About Increasing natural disaster resilience of riverbank pump systems

Hi Zhang,

Thanks for reaching out with your query.

Firstly, I’d suggest that you review the CfAT interactive resources, as this will give further context as to where and how the pumps are currently situated. In the images and 360 interactive virtual tour, you’re able to see the various elements of the existing pump system, and from this, identify the weaker elements of the design in relation to flood. From here, you can start to ideate potential solutions.

As flooding is seasonal, a degree of mobility and easy relocation of pump equipment out of the path of floodwaters on a seasonal basis could be worth exploring. However, as you can see in the interactive, some of the piping and pump infrastructure is static. It is a part of the Design Challenge to propose solutions to this challenge. It might also be valuable to troubleshoot some of your ideas with your tutors or academics.

Cheers,

Luke

Hi Timmy,

Thanks for your question and I apologise about our delay in responding to your question. The portable fire fighting pump for a riverbank itself won’t have to travel once it is installed. Even as a backup ‘secondary’ pump, such as a backup to a primary rainwater supply, it will remain installed and ready to use when required. A ‘portable’ fire fighting pump is used though because these portable ones are very affordable and a single-unit that can be installed much easier than other kinds of permanent pumps, and their location can be adjusted if need be. The water that it is pumping however from the river to a homeland or central place in a community would travel a distance of 20+ metres if this is what you are asking.

Hope that helps but feel free to ask another question here to clarify,
Best of luck,
Grace

Hi Robin,

You can use the 2016 Census data to determine how many households/dwellings are in Cape York. However, I suggest you do not aim to provide every house in Cape York with a disaster resilient river pump system because they won’t all need one.

Instead, you should aim to design one system for one homestead or small remote community to share, as a pilot to test how effective your system is before scaling up. Or if you like, a few systems locally to test them first. Also keep in mind that only communities who are positioned nearby to a river might require this system.

Hope that helps,
Best of luck,
Grace

Hey Blair,

Thanks for your great questions! We’ve answered them below in the same order as asked.

1) For the purpose of the Challenge, your main stakeholders will be EWB and your tutors/university academics. In terms of stakeholders for your proposed project, CfAT is the main stakeholder to consider. There will likely be additional stakeholders, and as your design proposal progresses, these will become clearer; you can think about who are the end users of your design, who might be impacted by it, what permissions you might need etc to identify who your stakeholders could be.

2) In terms of budget; We address this question in the FAQs document, linked at the top of the forum page.
You should be not necessarily be thinking about keeping costs as low as possible, but rather on what is a reasonable and appropriate cost for the project where a balance of efficacy and efficiency can be reached under the constraints of the context on the Peninsula.
This will of course depend on your project design, but it’s important to keep in mind the conditions of Cape York regarding remoteness and resilience of the design. If your design utilises the cheapest options but breaks down in a short time frame, then that is not necessarily the most appropriate choice.

3) Great to see that you’re thinking about using local materials! Materials such as bush timber are readily available in the region, but beyond this, there is limited access to the kinds of materials that would be suitable for a water project. Other manufactured materials may need to be transported from larger towns and cities near the Cape.

4) Again, great to see the prioritisation of local labour in your design choices. Often there are local community members who have trades skills such as carpentry, metal work and construction, however more technical skillsets such as engineering may need to be contracted from larger centres, such as Cairns or Townsville. In terms of maintenance, again community members may possess trades skills, however, you would need to consider how you communicate your design in a way that enables the community to maintain the system, or whether your design would require specific and narrow skillsets to perform any maintenance or repairs.

Please feel free to reach out with any further questions!

Challenge Team

Hi Marshal,

Thanks for your questions, I’ve answered each individually below:

1) The pumps are generally located on homelands and therefore maintenance is usually the responsibility of the landowner who typically won’t have technical expertise.

2) Which materials are you thinking about transporting to the riverbank? In general, yes you will be able to transport to the riverbank, however you need to keep in mind the logistical conditions of Cape York, with riverbanks likely only accessible by 4WDs.

3) There is no specific intake length specified, however it will depend on the location of the pumps. Your design should be modular and flexible to enable it’s deployment in different locations.

4) The piping is currently not protected at all. There have been flooding events in the past in which the pumps have washed away which is why this need has been identified as a design project.

If you haven’t already had a look, in the ‘Resources’ section there’s a 360 walk through interactive resource ‘Interactive: Explore CfAT project examples’ which explores a riverbank pump system – this may help with visualising the context you are designing for.

Thanks,

Rachel