Don’t cross flooded roads!

Recent flood events in Victoria, South Australia, and New South Wales highlight the importance of reliable flood predictions, but how much do we really know about what’s going on below the surface? These SES posts stress the dangers of what lies beneath. Bank stability and erosion models such as those included in the most recent release of HEC-RAS can show areas of concern in a simulation, but with a tremendous amount of uncertainty that you wouldn’t want to learn about the hard way in your ute!

How well do our fixed bed models do in trying to simulate these conditions? Our mobile boundary sediment transport course introduces methods to help optimise the placement of additional freeboard or scour protection to account for aggradation and degradation. The course also includes the newly incorporated bank stability and toe erosion model (BSTEM) along with introductions to river mechanics and geomorphology.

We held several successful mobile boundary sediment transport courses in 2016 and are currently collecting expressions of interest for courses to be scheduled in 2017. We invite you to further your career and improve your hydraulic modelling skills by enroling in a course today!

Hats off to our SES crews. Whatever you do, take their advice and don’t cross a flooded road!