Strengthening Climate Resilience

New Drone Research Advances Wildfire Monitoring

Typically, the primary indicator of a burgeoning wildfire in California is a plume of hazy, gray smoke wafting through the air, seen by satellites or cameras. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or CalFire, is alerted, and mitigation and containment efforts ensue.

Sabbie Miller Paves the Way for Making Concrete Environmentally Safe

When Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Sabbie Miller was a child, she talked her parents into converting their avocado farm to organic production. Since joining the College of Engineering, she has founded two separate labs to study building materials: the Engineered Sustainable Infrastructure Materials and Structural Systems and the Resilient Infrastructure Materials laboratories.

A Nudge Toward Greener Flying

Air travel now accounts for about 3% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, and the sector’s emissions are rising: Global air travel more than doubled from 2004 to 2019. This is literally a first-world problem — most people on Earth fly rarely, if ever. By some estimates, the 1% of humans who fly most often are responsible for half of all air travel emissions.

Back Forty: Hard truths about California’s water future

Last month, Jay Lund, a Distinguished Professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis, wrapped up a lecture on California’s drought with a slide titled “Resistance is Futile.” It included a list of his predictions about the state’s water crisis, some of which bordered on apocalyptic. As climate change fuels extreme drought, heat and flooding, Lund explained, some of California’s native species will become unsustainable in the wild. Farmers, government agencies and environmental groups will continue to fight over dwindling water supplies.