Media Watch
8 stunning SoCal sea caves to visit during the winter low tides
Los Angeles Times -
Brett F. Sanders, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Irvine, studies flooding and erosion hazards. “Sea caves are always at risk of flash flooding from strong waves,” he says. “A big storm event can trigger an instability of the rock surrounding the cave, leading to a partial or even complete collapse of the cave.” Further, “with a big winter storm, the waves can be much bigger, which heightens the strength of currents in and out of the caves,” he says. [Subscription required, you can request an electronic copy of the article by sending an email to communications@uci.edu.] Read More
Successive atmospheric rivers test California’s infrastructure
Civil Engineering Source -
In some cases, another approach is “build more resilience to flooding,” particularly in areas near flood-prone waterways, says Brett Sanders, Ph.D., F.EMI, A.M.ASCE, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine. … “That could mean that you offer resources to housing and to businesses that are along the stream and that have a higher likelihood of flooding,” Sanders says. … “Another possibility is that we invest as much as we can upstream to try to slow down the water before it gets into the channel,” Sanders says. “That's an investment in green spaces, in parks, in green infrastructure — natural resources that would let water infiltrate.” Read More
This Week on The Academic Minute (2023.01.23)
The Academic Minute -
Thursday. Rahim Esfandyar-Pour, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science and biomedical engineering at the University of California, Irvine, explores how creating a health monitoring wearable without a battery can help more people use them. Read More
Crystal Cove Conservancy finishes out 2022 with about $200,000 raised in end-of-year campaign
Daily Pilot -
Over the next year, the Crystal Cove Conservancy plans on collaborating with the UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering for a kindergarten-to-college engineering program. “Over the next year, we’ll work together with our colleagues at UCI to develop curriculum goals, learning outcomes, and research partnerships, plus testing and piloting a program for at least one grade level,” [Kate] Wheeler said. [Subscription required, you can request an electronic copy of the article by sending an email to communications@uci.edu.] Read More
After the Deluge
Sierra Magazine -
With warmer temperatures, Southern California is particularly vulnerable to flooding from storms. A study by the University of California, Irvine, released last October and published in the journal Nature Sustainability revealed that flood risk is far more widespread than suggested by federal estimates, with low-income and marginalized communities including the homeless particularly at risk. … The UCI study also found that Black residents of LA County were 79 percent more likely than white residents to be living at risk of waist-high flooding, with Latinos and Asians 17 and 11 percent respectively more likely. Read More
After California’s deadly storms left towns and farmland flooded, residents are struggling to recover
NBC News -
“It’s going to take some time to reveal how bad this event is,” said Brett Sanders, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine. “Consequences of natural disasters can linger for years, and often assistance comes too late for disadvantaged communities.” Sanders is among a handful of researchers at UCI studying how low-income neighborhoods are disproportionately at risk for and affected by flooding. He helped develop a high-resolution flood modeling platform that can assess risk every 10 feet across the 2,700-square-mile expanse of the greater Los Angeles basin. Read More
Los Angeles County’s Black Residents Are Most at Risk in Major Floods
The New York Times -
Brett F. Sanders, lead author of the report and a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the UC Irvine, noted that Black residents make up only around nine percent of the total population of Los Angeles County, “yet that smaller fraction disproportionately settled in a part of the county that would be highly exposed to river flood risk.” … Another of the study’s authors, Nícola Ulibarrí, an associate professor of urban planning and public policy at Irvine, noted that members of the focus groups said the study’s maps could be used on a micro level for practical action like building bus stops in places residents could reach without walking through flooded streets. [Subscription required, campus-wide access provided by UCI Libraries. Sign-up here: https://guides.lib.uci.edu/nytimes] Read More
California’s winter storms have been deadlier than any wildfire since 2018
The Washington Post -
The state’s years-long drought may have also had a psychological effect on residents, who lately have been praying for rain, said Amir AghaKouchak, a civil and environmental engineering professor at University of California, Irvine. “Fire, when you see it, you immediately feel the danger,” he said. “But rain is different, especially in California, where we consider it a good thing.” Floods, then, can blindside people, he said. And it doesn’t take much water — sometimes just a quarter of an inch in a matter of minutes — to transform a benign hill into a mudslide, AghaKouchak said. [Subscription required, campus-wide access provided by UCI Libraries. Sign-up here: https://guides.lib.uci.edu/news/post] Read More
California, Inundated
The New York Times -
It doesn’t take much rain for road intersections to wind up underwater, says Brett Sanders, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine. He has worked to develop another effort to educate residents: a hyperlocal forecasting system to inform them of the risk that their neighborhoods — or even streets — face from a coming storm. … “This event is a bit of a wake-up call,” he said. “We haven’t had a really severe urban flooding problem of this scale for at least a couple of decades.” [Subscription required, campus-wide access provided by UCI Libraries. Sign-up here: https://guides.lib.uci.edu/nytimes] Read More
Have the recent storms put a dent in California's historic drought?
KCBS -
The next series of storms will build an even deeper snowpack that is now more than 200% of normal. As it melts into streams, water managers are hoping the water can be captured. However, others are worried that weather extremes caused by climate change could quickly melt the snow and cause devastating consequences. "Snow is like a natural reservoir," said UC Irvine engineering professor Amir Aghakouchak. "It helps but also a lot of snow, especially if you have a warm spring, can increase your chances of flooding." Read More