“Flooding is probably one of the toughest hazards to get right,” said Brett Sanders, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Irvine. He and his colleagues developed a detailed flood model for Los Angeles that highlighted much higher flood risk than indicated in federally defined floodplains.
Amir AghaKouchak, an environmental expert and civil engineer at the University of California, Irvine, said years of drought had compounded poor government decision-making — such as draining groundwater for farming or piping water into central desert regions to support water-intensive industries like steel production. “Water and energy are closely related, often forming a vicious cycle,” he said, as heat waves increase demand for water and power, while drought and low reservoir levels reduce hydroelectric power, causing blackouts.
