naval, sea and air) , there may be a fast rapid response of these water drops whithin minutes, hours and days of the aftermath to reduce water poisoning risk.
Best in the new thinking and innovation would to allow 2 Oz pocket water purifier trade with the development of a tissue of retails or on-line shopping and within a few days before the predicted disaster time the water products could be home with UPU, postal services or UPS/FEDEX . Great! Is not it? Selling price $10 and most US manufacturers garanteed they clear water from water germs (guardia, e-coli,...)...
So, I re wrote some scenarii for flood plain regions. DURING a flood, drone launchers at sea, land bases could....

What we need in this 21 rst century. It is rising houses, rising villages and rising cities.
Water Aero Emergency Relief has a planning phase, which is scaffolding infrastructure with modular scaffolds to get quick dry feet.

Modular scaffolds need to balance few forces during the flood like:
- sustantation, so it keep the infrastructure in place or at least either scaffods do not sink on soft soil or the building
- stability, most of the time what happen is buildings are crumbling with the speed and flood kinetic energy. Scaffolds need to keep infrastructures fit on their feet
- retention, also so the infrastructure keeps nailed to the floor
Modular scaffolds mettalic or with wood are versatile and could rise a house quickly , if rising houses over flooded region is a new life style...

Where else in the projet life cycle, there may be more riks? Perhaps, the deliverables, communication risks, also stakeholders or workpackages, time constraints and resource allocations. You need to be sure about the project base line and accomodate some kind of flexibility, in case you need to cover the unexpected.
For example, time management and risks. Take for instance the time you go into the stess and frustration of the flood occurence. Is it the same as the time of the early warning alert or the time you feel unconfortable with your water supply or the time delay rescuers come for a relief. Are they on time? Are you ready with your emergency preparadness. And the time for exit from the disaster. All these times need to be well assess in order to reduce the casualty to livelyhoods and properties...

A link if you would like to help.
http://www.wfp.org/pakistan

About the helpdesk and the virtual discussion group. I tried to communicate a bit more as a kind of communication project manager. As it was my first time on the WMO/GWP IFR HelpDesk. It was not so much easy to write on the website. I felt, I was making it, as I was writing on a piece of paper. (For those, who do not see the difference, there is a laboratory exposition at François Mitterand French National library).A distinction between light emission and direct reading... (SEE THEIR WEBSITE). Also, how do you put more links (I put some like my best organization ITDG, making affordable disaster management and embankement, but behind the IFM Flood management HelpDESK, there are very qualified teams with people dedicated and appropriate technologies and all that would have a great impacts on flood risk reductions (keep consulting the IFM helpDesk for solving systeme to issues and the sources of uncertainties). I did not realize how many users read, these few windows, perhaps 10, 100, 1000...Anyway, Thanks to WMO Technician Joachim and Dyamashita, if the 2 oz Pocket Water Purifier has been one of the topic of IFM VIRTUAL DISCUSSION GROUP. I think this handy tool is not a gadget but a real use, WHEN YOU HAVE NOTHING TO DRINK YOU STILL GET THE 2 OZ POCKET WATER PURIFIER TO DRINK. I liked also, the spate from Yemen or Pakistan, still all these means (technical, cultural, humans and agreements and individual choices are not enough. They need to be combined on land, sea and air...To fight flood disaster.
Thanks also, to a business representative who encouraged to write on the risk analysis. THERE is no difference between these risks, wharever business it is...Last, thanks Hydrology Director I met in SIWI last year. Big challenge like flood needs giant man, he is one of them to get these flood calamities down AND ALSO RATP (AUTONOMOUS NETWORK OF PARISIAN TRANSPORT) and the french underground), where I could catch 15 TO 30 minutes-at Gare de Lyon station on-line connection is free. WORST FIGHTING AGAINST FLOOD RISK, GREATEST CHALLENGE FOR TOMORROW WORLD TO INCREASE USER RESILIENCE...

