Latest news with #JeffreySchlegelmilch
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Scientists unveil groundbreaking tool that could change how we prepare for weather disasters: 'More knowledge at our disposal than ever before'
Expert climate scientists at Columbia University have developed a new interactive tool that can help predict natural disasters so the government can prepare for them. They led the U.S. Natural Hazards Climate Change Projections project with a group of researchers to create an interactive dataset with maps and graphs, according to a post by the Earth Institute at Columbia University in The dataset can track and predict climate change-fueled extreme events on a county level. These detailed estimates provide vital information to governments, city officials, disaster relief organizations, and residents. Better preparation for natural disasters is good for the environment and can mean less expensive damage and fewer injuries and deaths. In their testing, the researchers found that San Diego and Washington State are both at a high risk for wildfires, and it could get worse. North Dakota and South Dakota could also see an increased risk for wildfires, and the East Coast may soon see more tornadoes. "While the challenges of climate change and disasters may seem overwhelming, it is also important to note that we have more knowledge at our disposal than ever before," said Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, a climate professor at the Columbia Climate School, per "By working across sectors and engaging partnerships like this, we can provide data that is empirically rigorous and immediately relevant to stakeholders outside of academia. This helps to foster better decisions, better investments and better resilience for our communities." The team released the dataset tool in April as open source and available to everyone. It's an important resource in a time when the Trump Administration is cutting funding to FEMA and taking down governmental agency tracking websites. "By making this data available in an accessible format, we aim to support not just climate scientists and risk modelers, but also urban planners, emergency managers and researchers in other fields, like economics or human mobility," said Simona Meiler, a postdoctoral climate researcher at Stanford University, per What would you do if natural disasters were threatening your home? Move somewhere else Reinforce my home Nothing This is happening already Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Voice of America
30-01-2025
- General
- Voice of America
After fires, Los Angeles gets moonshot moment to rebuild
As Los Angeles recovers from its devastating wildfires, environmental engineers, urban planners and natural disaster experts are casting forward with visions of what could come next for neighborhoods that have been reduced to ash and rubble. Apartment buildings could spring up where strip malls and parking lots once stood, with locals walking to ground-floor shops, offices and cafes, European-style. The city could "infill" vertically to add affordable housing in safer downtown areas, rather than outwards with more single-family homes on fire-prone hills. Some blocks could be turned into buffer zones, where no building was allowed. And the city's trademark palm trees, which burn like Roman candles, could be replaced with fire-resistant native trees. These are some of the bold ideas academics have for Los Angeles as it recovers from the Eaton and Palisades fires, which killed 28 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 16,000 structures. Together, the blazes charred 152 square kilometers — an area larger than Paris. The city is far from rebuilding, with many people only now being allowed back to their burned neighborhoods. When construction does begin, few of the dozen experts Reuters spoke to expected their dream plans to be adopted, citing factors ranging from lack of future insurance coverage to political pressure to rebuild as before. Nonetheless, experts in urban development, climate change and housing said Los Angeles has a chance to think outside the box. Many also said there should be no rush to rebuild. Instead, residents of Pacific Palisades and Altadena should be afforded time to decide what their future communities should look like and dream big. "The biggest thing is how do we promote infill development in safer areas," said Emily Schlickman, assistant professor of landscape architecture and environmental design at the University of California, Davis, who suggests retreating from fire-prone peripheries. Model cities Los Angeles could learn from cities like Kobe, Japan, decimated by a 1995 earthquake, where officials imposed a two-month building moratorium, said Columbia University's Jeffrey Schlegelmilch. "One of the most important things is to give yourself time to come up with a robust solution," said Schlegelmilch, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the university's climate school. Then there are Houston's Harris County and the city of San Antonio, Texas, which bought up homes and properties to reduce future flood risk. In the case of Harris County, authorities offered willing sellers pre-flood market values for homes flooded during Hurricane Harvey in 2017 then demolished them. Char Miller, a professor of environmental analysis and history at Pomona College in Claremont, California, is among those who point to Texas' experience. While buying up properties in Pacific Palisades and Altadena would be costly, Miller said, it would be possible with the financial support of the city, county, state and possibly insurers. Burned-out lots could be turned into what he envisions as fire buffer zones. While disruptive to residents, Miller believes many would be willing to use the money to relocate. "People go, 'Yeah, I don't want to be in danger, and you're buying me out. Yeah, thank you,'" said Miller. He despairs at city and state efforts to fast-track redevelopment in areas that burned at a similar housing density. "They just pulled the plug on the moonshot," Miller said. Alice Hill, a senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, wants to see more green spaces like playing fields and bike paths between fire-risk areas and homes. "It simply is unsafe to rebuild communities where they were, and retreating may be the wisest approach," Hill wrote in a Jan. 14 essay. A little more panache Other experts advocate rebuilding the communities but in a way that will resist fire. "The only way to do this impactfully is to do it communitywide so if the fire gets in, it has a hard time moving on," said Michael Gollner, a professor of mechanical engineering at University of California, Berkeley. Gollner tests prototype houses to see how they handle flames. Homes can be made more fire-resistant by moving a wooden fence back five feet (1.5 meters), surrounding a house with gravel and putting mesh over attic vents to stop embers, he said. Then there is landscaping, a contentious subject for some homeowners. "Who wants to cut down their juniper? But come a wildfire, your juniper is a torch," said Gollner. Ecologists suggest Los Angelenos replace palms, junipers and eucalyptus with trees that evolved to survive fire, such as California oaks. The species has thick bark that resists flames and leathery leaves that burn slowly. "There are lots of people who are working to plant oaks, and I think there's some effort in giving them more panache," said Alexandra Syphard, a San Diego-based wildfire ecologist at the Conservation Biology Institute. For Hussam Mahmoud, a professor in civil and environmental engineering at Colorado State University, the key is predicting the path of future fires. He has developed a model that calculates which buildings will burn, allowing a community to fire-harden "super spreader" structures, rather than fully adapt every house to resist wildfires. Hardening a home begins with using metal or concrete for a roof and fire-retardant materials on the sides. Multipane windows are less likely to break from the heat and cause a home to burn from within. "When the fires hit L.A., it's clear that nobody knew what was going to happen, which buildings were more likely to burn,' said Mahmoud.
