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. Amir AghaKouchak, a professor of environmental and civil engineering at the University of California, Irvine, who focuses on climate extremes and solutions, is carrying out the research under a grant from the ARC Initiative, a climate change fund of the U.S.-based nonprofit Renaissance Philanthropy. AghaKouchak’s work with ARC could be groundbreaking. It is certainly ambitious, and likely to become controversial. Read More