Forecasting is just about assessement of future requirement to satisfy customer needs un a commitement of the organizations to get the resources for the allocations to people needs. So, what happens if the forecast is wrong or people needs have changed because the forecasted event changed. In principle, the organizations -an individual, a firm, a household, the government, NGOs- they are left with lots of inventories in goods.Inventories can cost lots of money to the organizations. Forcasting (short, medium , long range forcast looks good if the predicted event can materialize in order to rationalize investment and cut an inventory risks. Also, it helps planner.
Once, I WAS ON MY WAY TO THE TOP OF MOUNT KENYA (5000 METERS FOR ELEVATION, noneless to say I WAS NEARLY NAKED to get to that top (Mount Lenana), I WISH I HAD ONE OF THOSE VERY VERY SHORT RANGE FORECAST CALLED NOWCASTING (a forecast 30 MINUTES TO 1 HOUR BEFORE THE EVENT) to tell me, how to plan and how to organize. As soon as I HAD LEFT THE REFUGE -guess station- I GOT CAUGHT IN A MOUNTAIN FLASH FLOOD ON THE MOUNTAIN SLOPES. My gentle walk on a dirty track turned to be a dry river bed before the inundation. I WAS HALF BURRIED UNDER A STRONG RIVER FLOW, I was attempting to slow my descent by hanging branches, once I STARTED TO BECOME MAD and looking for signs like smoke from down the mountain to see if there was no smoke coming from a house, so I could move forward perhaps, perhaps, half an hour or one the flood has stopped. Good!....

In case you are making project management on these flood risk reduction goal oriented project, I think one stage of managing flood uncertainties , it is the phase before the flood predicted arrival time. A good early warning system (ews) needs to inform that the water hazard is on your way home (in the flood prone region) and also, take the threat seriously in order you to make some preparadness on time. In France, a ministre suggested some houses at risk to equip with safety exit, and son...still you need to be energically warned during a pre alert phase. In Project "waer", I found very convenient the use of sensors. These are intermediate ones -I mean not gauging manually or wth a technology like GPS or gamma rays, but simply an elevation turning wheel or a floating buoy. These technologies like cyclocomputeur on a bicycle, would tells various parameters: speed, distance and time. INFORMATIONS communicated locally could warn village community with sirens and futher remote meaningfull signal could be conveyed with short or long distance RFID,...

Keep the project as simple as possible. Chapman and Ward said KEEP IT SIMPLE SYSTEMATICALLY (KISS). For example you want to buy food. You have an order (deliverable). YOU know how to get to the store, between place (a) -where you stay- to place (b) -where the store is located- You need to be on time for shopping -because the store close for lunchtime. A good estimate tells you need HALF AN HOUR TO MAKE YOUR SHOPPING. This is the TIME DEDICATED FOR THE trip distance. So, this project: buying food in the supermarket is basic. It takes into account 2 parameters: distance and time. A math model is distance = your speed x (30 minutes).
Usually, it is the way risk analysts are processng, they use basic model to estimate needs and the resource to allocate for the shopping.It iss simple as that. Using models with one or two parameters makes the the analyst job simple systematically and helps to predict (FORECAST)
You may not be alone on your journey to the store. You may find hazards on your road map. For example your last coins are lost in a soft drink dispenser machine. The complaint hotline is out of order. ALSO, other uncertainties like buying junk food in the street. They may be more expensive, not appropriate and get food or water poisoning....ETC.
So, at the end of the day you may need more time, to go faster -take a cab- have additional monies -like savings-. ALL THESE PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES are to cover your resource losses. In mitigating these uncertainties, you may need to think to leave your house earlier 30 + ADDITIONAL TIME, or think about ALTERNATIVES, like taking the bus or the underground nstead of walking. Perhaps, you need more money to cover the money lost in the soft drink machine all these uncertainties and variabilities are due to the fact that modelling is the pocess of simulating the business and its environment. The real worl is much harder to predict(not always in hard currency... The project owner normally is in charge to assess these risk (and will not tell in most case to KEEP IT SIMPLE SYSTEMATICALLY (kiss).
APPLIED THESE PRINCIPLES (KISS AND LOOKING FOR SOURCES OF UNCERTAINTIES), it became clear to me in project WAER , I had to model the Emergency Water Supply taking into account speed of process to match ...

