• The Case for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure

    By Renée Cho

    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.

  • 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.

  • It Is Time to Act

    There is, in a basic sense, nothing new to be said about the global computer outage of the week just pas, Dan Geer writes, so the time to act is now. “If we choose to act on what we know, then we also know that security policy and competition policy are henceforth conjoined. We cannot and will not have zero cascade failures if any tech is allowed to become universal, to become a monopoly in its sphere.”

  • Nationwide Flood Models Poorly Reflect Risks to Households and Properties, Study Finds

    Government agencies, insurance companies and disaster planners rely on national flood risk models from the private sector that aren’t reliable at smaller levels such as neighborhoods and individual properties.

  • Massive IT Outage Spotlights Major Vulnerabilities in the Global Information Ecosystem

    By Richard Forno

    The global information technology outage on July 19, 2024, that paralyzed organizations ranging from airlines to hospitals and even the delivery of uniforms for the Olympic Games represents a growing concern for cybersecurity professionals, businesses and governments.

  • From Iron Dome to Cyber Dome: Defending Israel’s Cyberspace

    By Rohit Kumar Sharma

    In response to growing attacks against its infrastructure by formidable adversaries like Iran and its proxies, Israel recently announced that they are building a ‘cyber-dome’ or a digital ‘Iron Dome’ system to protect Israel’s cyberspace to defend against online attacks.

  • Climate Change Has Forced America’s Oldest Black Town to Higher Ground

    By Jake Bittle

    Princeville, North Carolina, is relocating with help from a new federal grant. Hurricane Matthew, which submerged the town under more than 10 feet of water, was the final straw. The town has just received millions of dollars in new funding from FEMA to build a new site on higher ground.

  • As the Rio Grande Runs Dry, South Texas Cities Look to Alternatives for Water

    By Berenice Garcia

    Many of the solutions are costly, putting them out of reach for small towns. But the region’s most populous cities are getting innovative.

  • Albuquerque Made Itself Drought-Proof. Then Its Dam Started Leaking.

    By Jake Bittle

    El Vado is an odd dam: It’s one of only four in the United States that uses a steel faceplate to hold back water, rather than a mass of rock or concrete. The dam, which is located on a tributary of the Rio Grande, has been collecting irrigation water for farmers for close to a century, but decades of studies have shown that water is seeping through the faceplate and undermining the dam’s foundations. Cities across the West rely on fragile water sources — and aging infrastructure.

  • Nature-Based Solutions to Disaster Risk from Climate Change Are Cost Effective

    Nature-based solutions (NbS) are an economically effective method to mitigate risks from a range of disasters—from floods and hurricanes to heatwaves and landslides—which are only expected to intensify as Earth continues to warm.

  • Why Chinese Technology Set Off Alarm Bells in Germany

    By Dirk Kaufmann

    Even as the German government moves to bar components made by China’s Huawei and ZTE from core parts of the country’s 5G networks, some German companies are looking to work with Chinese firms in other critical areas.

  • In an Era of Dam Removal, California Is Building More

    By Theo Whitcomb, High Country News

    Earlier this year, the federal government finalized $216 million dollars in funding for a controversial dam project south of the Klamath River, adding to the $1 billion in direct grants already pledged to the project known as Sites Reservoir. This would be California’s first major new reservoir in half a century. Proponents say a new reservoir off the Sacramento River is environmentally friendly.

  • Uranium Science Researchers Investigate Feasibility of Intentional Nuclear Forensics

    Despite strong regulations and robust international safeguards, authorities routinely interdict nuclear materials outside of regulatory control. Researchers are exploring a new method that would give authorities the ability to analyze intercepted nuclear material and determine where it originated.

  • Transformers: Cooler Side of the Grid

    Failures in transformers cause widespread disruptions across electrical networks, severely affecting grid stability. The financial impact of such failures often goes beyond just the cost of replacing the transformer. Simulations on NSF-funded Stampede2 provide models for a resilient and sustainable electric grid.

  • Tornadoes Are Deadly. These New Building Codes Will Save Lives.

    Because of its unique geography, the United States has more tornadoes, and more intense tornadoes, than any other country. Tornadoes are deadly, but until recently there were no building codes designed to protect communities from tornadoes. Tornado winds push and pull on buildings in unique ways that require special safety designs. NIST research led to the first building code provision for tornado resilience.