131–136 of 136 posts
Reminded me of this one, deadly seemly little river in the UK... https://www.amusingplanet.com/2015/11/bolton-strid-stream-th... .
In Seattle, the old I90 floating bridge across Lake Washington had a "bulge" where a section of the roadway could be pushed into the bulge to make room for boat passage. When the section was retracted, the highway abruptly ended, and a barrier was put up. The Bulge was infamous for traffic accidents where you suddenly had to swerve right then left then right at highway speed, with narrow lanes lined with concrete wal…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As soon as it started raining, wouldn't you have just gotten out of the creek via the nearest embankment?
Flash floods 1) develop quickly 2) often in impassable terrain (upstream and downstream are your only options), and 3) often under "blue sky" conditions from distant of hours-old rain rain. https://youtube.com/watch?v=q_yw8uUqH5I
This would not be difficult to design, just a sensor placed at 50cm high that would activate automatically when flooded) and could be implement discretely without ruining the landscape.
Just an idea that just occurred to me.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Flash floods 1) develop quickly 2) often in impassable terrain (upstream and downstream are your only options), and 3) often under "blue sky" conditions from distant of hours-old rain rain. https://youtube.com/watch?v=q_yw8uUqH5I
I think that a simple chain of small electronic signals could notice the flooding and spread the information to all the other signals in the chain downstream. People could see a small flashing red light chain and rush to the next safe exit. Providing the system with a few discrete metallic scales leading just up in strategic points would save lives. This would not be difficult to design, just a sensor placed at 50cm…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that a simple chain of small electronic signals could notice the flooding and spread the information to all the other signals in the chain downstream. People could see a small flashing red light chain and rush to the next safe exit. Providing the system with a few discrete metallic scales leading just up in strategic points would save lives. This would not be difficult to design, just a sensor placed at 50cm…
This type of system would actually be quite expensive. Detecting flooding requires some kind of "flood sensor". Is that a water sensor? What happens when it gets covered in mud? Is it waterproof? How's it powered? How does it transmit data? Where is it placed? What happens if it falls over?
Could be introduced in a tube drilled directly in rock for minimum visual impact. A system of an oiled hollow cylinder (buoy) inside a major tube, all placed in the drilled tunnel could move smoothly for a long time and return again by gravity after the flood as long as the drill left some empty space below (for mud evacuation purposes)
> How does it transmit data?
standard electric cable (for example), or wifi, radio... whatever appropriate for the area
> Where is placed?
The rod/buoy, At 50cm high or 1m high (or any appropriate value) in the upper parts of the cannon. This would avoid the problem of mud covering electronics also.
> What happens if it fails?
The system returns to the same point as it is currently: "This is dangerous, not guarantee, we recommend to hire a guide, do it at your own risk".
The difference is that in the meanwhile some lives could be saved, so would be an improvement over the current situation.
> How do we know if it fails
A final led at the starting (and end?) of the cannon could be arranged to turn off, for example. Trivial in design of electronic circuits.