• One in Six Properties in England Will Be Affected by Flood Risk by 2050: Study

    Flood risk affects English residential property values. New report shows that residential properties at risk of flooding are sold at 8.14% lower on average compared to non-affected properties. The report shines a light on the extent to which climate change and the increased propensity of natural disasters is affecting the housing market.

  • Commercial Investors Shift Perspective of Coastal Properties in Face of Climate Change

    Investors in commercial real estate are rethinking the values of coastal properties exposed to flood risk — even in northern U.S. locales that haven’t suffered flood damage, according to researchers. This shift in perspective has implications for investors and developers alike as they determine the value of coastal properties amid a changing climate.

  • Controlled Burns Help Prevent Wildfires, Experts Say. But Regulations Have Made It Nearly Impossible to Do These Burns.

    Even though the 2021 Marshall Fire made it clear that the fire threat posed by Colorado’s grasslands endangers large urban areas, federal, state and local rules continue to make it difficult to address the risk.

  • “Statistically Impossible” Heat Extremes Are Here: Study Identifies the Regions Mmost at Risk

    In the summer of 2021, Canada’s all-time temperature record was smashed by almost 5℃. Its new record of 49.6℃ is hotter than anything ever recorded in Spain, Turkey or indeed anywhere in Europe. One of the most important questions when studying these extreme heatwaves is “how long do we have to wait until we experience another similarly intense event?”. This is a challenging question but, fortunately, there is a branch of statistics, called extreme value theory, that provides ways in which we can answer that exact question using past events.

  • Deadly Lessons from Fukushima Changed Japan and the World

    The strongest earthquake in Japan’s recorded history triggered a massive tsunami in 2011. Together, the two natural disasters claimed close to 20,000 lives, making the event one of the deadliest in Japan’s history. But the crisis didn’t end there.

  • Colorado River Water Plan Could Trigger Unprecedented Supply Cuts, Ripple Effects on Key Industries

    Decades of drought and overuse have brought the river’s water levels to historic lows. States in the Lower Colorado River Basin — Arizona, California and Nevada — now must choose between one of three options proposed by the federal government. The economic impact of the river’s dwindling water supplies is could be disastrous.

  • Creating a Tsunami Early Warning System Using Artificial Intelligence

    Tsunamis are incredibly destructive waves that can destroy coastal infrastructure and cause loss of life. Early warnings for such natural disasters are difficult because the risk of a tsunami is highly dependent on the features of the underwater earthquake that triggers it.

  • Mapping Floods of the Future Reveals Communities at Risk due to Climate Change

    Around the world, flood disasters are expected to become more frequent and more severe with climate change. But what will that mean for your local community? Detailed understanding of local risks is crucial to adapt to these changes and effectively mitigate flood hazards under a changing climate.

  • Forced Water-Use Cuts Made California More Waterwise

    After a drought-stricken California lifted a year of mandatory water-use cuts that were effective in 2015 and 2016, urban water use crept back up somewhat, but the overall lasting effect was a more waterwise Golden State.

  • Cities Will Need More Resilient Electricity Networks to Cope with Extreme Weather

    Dense urban areas amplify the effects of higher temperatures, due to the phenomenon of heat islands in cities. This makes cities more vulnerable to extreme climate events. Large investments in the electricity network will be necessary to cool us down during heatwaves and keep us warm during cold snaps.

  • Evaluating Risk of Hurricane-Driven Mortgage Default, Property Abandonment

    Estimating the financial impacts of household flooding is complex because direct damages often snowball into other financial risks, like a decrease in property value or loss of equity. Generally, post-disaster damage assessments focus on insured and uninsured losses, but these numbers do not account for the secondary impacts to households, lenders, local governments and other stakeholders who may also share in the financial consequences if a property owner defaults on their loan or abandons their property.

  • Economic Earthquake Risk in the United States

    Earthquakes cost the nation an estimated $14.7 billion annually in building damage and associated losses, a new report finds. The new estimate is twice that of previous annual estimates due to increased building value and the fact that the report incorporates the latest hazards as well as improvements to building inventories.

  • “Flash Droughts” More Frequent as Climate Warms

    ‘Flash droughts’ have become more frequent due to human-caused climate change, and this trend is predicted to accelerate in a warmer future. Flash droughts, which start and develop rapidly, are becoming ‘the new normal’ for droughts, making forecasting and preparing for their impact more difficult.

  • Feds’ Colorado River Choice: California’s Rights or Arizona’s Future?

    Almost half of all the water that flows through the Colorado River each year is consumed by just two states: Arizona and California. For the Biden administration to stabilize the river, one of the two states will have to lose big.

  • Understanding the Catastrophic Impact of the Earthquakes in Turkey

    When a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck south-eastern Turkey in the early morning hours of Feb. 6, it was identified as the most powerful seismic incident to hit the country since 1939. When a 7.6 magnitude earthquake was triggered just a few hours later, disaster spiraled to catastrophe – many buildings that had survived the initial impact were reduced to rubble and the death toll has reportedly surpassed 50,000. Professor Bora Gencturk at USC Viterbi School of Engineering travelled to Turkey to investigate the resilience of buildings impacted by the recent earthquakes.