Reuters
30-01-2025
- General
- Reuters
After fires, Los Angeles gets moonshot moment to rebuild
Jan 30 (Reuters) - As Los Angeles recovers from its devastating wildfires, environmental engineers, urban planners and natural disaster experts are casting forward with visions of what could come next for neighborhoods that have been reduced to ash and rubble. Apartment buildings could spring up where strip malls and parking lots once stood, with locals walking to ground-floor shops, offices and cafes, European-style. The city could "infill" vertically to add affordable housing in safer downtown areas, rather than outwards with more single-family homes on fire-prone hills. Some blocks could be turned into buffer zones, where no building was allowed. And the city's trademark palm trees, which burn like Roman candles, could be replaced with fire-resistant native trees. These are some of the bold ideas academics have for Los Angeles as it recovers from the Eaton and Palisades fires, which killed 28 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 16,000 structures. Together, the blazes charred 59 sq miles (152 sq km) - an area larger than Paris. The city is far from rebuilding, with many people only now being allowed back to their burned neighborhoods. When construction does begin, few of the dozen experts Reuters spoke to expected their dream plans to be adopted, citing factors ranging from lack of future insurance coverage to political pressure to rebuild as before. Nonetheless, experts in urban development, climate change and housing said Los Angeles has a chance to think outside the box. Many also said there should be no rush to rebuild. Instead, residents of Pacific Palisades and Altadena should be afforded time to decide what their future communities should look like, and dream big. "The biggest thing is how do we promote infill development in safer areas," said Emily Schlickman, assistant professor of landscape architecture and environmental design at the University of California, Davis, who suggests retreating from fire-prone peripheries. MODEL CITIES Los Angeles could learn from cities like Kobe, Japan, decimated by a 1995 earthquake, where officials imposed a two-month building moratorium, said Columbia University's Jeffrey Schlegelmilch. "One of the most important things is to give yourself time to come up with a robust solution," said Schlegelmilch, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the university's climate school. Then there are Houston's Harris County and the city of San Antonio, Texas, which bought up homes and properties to reduce future flood risk. In the case of Harris County, authorities offered willing sellers pre-flood market values for homes flooded during Hurricane Harvey in 2017 then demolished them. Char Miller, a professor of environmental analysis and history at Pomona College in Claremont, California, is among those who point to Texas' experience. While buying up properties in Pacific Palisades and Altadena would be costly, Miller said, it would be possible with the financial support of the city, county, state and possibly insurers. Burned-out lots could be turned into what he envisions as fire buffer zones. While disruptive to residents, Miller believes many would be willing to use the money to relocate. "People go 'Yeah, I don't want to be in danger, and you're buying me out. Yeah, thank you,'" said Miller. He despairs at city and state efforts to fast-track redevelopment in areas that burned at a similar housing density. "They just pulled the plug on the moonshot," Miller added. Alice Hill, a senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, wants to see more green spaces like playing fields and bike paths between fire-risk areas and homes. "It simply is unsafe to rebuild communities where they were, and retreating may be the wisest approach," Hill wrote in a Jan. 14 essay. A LITTLE MORE PANACHE Other experts advocate rebuilding the communities but in a way that will resist fire. "The only way to do this impactfully is to do it community-wide so if the fire gets in, it has a hard time moving on," said Michael Gollner, a professor of mechanical engineering at University of California, Berkeley. Gollner tests prototype houses to see how they handle flames. Homes can be made more fire-resistant by moving a wooden fence back five feet (1.5 meters), surrounding a house with gravel and putting mesh over attic vents to stop embers, he said. Then there is landscaping, a contentious subject for some homeowners. "Who wants to cut down their juniper? But come a wildfire, your juniper is a torch," said Gollner. Ecologists suggest Los Angelenos replace palms, junipers and eucalyptus with trees that evolved to survive fire like California oaks. The species has thick bark that resists flames and leathery leaves that burn slowly. "There are lots of people who are working to plant oaks, and I think there's some effort in giving them more panache," said Alexandra Syphard, a San Diego-based wildfire ecologist at the Conservation Biology Institute. For Hussam Mahmoud, a professor in civil and environmental engineering at Colorado State University, the key is predicting the path of future fires. He has developed a model that calculates which buildings will burn, allowing a community to fire-harden "super spreader" structures, rather than fully adapt every house to resist wildfires. Hardening a home begins with using metal or concrete for a roof and fire-retardant materials on the sides. Multi-pane windows are less likely to break from the heat and cause a home to burn from within. "When the fires hit L.A., it's clear that nobody knew what was going to happen, which buildings were more likely to burn,' said Mahmoud.
