Emeritus Professor R.J. Wasson will present an argument for the use of records of environmental hazards that are much longer than the traditional. Relying on records of a few decades or even a century leaves us blind to the reality of extremes and may even be dangerous.

Some of the methods used to derive such records will be explained as each of the following questions is answered.

Was this flood unprecedented? The answer is dependent on the length of record. Examples from tropical Australia.
What are the largest floods nature can produce? Examples from the Himalaya and N. Australia.
How often do some rivers tear themselves apart and strip their floodplains? Disasters await in Thailand and elsewhere.
How reliable are flood return periods? Not very, but palaeoflood studies can help.
How frequently does severe erosion follow wildfires and are changes occurring? Examples from the Brindabellas and the Mediterranean.

The seminar will end with a discussion of why risk assessments should include the full scope of extremes not just an arbitrary probability.

About the speaker:

Professor Robert (Bob) Wasson is an earth scientist with academic qualifications from the University of Sydney and Macquarie University.

He has provided research-based information for catchment management and reconstructions of landscape change in deserts, high mountains, and large river systems in the tropics. He has most recently reconstructed long records of extreme hydroclimatic events including floods, tropical cyclones, and soil erosion to provide more realistic estimates of extreme event frequencies for input to mitigation strategies. He was head of the Canberra Laboratory of the CSIRO’s Division of Water Resources, at ANU head of the Geography Department and Director of the Centre for Environmental and Resource Studies, and Dean of Science. At Charles Darwin University he was Deputy Vice Chancellor Research and International.

He held various positions at the National University of Singapore including at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He has done research in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Timor-Leste, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, China, and Myanmar.

He is Emeritus Professor at ANU, and Adjunct Professor at James Cook University and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

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