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Showing posts with the label flood

New model harnesses the power of supercomputers for more accurate flood simulation

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Researchers at ORNL used TRITON to simulate flooding in Houston, Texas, and surrounding areas caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Light purples represent shallower water, and dark purples represent deeper water. Credit: Sudershan Gangrade/ORNL A team of researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Tennessee Technological University has created a 2D open-source flood inundation model designed for multi-architecture computing systems. The Two-dimensional Runoff Inundation Toolkit for Operational Needs, or TRITON, can use multiple graphics processing units, or GPUs, to model floods more quickly and accurately than existing tools. Flood modeling is an important part of emergency preparedness and response. However, models must be fast and accurate—returning simulation results in minutes—to be a useful tool for decision making and planning. The higher the resolution of the model, the more computing pow...

How do you prevent the next big lettuce shortage? Growing plants in disguise could be the answer

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When the price of lettuce jumped to $10 due to extreme weather in New South Wales and Queensland, it caused a shockwave across the country, but some farmers in the flood zone were left relatively unscathed – as they grew in the shade. Key points: Protected crops have seen significant growth in Australia over the last 10 years Two Lockyer Valley farmers say protected plantings reduce flood damage on their property Experts say farming under cover is inevitable with more extreme and varied weather events Now experts say protected plantings could be key to keeping cabbages away from burgers and spring rolls in their place and getting farmers back to planting after extreme weather. What are protected plants? Protected crops are the production of horticultural crops under or within structures. It’s more than just a greenhouse according to Paul Gauthier, who is professor of protected plants with the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation. He said there are three types of...