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Congressional Staff Learn to Fight Wildfires with Legislation
Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment recently hosted a first-of-its-kind “boot camp” in which congressional staffers got a crash course from experts in climate, forestry, fire science, utilities, insurance, and other wildfire-related topics.
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Traditional Infrastructure Design Often Makes Extreme Flooding Events Worse
Massive 2014 flooding event in southeast Michigan showed why systems thinking beats local thinking in flood protection.
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As Tornado Alley Shifts East, Bracing for Impact in Unexpected Places
Experts say the causes are still unclear, but the change is consistent with a warming world. The effects on the ground could be devastating.
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Let’s Take a Close Look at How We Protect Our Undersea Cables
We rely ever more heavily on the connectivity that cables provide and, with capacity-hungry 6G on the horizon, the need will only grow. Yet, little has been done to protect undersea cales from accidental or deliberate disruption.
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New Gels Could Protect Buildings During Wildfires
Researchers have developed a sprayable gel that creates a shield to protect buildings from wildfire damage. It lasts longer and is more effective than existing commercial options.
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To Get Off Fossil fuels, America Is Going to Need a Lot More Electricians
To cut greenhouse gas emissions on pace with the best available science, the United States must prepare for a monumental increase in electricity use. Burning fossil fuels to heat homes and get around isn’t compatible with keeping the planet at a livable temperature. Appliances that can be powered by clean electricity already exist to meet all of these needs. The problem is, most houses aren’t wired to handle the load from electric heating, cooking, and clothes dryers, along with solar panels and vehicle chargers. And a shortage of skilled labor could derail efforts to “electrify everything.”
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Biosecurity for Food Security
Biosecurity is a fundamental enabler for a country’s’ food security, a critical but often overlooked element of national security, and it is time for it to be treated accordingly.
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Urban Street Networks and Building Density Shape Severity of Floods
Cities around the globe are experiencing increased flooding due to the compounding effects of stronger storms in a warming climate and urban growth. Researchers’ new analytical model can assess neighborhood-level hazards globally.
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How the Marshall Fire Sparked a Political Transformation in Colorado
After the fire destroyed his town in 2021, a state rep took on insurance companies, mortgage lenders, and landlords — and beat them all.
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How Back-to-Back Hurricanes Set Off a Year of Compounding Disasters for One City − and Alarm Bells About Risks in a Warming World
Climate change will bring new weather patterns that are beyond emergency managers’ current playbooks, which are filled with protocols honed by past experience. The capacity to adapt will be essential when those playbooks can’t handle compounding disasters that few had imagined.
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Stuck Bridges, Buckling Roads − Extreme Heat Is Wreaking Havoc on America’s Aging Infrastructure
Summer 2024’s record heat is creating problems for transportation infrastructure, from roads to rails. It doesn’t help that the worsening heat is hitting a U.S. infrastructure system that’s already in trouble.
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Hybrid System Would Create New ‘Backbone’ for Internet in Space
A new NATO-funded effort seeks to make the internet less vulnerable by rerouting its flow of information to space in the event that the underwater cables that transmit the world’s communications are attacked or accidentally severed.
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Venezuelan Crisis Has Negatively Affected Country's Internet
“Modern services cannot run properly,” researcher says. New study examines Venezuela’s connectivity landscape over the past decade. Due to the crisis, Venezuela’s Internet infrastructure has deteriorated. Researchers found Internet speeds in Venezuela are approximately 10% of the regional average.
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The Case for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure
Climate change is making weather harder to predict, and creating new risks in places that never faced them before. And as hurricanes, floods, extreme heat and wildfires intensify, most infrastructure will need to be retrofitted or designed and built anew for future climate resilience.
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France Investigates 'Massive Attack' on Fast Train Network
French intelligence is working to identify who is behind acts of intentional vandalism on several high-speed rail routes. The incidents, which have led to a disruption, come ahead of the opening of the Paris Olympics.
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The long view
Helping Strengthen America’s Critical Infrastructure
Everyday life depends on a robust infrastructure network that provides access to running water, communications technology and electricity, among other basic necessities. The experts who keep our national infrastructure secure and resilient also need a strong network to share their knowledge and train the next generation of professionals capable of solving complex infrastructure challenges.
AI and the Future of the U.S. Electric Grid
Despite its age, the U.S. electric grid remains one of the great workhorses of modern life. Whether it can maintain that performance over the next few years may determine how well the U.S. competes in an AI-driven world.