SUBMITTED: When the river doesn't run dry

[Australian rePublic]

Inspiration for the title: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD-58aVlPYk
[title] When the river doesn’t run dry

[desc] Many towns and cities were divided yesterday, because @@NAME@@’s longest ephemeral river, ariver which usually completely dry on the surface, flooded. As many roads and rail lines which cross the river are not elevated, and there are no tunnels or bridges, many towns and cities were divided by the river’s flow. Many mayors of the river claim that they can’t afford to erect bridges, nor dig tunnels, and have come to the national government looking for funding

[validity] Must have high levels of desertification, must embrace local government. Co-author Jutsa

[option] "Please @@LEADER@@, don’t neglect the desert with your infrastructure fund!” pleads @@RANDOMNAME@@, the mayor of a town on the river “Because of yesterday’s flood, many people were unable to travel to work, school or to visit their families and friends on the side of the river. Most of us are only small towns, and can’t afford to build bridges over the river, but with some funds from you, we can. Our economy shut down yesterday because of the flood"
[effect] every flood plain must be bridged

[option] "Why in the bloody hell would we waste money on building bridges and tunnels for rivers which only have water a couple of times a year?" asks economist @@RANDOMNAME@@ "If we have to bridge this river, then we have to bridge every river, which would cost a fortune! If these mayors want their cities to be bridged, they can pay for it"
[effect] the government claims that a lack of water justifies not bridging rivers

[option] "I know what we can do," suggests @@RANDOMNAME@@, your minister of creative solutions "Why don’t we build one road bridge and one rail bridge for every 10,000 residents? That way we don't waste too much money, and everyone can get to the other side. It’s win-win!"
[effect] roads are usually busiest during off-peak periods

[Australian rePublic]

No comments that good or that bad?

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Bad.

You need to up your writing quality, Aussie, or you'll just be wasting your time and ours. I suggest revise basic punctuation, or if you can't find the desire to do this, stick to collaborating with authors who can.

[Jutsa]

Here, I've patched it up and made it fancier as part of my co-authorship with Aussie.

Title: When The River Doesn’t Run Dry
The Issue: Many towns and cities were divided yesterday on account of @@NAME@@’s longest ephemeral river (a river which only exists for short periods of time after heavy rainfall) flooded over, causing production and family vacations to grind to a halt. As many roads and rail lines which cross the river are not elevated, and building a tunnel or bridge would be an enormous expense, many mayors of the river have come to the national government looking for funding.
Validity: None

Option 1: "Please @@LEADER@@, don’t desert us with your infrastructure fund!” pleads @@RANDOMNAME@@, mayor of a town on the river. “Because of yesterday’s flood, many people were unable to travel to work, school or to visit their families and friends on the side of the river. Most of us are only small towns, and can’t afford to build bridges over the river, but with some funds from you, we can. Our economy shut down yesterday because of the flood"
[effect] every flood plain must be bridged

Option 2: "Why in the bloody hell would we waste money on building bridges and tunnels for rivers which only have water a couple of times a year?" asks @@RANDOMNAME@@, an economist from a town far from the river. "If we have to bridge this river, then we have to bridge every river, which would cost a fortune! If these mayors really want their cities to be bridged, the they can pay for it."
[effect] the government claims that a lack of water justifies not bridging rivers

Option 3: "I know what we can do!" exclaims @@RANDOMNAME@@, your Minister of Creative Solutions. "Why don’t we build one road bridge and one rail bridge for every 10,000 residents? That way we don't waste too much money, and everyone can get to the other side. It’s win-win!"
[effect] roads are usually busiest during off-peak periods

Now, I must say that option 3 doesn't look very interesting at all. Not much of a "creative solution", if you ask me.
What you could do is have it propose building a dam.
The person speaking could be "shouts @@RANDOMNAME@@, a construction worker from a town in the river". That'd be great because
a) he gets a job and b) his town gets flooded so he'd have incentive to build one.

Your call, though, Aussie. If there's anything you want me to change back, or anything you want to change, feel free,
although I'd like to see your thoughts on my suggestion for option 3.

[Trotterdam]

Wouldn't you still need a bridge even when the river bank is dry? Without water, it's still a chasm in the ground, which isn't easy to cross with a vehicle. On foot you could probably climb down and climb back up, but that would still be inconvenient, and if you're willing to accept that then you can also consider the possibility of just swimming across.

[Jutsa]

I dunno. I mostly just did wanted to help Aussie's writing regardless of the plot.

You could have roads built into the river, although... that raises another question: How are they not eroded?

Frankly I don't think this issue's really been fully thought out. Sorry, Aussie.

[Australian rePublic]

Hi Jutsa and Trott. Thank You Very Much for your imput. I'm gonna start with the comment about the river's chasm:
Firstly, ephermeral rivers (at least the ones that I've seen) are quite shallow (granted, I've only seen one person, which actually inspired me to write this, but I have seen quite a few online)

Here is the one ephermeral river I have seen in person. Notice the boom gates on the far left and far right of the river? They are there for when the river floods. Also, notice the foot bridge

Now, here is the same road crossing when the same river when it is flooded

Click here
Sorry, couldn't find a picture small enough to upload

Also, I would assume the current would be too strong for swimming, based on how quickly flooding happens

Now, as for the dam, considering that there is only about (let's say for example, 5 days or less) of water in the river every year, I can't see how building a dam would pretty much do nothing

Also, with regards to errosion, I honestly don't know how that they don't errode, because lots of roads cross lots of dry rivers (like the one above) with no bridges and no tunnels, and they don't errode. I don't know it works, sorry. Maybe it's prevented/fixed by general maintaince.

Also, thanks for your co-authoring Jutsa!

[Jutsa]

Wow! TIL!

Well, nonetheless, do you think that option 3 would be better as a "build a dam" option instead?

[Australian rePublic]

Wow! TIL!

Well, nonetheless, do you think that option 3 would be better as a "build a dam" option instead?

Na, like I said, you can't really build a damn with water that rare. What I was thinking, however, is that since many of these rivers have underground water flowing almost perminately, you could maybe dig the river up and expose the water (that it is, until it evaporates)

[Jutsa]

Huh. Interesting.

Well, your call.

[The Figgis Agency]

There isn't a clear stat validity condition here. What does desertification look like in terms of Environmental Beauty, Eco-friendliness, or Weather? Thanks for the issue idea, I might write one that combines underground cities/residential areas and wadi/arroyo flooding.

EDIT: meant to post as Nouveau Yathrib

[Australian rePublic]

Huh. Interesting.

Well, your call.

What do you think?

[Australian rePublic]

There isn't a clear stat validity condition here. What does desertification look like in terms of Environmental Beauty, Eco-friendliness, or Weather? Thanks for the issue idea, I might write one that combines underground cities/residential areas and wadi/arroyo flooding.

Well in terms of weather, it would be good weather I guess, and the better the weather, the more of a desert, as weather is measured by the amount of sunlight. Also, there are a few desertification and agricture issues, and mainly, artifical desertification happens as a result of poor maintaince of the environment

[Australian rePublic]

11 day bump

[Australian rePublic]

Last call before submission

[Australian rePublic]

Submitted

[Fauxia]

Good luck Aussie