Articles on Australian natural hazards series

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Residents of Collaroy, NSW, got a painful lesson in the power of the ocean in June. AAP Image/Dean Lewins

November 14, 2016

Hurt by sea: how storm surges and sea-level rise make coastal life risky

Kathleen McInnes, CSIRO; Mark Hemer, CSIRO, and Ron Hoeke, CSIRO

Many Australians live on the coast, but how much do we know about the risks? While average sea levels are relatively easy to gauge, the risk of flooding also depends on weather, landscape, and climate.

A large thunderstorm rolls over Sydney in 2015. AAP Image/Newzulu/Haig Gilchrist

November 14, 2016

To understand how storms batter Australia, we need a fresh deluge of data

Christopher J White, University of Tasmania; Jason Evans, UNSW, and Kevin Walsh, University of Melbourne

Severe storms bring a complex mixture of weather conditions, often in a very localised area. This unpredictability can make them very damaging, and very hard to study too.

The higher the plume, the bigger the problem. Jim Peaco/Wikimedia Commons

November 10, 2016

Firestorms: the bushfire/thunderstorm hybrids we urgently need to understand

Jason Sharples, UNSW

When a bushfire rages so high it creates its own thunderstorm, it becomes a 'firestorm' - and makes life much more difficult for firefighters. We still have a lot to learn about what triggers them.

More heatwaves in store, but the exact effects on people are harder to predict. AAP Image/Joe Castro

November 9, 2016

We’ve learned a lot about heatwaves, but we’re still just warming up

Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, UNSW and Christopher J White, University of Tasmania

Heatwaves are Australia's deadliest type of natural disaster. But while we know a lot about the weather patterns behind them, more research is needed to forecast accurately their impacts on people.

The Millennium drought had a huge impact on the Murray-Darling river system. suburbanbloke/Flickr/Wikimedia Commons

November 8, 2016

The lessons we need to learn to deal with the ‘creeping disaster’ of drought

Anthony Kiem, University of Newcastle; Fiona Johnson, UNSW, and Seth Westra, University of Adelaide

Droughts are much bigger and slower than other natural disasters that hit Australia - meaning that despite their huge impacts, we still haven't figured out how best to protect ourselves.

Knowing when and where this is going to happen would be useful. AAP Image/Dan Peled

November 7, 2016

Planning for a rainy day: there’s still lots to learn about Australia’s flood patterns

Fiona Johnson, UNSW; Christopher J White, University of Tasmania, and Seth Westra, University of Adelaide

Floods are a costly part of Australian life, which means we need to get better at predicting exactly when - and how severely - they are likely to strike in the future.

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Christopher J White
Senior Lecturer in Environmental Engineering, University of Tasmania
Seth Westra
Associate Professor, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, University of Adelaide
Fiona Johnson
Senior Lecturer, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW
Kevin Walsh
Reader, School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne
Jason Sharples
Associate Professor, School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences, UNSW Australia, UNSW
Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick
Research Fellow, UNSW
Anthony Kiem
Associate Professor – Hydroclimatology, University of Newcastle
Mark Hemer
Senior Research Scientist, Oceans and Atmosphere, CSIRO
Kathleen McInnes
Senior research scientist, CSIRO
Ron Hoeke
Littoral oceanographer, CSIRO
Jason Evans
Jason Evans is a Friend of The Conversation.

Associate Professor, UNSW