Some organizations want a collaborative approach between emergency planners and disaster manager. Their moto is detailed planning. They MAY BE RIGHT. I am not so sure. Perhaps, they should plan enough to cover risks and perhaps it should be a minimalistic planning but with resources to be enough flexible to solve water hazard during the year calendar, daily and during 24 HOURS. Do we know where the next weather and hydrology event will be. Is it predictable and how much resource reserve do we have? Not easy to answer. MYSELF, in WAER (Water Aero Emergency Relief), I had the idea to drop 2 Oz Pocket Water Purifiers in drone/UAV non stopped flights over inundated region. My viewpoint, there is little alternative to fresh water supply during a flood and I BELIEVE an organization like ICDO (EXTENDED ORGANIZATION) or dedicated floodfighters (smilar to firefighters) could play this role if enacted in the community. Of course, water purifier drops, on-line sales of te item and parcel delivery or shopping for one in the local store can go with water waste treatment, environmental engineering and the green urbanism. I think the dedication of one team with light flexible planning (like firefighter for flood) will remove much incetainties and thus criticism to emergency planning. Also, good planning is effective with effective communication. When I designed the fresh water supplies, during the gas phase, I worked with 3 multinational business models FROM TODAY. AIR (Aero Inflight Retail is french), World a fashion business apparatel producing on forecasted supply and demand from their dykes, is Japanese) and US AIR FORCE Rand Project, which is a strategy access to country bases and flight routes. They were as valuable models chinese, or mexican to complete, but I FOUND that all these multinationales had solved the issue requirement of forecast, lead-time reduction, minimum planning, minimalistic replesnishment policy of their inventories and flexibility strategy ...that I have to combine all these organizations to make WAER/ THE FULL PROJECT IS MISSION ORGANIZED AND HYBRID because of the alliance of flood sensors,manual handling and forecast without technology. I think another prowesse of this project to reduce uncertainties is the rapid activation of drones during the crucial period of the atmospheric and hydrology event.

It is not frozen in the way that it is icy and cold and you need to warm it to drink it. IT is likely if it is contaminated you need to screen -filter and remove - unwanted materials, buffer the chemicals and also boil it (3' at 100 DEGREES CELSIUS) to kill the germs. SOMETIMES it is said the water is sick , I THINK it is to express the human face of water and properties similar to humans when not fitted well.
If I believe Yann ARTHUS (and author scientists), it is looking like water came on earth planet at a time of asteroids full with ice water were crushing on the planet.
Since that time, Jean MARGAT (iternational hydrologist) said that the quantity (volume) of water was determined (I believe also because the asteroids stopped to collide with the earth less and less according to other geographer like MEUR).
WHAT IS THE ISSUE--> RISK --> UNCERTAINTIES--> SOURCES OF UNCERTAINTIES
With few people on earth and less human activities, water used to ensure it own self cleaning during the water cycle. Now population increase and human activity (6 Billions now, and soon 9 BILLIONS) water is heavily contaminated by hazards from human activities. Water does not have time to self clean it-self during the life cycle. It is also expensive to clean water as men do through the waste water treatment and regeneration.
Conclusion: the more we use water , the more we are polluting it, and in turn we are likely to be contaminated, particularly in countries were sanitation and hygiene is poor for various reasons (rational or systemic). The water is frozen because its quantity has not changed since ancient times but there are more polluted water (with less capability to clean that water) , the polluted water is not available and being unused for human consumption or activities , it becomes FROZEN.
What are the solutions: technical, polical, ...DECIDING ABOUT the future of water as a sustainable source is a decision of all stakeholders in the framework of IWRM (INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT and its subset for flood risks (IFRM).

Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points . The US WENT ON the moon AND returned with bags full of technology falls, which one is the HACCP. The method of looking for risks was successfull, so it became popular amongst several industries. It is benchmarking the practice of US FDA -Federal Drug Administration- Today, it is largely applied in the hospitality industry. If, you buy a glass of beer in a pub, the quality of your beer is ruled buy the food law. Same rules apply for water.
I think CHECKING and monitoring crtical safety points and steps in the process of making a glass beer or drinking water is better than just keeping the drinks cold or boiling the water to ensure that it is fit for human consumption. IT is working well if it is tea or eventually hot water under the heat of the sunny Sahara if you do not have any cooler.
Anyway, for Asia, my viewpoint is that if upgrading water behavior is important, I THINK it is not enough, only a culture change to water uses can improve the water quality. A good way would be to use HACCP in a systematic way at crucial point of the water supply. These critical points are these sources and uncertainties, if no quality controls are made at that step, there is a risk that no further treatment of the glass of water can reduce the risk of drinking contaminated water. nobody wants this. The water infrstructure tells how bad your water can be. While the control tells how good was the water you drink.

