New research from the University of California, Irvine suggests that urban form, specifically the building density and street network of a neighborhood, is also affecting the intensity of flooding. … "Application of statistical mechanics has yielded an analytical model that can project neighborhood-scale flood hazards anywhere in the world," says Co-author Mohammad Javad Abdolhosseini Qomi, UC Irvine associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. … The platform has been demonstrated to show links between flood losses, urban form and observed rainfall extremes." Lead author Sarah Balaian, a UC Irvine Ph.D. candidate in civil and environmental engineering, said that we can expect the future to be marked by more severe weather events and that concentrated masses of people, many of whom lack the means of protection or escape, will be heavily affected by urban flooding. Read More