Infrastructure

FLOODSNew AI Flood Model Gives Water Managers Up-to-the-Minute Decision-Making Tool
By Angela Nicoletti
The predictive model is capable of crunching real-time data to address dangerous situations, according to new research
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FLOODSElon Musk Pushed Back on Our Reporting on His Houston Tunnels Plan. Experts Say His Comments Are Misleading.
By Yilun Cheng, Houston Chronicle
Elon Musk is taking issue with a recent investition by the Houston Chronicle and The Texas Newsroom that raised questions about a flood tunnel project he’s pitching to address Houston’s chronic flooding woes. But experts said his response, which he did not explain to the newsrooms, isn’t supported by facts or data.
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POWER-GRID PROTECTIONProtecting the Grid with Artificial Intelligence
The electric grid powers everything from traffic lights to pharmacy fridges, but it regularly faces threats from severe storms and advanced attackers. New neural network detects physical issues, cyberattacks.
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FLOODSA Texas Congressman Is Quietly Helping Elon Musk Pitch a $760M Plan to Build Tunnels Under Houston to Ease Flooding
By Lauren McGaughy, The Texas Newsroom and Yilun Cheng, Houston Chronicle
Experts in Houston have been studying the idea of building massive tunnels to divert floodwaters. Musk’s company wants a piece of the project.
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FOOD SECURITYThe Rising Threat to New York City’s Food System
By Ilana Schwartz
The Hunts Point Food Distribution Center, the largest of its kind in the country, serves as the penultimate stop for 4.5 billion pounds of food that feed the city and surrounding areas each year. Losing access to that hub could be catastrophic for a city that produces almost none of its own food.
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HURRICANE KATRINA: 20 YEARS ONHurricane Katrina: 3 Painful Lessons for Emergency Management Are Increasingly Important 20 Years Later
By Eric Kevin Stern
Hurricane Katrina looms large in the history of American emergency management, both for what went wrong as the disaster unfolded and for the policy changes it triggered. As efforts to reform –and possibly rebalance –the U.S. emergency management system continue, it is essential to remember and heed the costly lessons of Hurricane Katrina.
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HURRICANE KATRINA: 20 YEARS ON20 Years After Katrina, New Orleans’ Levees Are Sinking and Short on Money
By Jake Bittle
The city’s $14 billion flood system faces new threats from climate change, land subsidence, and Trump budget cuts.
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ENERGY SECURITYStates Fast-Track Wind, Solar Permits and Contracts to Beat Trump’s Deadline
By Alex Brown
Since taking office, the Trump administration has pursued a number of policies aimed at dismantling support for renewable energy, particularly targeting wind and solar power, which President Trump described as a “scam.” Federal tax credits have brought project costs down 30-50%, advocates say.
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ENERGY SECURITYHydroBoost: Increasing Hydropower Revenue with Realistic Forecasting
By Brandon Hallmark
Optimizing the revenue and power storage capabilities of hydropower plants is challenging because water flow varies with seasons and weather conditions.To help hydropower operators,researchers developed HydroBoost, an optimization solver.
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CONSPIRACY THEORIESWhy Wind Farms Attract So Much Misinformation and Conspiracy Theory
By Marc Hudson
Like 19th century fears that telephones would spread diseases, wind farm conspiracy theories reflect deeper anxieties about change. They combine distrust of government, nostalgia for the fossil fuel era, and a resistance to confronting the complexities of the modern world.
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NUCLEAR POWERNuclear Waste Could Be a Source of Fuel in Future Reactors
In theory, nuclear fusion —a process that fuses atoms together, releasing heat to turn generators —could provide vast energy supplies with minimal emissions. But nuclear fusion is an expensive prospect because one of its main fuels is a rare version of hydrogen called tritium. Now, researchers are developing new systems to use nuclear waste to make tritium.
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ENERGY SOURCESTrump’s Bid to Support Coal Could Cost Ratepayers Billions: Report
By Alex Brown
The market has spoken: Across the country, coal plants have phased out as they’ve been unable to compete with cheaper renewables and natural gas. A recent report found that 99% of existing U.S. coal plants “are more expensive to run than replacement by local wind, solar, and energy storage resources.” Mandates from the Trump administration to subsidize aging, uncompetitive coal plants would cause taxpayers billions and lead to a massive spike in energy costs.
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WATER SECURITYGroundwater Is Drying Out, Heating Up, and Causing Sea Level Rise
By Rebecca Egan McCarthy
Overuse has created zones of “mega-drying” around the world —and caused more sea level rise than Greenland’s ice sheet.
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CYBERSECURITY EDUCATIONFirst-of-its-Kind Industrial System Security Course
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UA Little Rock) is giving students the tools to protect the systems that power modern life through a new course focused on industrial system security.
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WATER SECURITYClimate Models Reveal How Human Activity May Be Locking the Southwest into Permanent Drought
By Pedro DiNezio and Timothy Shanahan
A new wave of climate research is sounding a stark warning: Human activity may be driving drought more intensely –and more directly –than previously understood. One example: The southwestern United States has been in a historic megadrought for much of the past two decades, with its reservoirs including lakes Mead and Powell dipping to record lows and legal disputes erupting over rights to use water from the Colorado Rive.
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