-
First Regional Cybersecurity Center to Protect the Nation’s Electricity Grid
U.S. Department of Energy awards $10 million grant to develop innovative solutions to mitigating cyber threats across the U.S. A new center will bring together experts from the private sector, academia and government to share information and generate innovative real-world solutions to protect the nation’s power grid and other key sectors.
-
-
Rivers Are the West’s Largest Source of Clean Energy. What Happens When Drought Strikes?
With rivers across the West running low, utilities must get creative if they are to meet demand without increasing emissions.
-
-
Chinese Government Poses 'Bold and Unrelenting' Threat to U.S. Critical Infrastructure: FBI
FBI Director Christopher Wray on 18 April warned that risks the government of China poses to U.S. national and economic security are “upon us now”—and that U.S. critical infrastructure is a prime target. He said that partnerships, joint operations, and private sector vigilance can help us fight back.
-
-
Sinking Land Increases Risk for Thousands of Coastal Residents
One in 50 people living in two dozen coastal cities in the United States could experience significant flooding by 2050, according to new research. The study projects that in the next three decades as many as 500,000 people could be affected as well as a potential 1 in 35 privately owned properties damaged by flooding.
-
-
FEMA Is Making an Example of This Florida Boomtown. Locals call it “Revenge Politics.”
When U.S. homeowners buy subsidized flood insurance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, they make a commitment to build back better after flood disasters, even if it costs them. The Biden administration is trying to punish Lee County for rebuilding flood-prone homes. The state’s Republican politicians are fighting back.
-
-
The Flooding Will Come “No Matter What”
Another great American migration is now underway, this time forced by the warming that is altering how and where people can live. For now, it’s just a trickle. But in the corners of the country’s most vulnerable landscapes —on the shores of its sinking bayous and on the eroding bluffs of its coastal defenses —populations are already in disarray. The complex, contradictory, and heartbreaking process of American climate migration is underway.
-
-
Artificial Intelligence and Critical Infrastructure
What is the technology availability for AI applications in critical infrastructure in the next ten years? What risks and scenarios (consisting of threats, vulnerabilities, and consequences) is AI likely to present for critical infrastructure applications in the next ten years?
-
-
How Prepared Is Taiwan for Earthquakes?
Taiwan sits on a boundary of tectonic plates, and its long history of catastrophic quakes has forced the island to improve its building construction and design-related technologies. Newly constructed buildings in Taiwan have become “increasingly earthquake-resistant.”
-
-
Balancing Act: Can Precariously Perched Boulders Signal New York’s Earthquake Risk?
The trouble with big earthquakes is that their subterranean root systems can lurk for centuries or millennia before building enough energy to explode. Among many places, this is true of the New York City area, where scientists believe big quakes are possible—but probably so rare, it is hard to say exactly how often they come, or how big they could be.
-
-
Engineers Fortifying Critical Infrastructure
In a bid to protect the nation’s energy sector against cyber attacks, engineers are creating a digital twin to help weed out threats and fix software and firmware vulnerabilities. If left unchecked, these weaknesses could allow ransomware attacks that could cause severe havoc to critical U.S. energy systems.
-
-
Where Did All the Water Go? New Study Explores Water Use in the Colorado River Basin.
The final 100 miles of the Colorado River is a shell of its former self — nearly 10 miles wide at the turn of the century, farmers had more water than they knew what to do with. Now, a weave of concrete canals brings water to sprawling industrial farms situated in the Mexicali Valley, with much of the natural riverbed dry and the wildlife sparse. Where did all the water go?
-
-
Plan B: Keeping Nuclear Power Plants Cool in a Warmer, Drier Climate
Waterways — tried and true cooling sources for nuclear power plants — could get warmer due to global climate change. Climate scientists and nuclear science and engineering experts are joining forces to develop a plan B for nuclear power.
-
-
What Is Volt Typhoon? A Cybersecurity Expert Explains the Chinese Hackers Targeting U.S. Critical Infrastructure
Volt Typhoon is a Chinese state-sponsored hacker group. The United States government and its primary global intelligence partners, known as the Five Eyes, issued a warning on March 19, 2024, about the group’s activity targeting critical infrastructure. The warning echoes analyses by the cybersecurity community about Chinese state-sponsored hacking in recent years.
-
-
Artificial Reef Could Protect Marine life, Reduce Storm Damage
MIT engineers designed a sustainable and cost-saving structure which aims to dissipate more than 95 percent of incoming wave energy using a small fraction of the material normally needed.
-
-
I’ve Captained Ships into Tight Ports Like Baltimore, and This Is How Captains Like Me Work with Harbor Pilots to Avoid Deadly Collisions
The accident which caused the collapse of the bridge in Baltimore is the third such accident in as many months, with big ships hitting, and causing the collapse, of bridges in China and Argentina. These incidents have highlighted what engineering experts say is the urgent need to improve or protect old bridges to accommodate larger modern vessels – and what maritime experts say is the growing difficulty ship pilots face when helping navigate big ships through tight places.
-
The long view
Accelerating Clean Energy Geothermal Development on Public Lands
Geothermal energy is one of our greatest untapped clean energy resources on public lands. Replenished by heat sources deep in the Earth, geothermal energy generates electricity with minimal carbon emissions. Interior Department announces new leases and pioneering project approval, and proposes simplified permitting.
Efforts to Build Wildfire Resilience Are Heating Up
Stanford’s campus has become a living lab for testing innovative fire management techniques, from AI-powered environmental sensors to a firebreak-creating “BurnBot.”
Reducing Vulnerability to Sea-Level Rise in Virginia
As the climate changes and sea levels rise, there is concern that sinking coastlines could exacerbate risks to infrastructure, as well as human and environmental health in coastal communities. The Virginia Coastal Plain is one of the fastest-sinking regions on the East Coast.
Climate Change Threatens Bridges, Roads: Research Helps Engineers Adapt Infrastructure
Across America, infrastructure built to handle peak stormwater flows from streams and rivers have been engineered under the assumption that rainfall averages stay constant over time. As extreme weather events become more frequent, these systems could be in trouble.