ABSTRACT
Man-made climate change exacerbates all four elemental extremes: winds, floods, drought and fire. Heat increases the likelihood of ‘heat deaths’. As spikes in demand can overwhelm power supply; ‘thermal refuges’ become increasingly imperative. Heat also desiccates vegetation, increasing fire risk. But vegetation, cooling and fire-fighting need most water when there’s least. Additionally, accelerated oceanic evaporation produces ever-stronger hurricanes – with implications for building design. Increased summer cloudbursts, hurricanes, prolonged winter rain and rapid snowmelt cause floods. Although patterns differ, all need similar precautionary measures: careful building location, porous ground, reduction in impermeable surfaces, flotsam exclusion, slowed run-off, speeded run-away, generous area of spread and erosion control. (Erosion wastes precious topsoil, speeds upstream water-flow and deposits sediment downstream: the opposite of flood-control needs.) Over their length, rivers alternate between being upstream and downstream of vulnerable settlements. The prime flood-control issue, however, is ground surface. Chapter 18 discusses remedies – and aesthetic implications – both millennially proven and new.