One used to say black people does not know how to swim. It is explain by the fact that they body weight is too dense -heavy- because of the body muscle and in the water they tend more to deep than too float (compare to their colleagues from white classes).
They also, don't have enough swimming pools and swimming educations and so on....All these reasons are perhaps not valid. Myself, I was a bad swimmer until I get caught with various experience wworking or leasuring in islands (Polynesia, Seychelles, Cyprus...). I used to bath daily (and fishing, also). This makes me very confident with the sea tide and storms and typhoons that I could swimm when nobody was fishing or swimming....Leaving in flood zone regions, you need a kind of additonal preparadness that just a day working. You need to find, safety roots also and put some spare water and food. I think, if more swimmers are in swimming pools. The best that knows their countries are the people themselves. perhaps they need to be more aware and organized and prepared. Up to us to give them more helps.

I think in flood risk management and /or ANLYSIS it has to be both.
There was a great change in the risk management when Galileo said the universe was geocentric. That creative idea was against Aristote rationality- I SUPPOSE. Analyse is just about breaking systems in small portion in order to study them. ONE fundamental distinction with systemic is the belief that the rules applying on these small part would be the same for the whole system the sum up of these parts and their rules. SYSTEMIC TAKES into account the global dimension of a system and its interaction with the environ. There is no causal link between a source of an issue and how it is impacting. Instead between a-->B YOU HAVE a<=>B, wich is an interaction between a and B. I think risk reduction and uncertainty management or risk analyst has to think the natural world as a complex world (but not complicated) and KISS it! (To take Chapman and Ward formula). KISS means design a process or model that express the researcher project goal orientation
(not academic LIKE PMBOK and non governmental approved like PRINCE 2) but project goal orientate (I think it is systemic) and not 100% based on evidence based or probes (I think it rationality). KISS the model KEEP IT SIMPLY SIMPLE (KISS from Chapman AND Ward). A model like the gravity law is link to the inverse of the squared root distance (r)between 2 bodes and in relationship with the direct product of their masses (multiply by M (BIG MASS) and m (small mass). F (attraction force would be express by)=Mm/SQUARE ROOT of (r). The model to study the attraction between the earth (big mass M) and an apple (small mass m) at distance r was a dedication of NEWTON from empirical evidence. LATER to express the reality of the universe NEWTON MAY HAVE CONSIDERED A NEW RELATIONSHIP....

For instance manage issues and the uncertainties or their sources.what are the flood risks?
Positive risks: look at the spate engineering works during flash floods in Pakistan or Yemen for water reuse, retention and recharge. Not too bad, isn't ?
Negative risks: have you ever seen a flood. First impressions are what you see from media attentions or your real encounter:
-the forecat and the expected heavy rains,
-the river swell with congested unwanted materials like soils, urban rubbished and various sediments,
-the speed of the flows and the water heights drive river flows out of the river bed course to the inundated flood zones. There are some conditions in favour of river flooding: sediments (too much loaded), flat surfaces (over 20% too much), impervious surfaces (with densely urbanized cities), ageing waste treatment pipes (cannot drain excess of street rubbishes, sediments, cars, trees and so on),ALSO cutting trees without replacing them or no control drainage policy or reservoirs to control peaks of discharges from the river. Joseph Holden (the geographer) talks about th wetting front of the soil to explain that the soil is saturated and can soak water like a sponge to a limit. Professor J. A. Allan talks about the influence of the nature and the soil structure. So, with the flood water rises and inundates the land with speed and as the land is impervious. It starts to fill the bottom of the house, underground , basement of all infrastructure, then comes up in the street to fill vacuities like open spaces, roads, parks. So, if you are driving on the road and did not pay attention to flood (or the forecast) you may end up in a car crash or leaving the road unable to drive (loosing control); you will see also people panicking, trying to find an exit, perhaps on the roof of the crumbling....

BIOMIMIC IS PROMOTED BY GREENBIZZ ONLINE
Greenbizz is recommending a new on-line master study accredited for environmental friendly development. There is so much to learn from the natural environment. New green and traditional businesses should learn from the natural engineering in term of designing, innovation and new thinking to leverage their organizations. These biomimics studies give future students to a world of biotechnology where technologies, efficiencies, economy of scales, biosecurity, production with savings are paramount in a tomorrow scarcity...
INTERNATIONAL TRADITIONAL TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE
ITKI is opening its doors for new performances in term of challenging development with ancestor technology that can be gathered in the centre in Florence (Tuscany). UNESCO sponsors ITKI. (see detailed article in NEWSPAPER LE MONDE 12 JULY 2010.
Honestly, I believe these ancestor knowledge would bring new solving issues for flood risk reductions and also in term of opportunities.
BOTH initiatives are also good ways to fight poverty by reconnecting people with their concerns of life.