“It’s part of a broader climate-change signal,” says Amir AghaKouchak, [professor of civil and environmental engineering and Earth system science], a climate researcher at the University of California, Irvine.

Sea levels are rising, threatening coastal areas, including cities, around the world. … A new research grant is looking at the idea of reflooding lowland depressions to alleviate the problem on the coasts, starting with the Qattara Depression, a massive low-lying desert area in western Egypt.