• Boosting Efforts to Predict Harmful Solar Weather Events

    When big blasts of energy from the sun envelop the Earth, they can very strong: a 2015 event so weakened Earth’s protective magnetic field that it penetrated to the atmosphere, posing a threat to everything from circling space station astronauts to delicate electronics and communication systems.

  • Guidance for Holistic Home and Community Wildfire Protection

    Once they have a foothold, severe wildfires can quickly overwhelm a community, particularly one that is densely packed. To shield houses against such a fierce threat, a thorough defense is key.

  • How Our Bushfire-Proof House Design Could Help People Flee Rather Than Risk Fighting the Flames

    Building houses better at withstanding the impacts of climate change is one way we can protect ourselves in the face of future catastrophic conditions. I’m part of a research team that developed a novel, bushfire-resistant house design, which won an international award last month.

  • A Cyber Security Intrusion Detection System for Industrial Control Systems

    Researchers have developed technology to help government and industry detect cyber threats to industrial networks used in critical infrastructure and manufacturing systems.

  • Risk Models Overlook an Important Element

    Earthquakes themselves affect the movement of Earth’s tectonic plates, which in turn could impact on future earthquakes, according to new research. This new knowledge should be incorporated in computer models used to gauge earthquake risk, according to the researchers behind the study.

  • Risk Models Overlook an Important Element

    Earthquakes themselves affect the movement of Earth’s tectonic plates, which in turn could impact on future earthquakes, according to new research. This new knowledge should be incorporated in computer models used to gauge earthquake risk, according to the researchers behind the study.

  • The Social Impact of Disasters

    A human geographer and a physicist conduct research into weather and climate risks. Their methods may be different, but they agree that the scale of a disaster is often determined more by societal decisions than by the natural hazard itself.  

  • A Peak at the Nation’s Future Cybersecurity Workforce

    Hack the Port 22, hosted jointly by USCYBERCOM and the Maryland Innovation and Security Institute, brought together subject matter experts from government, industry, and academia to highlight the nation’s critical infrastructure and cyber defense priorities.

  • Improving Efficiency of Sewer System Surveys

    The UK’s vast network of over 525,000km of sewers is notoriously expensive to maintain. A new AI tool is set to improve the efficiency of surveying sewerage systems and has the potential to benefit the entire water industry.

  • Bolstering Planetary Defense

    A new survey identifies scientific priorities and opportunities and makes funding recommendations to maximize the advancement of planetary science, astrobiology, and planetary defense in the next ten years.

  • New Algorithm to Simplify Decisions for Ship Channel Dredging

    Millions of dollars are at stake every time a major ship channel is cleaned up. Delays in dredging can cost even more by triggering increased risks, repeated maintenance and lost revenue. A new decision-support tool could become a game changer in the dredging of ship channels.

  • Marine Highways Bolster Supply Chain Efficiency, Resilience

    The increased use of the nation’s navigable waterways relieves landside congestion, provides new and efficient transportation options, increases the productivity of the surface transportation system, and strengthens the U.S. supply chains.

  • U.S. Flood Damage Risk Is Underestimated

    Researchers used artificial intelligence to predict where flood damage is likely to happen in the continental United States, suggesting that recent flood maps from FEMA do not capture the full extent of flood risk.

  • Drenching Rains Pose Greater Threat to Fire-Damaged Areas in West

    Areas in the western U.S. scarred by wildfires now face even more dangers: drenching rains. These rains inundate the burnt areas, causing significant destruction, including debris flows, mudslides, and flash floods, because the denuded landscape cannot easily contain the drenching moisture.

  • New Wildfire Detection System Receives Funding Boost

    The high intensity of the recent fire seasons in Oregon, coupled with the increasing wildfire risk this year as approximately three-quarters of the state is now in severe drought conditions, has highlighted how critical a new project, aiming to help with the early detection and monitoring of wildfires, is — both for firefighters and the general public.