Media Watch Archives
New statistical mechanics formula suggests urban street networks and building density shape severity of floods
Tech Xplore -
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
Urban street setup and building density may be intensifying flood severity: Study
The Hill -
The setup and density of urban neighborhoods may be exacerbating the intensity of flood risks in areas already suffering from climate-induced weather extremes, University of California (UC) researchers determined in a new study. … “Detailed modeling worldwide is presently impossible for many cities because of inadequate data, so our team was motivated to develop a new way of looking at flood risk based on the form of the built urban environment,” said Lead author Sarah Balaian, a UC Irvine doctoral candidate in civil and environmental engineering. Read More
Back to school with stem knowledge and life experience
KCBS -
Fiona Pauli is one of 15 high school students accepted into UC Irvine’s prestigious Cosmos program, a month-long science camp. “It started in the year 2000 as a way for the state of California to entice the next generation of student leaders,” said Elizabeth Crook, UCI Cosmos director. Gifted students from across the state are invited to research labs at UC campuses. For Pauli, her interest in STEM started in kindergarten. [She and] Logan Gao are part of the sustainable aircraft systems group led by Assistant Professor Jacqueline Huynh. … As a former Cosmos student from 2009 herself, she’s exactly what the program hopes to produce. “As a direct result of the Cosmos program, I wanted to come back to UC Irvine to study aerospace engineering. It’s resulted in full circle as I am now back here as a professor.” Read More
Iran’s Extreme Heatwave Underscores Urgent Need For Climate Action
Forbes -
But with temperatures in Iran rapidly rising, experts are urging the government and international organizations to ramp up efforts to address a lesser-discussed crisis at hand. Unfortunately, “when it comes to heatwaves, they don’t get the attention they deserve,” says Amir Aghakouchak, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine. Read More
Half Their Land Burned in a Decade: The California Counties Constantly on Fire
The New York Times -
Over the past decade, most California counties have seen double the area burned compared with the area burned in the previous decade. … It’s not necessarily the case that more large fires are burning now than in previous decades, but the ones that do ignite are charring through much more land, according to Tirtha Banerjee, a professor and wildfire researcher at the University of California, Irvine. “What that says to me is that fires are getting more intense and more severe, and behaving in more unexpected ways,” he said. Read More
STEM Tea | How to lead a lab
BioTechniques -
In this episode of STEM Tea, host AJ Hinton is joined by Quinton Smith, an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Irvine (CA, USA). Here, Quinton discusses his journey into academia, his lab’s research and how he balances life with work, blocking out time to look after his mental health. Read More
New flood modeling in LA
LAist -
Researchers out of UC Irvine say nationally used flood modeling lacks specificity when it comes to measuring risks in urban areas like Los Angeles County. They've created their own modeling system, PRIMo-Drain, that can better predict which properties are at risk when using accurate, granular data. … In a new report, UCI engineering professor Brett Sanders and his team compared widely used national flood risk assessment modeling in areas like Los Angeles County against their own PRIMo-Drain model. … “Once we have this relatively detailed representation of the land surface, of the flood infrastructure, we look at different types of flooding,” Sanders said. Read More
The Risky Business of Predicting Where Climate Disaster Will Hit
Bloomberg -
“If you see a flood model, how much confidence can you have in the information?” asks Brett Sanders, a civil and environmental engineering professor at [UC] Irvine and a co-author of the study. He and his colleagues sought “to reveal there are significant differences in models trying to characterize the same thing.” Read More
A fifth of U.S. green hydrogen projects eyed for water-stressed areas
Louisiana Illuminator -
The total water use of hydrogen “is not the big deal,” said Jack Brouwer, an engineering professor at University of California-Irvine. “The water challenge is that where we have good primary energy from wind and solar, we do not have good water (supply) necessarily.”... Companies and governments in arid places like California will eventually need to invest more in power lines or water pipelines to connect sunny areas to water resources for green hydrogen production, said UC-Irvine’s Brouwer, who is also part of the ARCHES leadership team. “We run a wire from the good solar to where the water is,” he said. Read More
Nationwide flood models poorly capture risks to households and properties
Insurance Newsnet -
In a paper published recently in the American Geophysical Union journal Earth’s Future, experts in UC Irvine’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering caution that relatively new, nation-scale flood data provides an inadequate representation of local topography and infrastructure, factors known to control the spread of floods in urban areas. “In our analysis of Los Angeles County…we found that estimates of countywide flood exposure from the nationwide data are actually similar to what we find with our more detailed models. However, predictions of which communities and properties are at risk are markedly different,” said lead author Brett Sanders, UC Irvine Chancellor’s Professor of civil and environmental engineering and professor of urban planning and public policy. Read More