Media Watch Archives
Zillow is dropping climate risk scores. Here’s why it matters
San Francisco Chronicle -
In February, the Chronicle reported that scientists were concerned about how the scores were calculated and the accuracy of the risk measurements. … Brett Sanders, a UC Irvine Chancellor’s Professor of civil and environmental engineering, said that the current changes reflect broader challenges as property owners confront climate risks and associated costs. “I think we're going to be going through at least a decade or more of these ebbs and flows of how we manage the problem,” Sanders said. Read More
Iran’s president calls for moving its drought-stricken capital amid a worsening water crisis – how Tehran got into water bankruptcy
The Conversation -
Amir AghaKouchak, UC Irvine professor of civil and environmental engineering and others write, “Iran has relied heavily on water-intensive irrigation to grow food in dry landscapes and subsidized water and energy use …. The concentration of economic activity and employment in major urban centers … has also catalyzed massive migration, further straining already overstretched water resources. Those and other forces have driven Iran toward “water bankruptcy” – the point where water demand permanently exceeds the supply and nature can’t keep up.” Read More
Taps may run dry in this country, where the water crisis is so severe it can be seen from space
CNN -
Iran’s current drought is the worst for at least 40 years and water levels are shrinking “at a time of year when you would normally expect storage to be recovering, not collapsing further,” said Amir AghaKouchak, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine. … The government’s aim to achieve food self-sufficiency … is largely responsible for the situation, experts say. “For decades, policies have encouraged the expansion of irrigated agriculture in arid regions,” AghaKouchak said. Read More
A scenic L.A. suburb with ocean views went off grid. How are residents surviving?
Los Angeles Times -
While there are some fully off-grid dwellers … an off-grid suburb is one of a kind. “I’ve not heard of a situation that’s being experienced in Palos Verdes,” said Scott Samuelsen, the founding director of the Advanced Power and Energy Program at UC Irvine. He compared the circumstances with those after a natural disaster, such as a hurricane that damages power lines or a major wildfire that destroys key transmission lines. But in those cases, he said utilities typically work nonstop to restore connectivity and often provide short-term backup power. Read More
Taps run dry as water crisis forces Iran to consider evacuating its capital
NBC News -
Amir AghaKouchak, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine, said climate change has exacerbated the problem, but the biggest issue is how water use is governed. “This narrative of climate change is responsible, to be honest, is not really accurate,” AghaKouchak said, adding that Iran has weathered drought throughout its history. Read More
In controversial move, LADWP says it will shift its largest gas power plant to hydrogen
Los Angeles Times -
“It’s a good plan,” Jack Brouwer, director of the Clean Energy Institute at UC Irvine who served on the advisory board for the L.A. 100 study, said in a phone call ahead of Tuesday’s vote. “The Scattergood facility and some of the other coastal plants are part of the required infrastructure to enable L.A. 100 to become completely decarbonized and depolluted. It’s not even possible to do this without something there.” Read More
The Man Who Wants Your Car to Power Your Home—and Save the Grid
The Wall Street Journal -
“Real-world deployment of bidirectional charging is essential for gathering the data, and the technical and customer adaptation insights needed to scale V2H deployment across the grid,” said Prof. Scott Samuelsen, project director and founding director of the UCI Advanced Power and Energy Program. Read More
Shrinking beaches, shrinking revenue: Sand erosion a concern for businesses, economy
The Orange County Register -
Brett Sanders, professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Irvine, gave an overview to the group at Marina Park, detailing which beaches have plenty of sand and others that are struggling, many in south Orange County. Sanders spoke about developments and man-made structures that impede sand supply from naturally making its way to the coast, one of the main reasons beaches are shrinking. Read More
Miniature bioelectronic 3D human colon brings lifelike precision to cancer research
Interesting Engineering -
“The three-dimensional shapes, curves and crypts in our 3D-IVM-HC model are central to maintaining more realistic cell behavior even at a scaled-down size,” said senior author Rahim Esfandyar-pour, UC Irvine assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science. “And because our model more closely reproduces human colon biology, it could potentially be used to screen drugs or test treatments in a way that better predicts patient responses than animal models or simple cell cultures.” Read More
New Mic-E-Mouse Attack Shows Computer Mice Can Capture Conversations
Hack Read -
A team of researchers from the University of California, Irvine, has discovered a security risk right on your desk. It turns out that your high-performance computer mouse, an item you probably trust completely, can be turned into a hidden listening device. This new type of attack is called Mic-E-Mouse, and it has the potential to change our understanding of what computer privacy means. Read More