Friday, September 5, 2025
Science
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Scienmag
No Result
View All Result
Home Science News Climate

UC Irvine team says urban street networks, building density shape severity of floods

August 19, 2024
in Climate
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
UC Irvine team says urban street networks, building density shape severity of floods
65
SHARES
595
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
ADVERTISEMENT

Irvine, Calif., Aug. 19, 2024 — Cities around the globe are experiencing increased flooding due to the compounding effects of stronger storms in a warming climate and urban growth. New research from the University of California, Irvine suggests that urban form, specifically the building density and street network of a neighborhood, is also affecting the intensity of flooding.

Irvine, Calif., Aug. 19, 2024 — Cities around the globe are experiencing increased flooding due to the compounding effects of stronger storms in a warming climate and urban growth. New research from the University of California, Irvine suggests that urban form, specifically the building density and street network of a neighborhood, is also affecting the intensity of flooding.

For a paper published today in Nature Communications, researchers in UC Irvine’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering turned to statistical mechanics to generate a new formula allowing urban planners to more easily assess flood risks presented by land development changes.

Co-author Mohammad Javad Abdolhosseini Qomi, UC Irvine associate professor of civil and environmental engineering who holds a joint appointment in UC Irvine’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, said that he and his colleagues were inspired by how physicists study intricate systems such as disordered porous solids, glasses and complex fluids to develop universal theories that can explain city-to-city variations in flood hazards.

“Application of statistical mechanics has yielded an analytical model that can project neighborhood-scale flood hazards anywhere in the world,” Qomi said. “We can probe differences between cities experiencing flood hazards. The platform has been demonstrated to show links between flood losses, urban form and observed rainfall extremes.”

Lead author Sarah Balaian, a UC Irvine Ph.D. candidate in civil and environmental engineering, said that we can expect the future to be marked by more severe weather events and that concentrated masses of people, many of whom lack the means of protection or escape, will be heavily affected by urban flooding.

“Furthermore, detailed modeling worldwide is presently impossible for many cities because of inadequate data, so our team was motivated to develop a new way of looking at flood risk based on the form of the built urban environment,” she said.

Co-author Brett Sanders, UC Irvine Chancellor’s Professor of civil and environmental engineering and professor of urban planning and public policy, said that the new formula was made possible by thousands of flood simulations across many different urban forms – simulations grounded in physical laws of motion.

“We created a physics-based dataset of flood depth and velocity for types of city layouts seen globally and then used data analysis techniques to derive a relatively simple formula that can be used for planning and vulnerability assessments globally,” Sanders said. “The equation can also be taught in our classes so that the next generation of civil engineers is able to anticipate the potential impacts of land development on flood hazards.”

This project received financial support from UC Irvine’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education.

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UC Irvine is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities and is ranked among the nation’s top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. The campus has produced five Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UC Irvine has more than 36,000 students and offers 224 degree programs. It’s located in one of the world’s safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County’s second-largest employer, contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide. For more on UC Irvine, visit www.uci.edu.

 



Journal

Nature Communications

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Article Title

How Urban Form Impacts Flooding

Share26Tweet16
Previous Post

Energy companies pressure landowners into fracking, study shows

Next Post

Nurses play key role in addressing mental well-being for people after a stroke

Related Posts

blank
Climate

Ocean Carbon Sink Drops Amid 2023 Heat Record

September 2, 2025
blank
Climate

Methane Emissions Rise From Boreal-Arctic Wetlands

August 28, 2025
blank
Climate

Tropical Deforestation Linked to Rising Heat Deaths

August 27, 2025
blank
Climate

Heatwaves Trigger Long-Term Accelerated Ageing Effects

August 25, 2025
blank
Climate

Global South Public Opinions on Climate Policies Revealed

August 22, 2025
blank
Climate

Climate Change Beliefs Vary Across 110 Regions

August 20, 2025
Next Post
Nurses play key role in addressing mental well-being for people after a stroke

Nurses play key role in addressing mental well-being for people after a stroke

  • Mothers who receive childcare support from maternal grandparents show more parental warmth, finds NTU Singapore study

    Mothers who receive childcare support from maternal grandparents show more parental warmth, finds NTU Singapore study

    27544 shares
    Share 11014 Tweet 6884
  • University of Seville Breaks 120-Year-Old Mystery, Revises a Key Einstein Concept

    959 shares
    Share 384 Tweet 240
  • Bee body mass, pathogens and local climate influence heat tolerance

    643 shares
    Share 257 Tweet 161
  • Researchers record first-ever images and data of a shark experiencing a boat strike

    510 shares
    Share 204 Tweet 128
  • Warm seawater speeding up melting of ‘Doomsday Glacier,’ scientists warn

    313 shares
    Share 125 Tweet 78
Science

Embark on a thrilling journey of discovery with Scienmag.com—your ultimate source for cutting-edge breakthroughs. Immerse yourself in a world where curiosity knows no limits and tomorrow’s possibilities become today’s reality!

RECENT NEWS

  • Faith and Resilience: Strategies Against Cognitive Attacks
  • Improving Sleep in Shift-Work Nurses: A Meta-Analysis
  • Studying Soil Green Algae in Rubber Plantations
  • Natural Medicines Target Tumor Blood Vessels to Halt Cancer Progression

Categories

  • Agriculture
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Athmospheric
  • Biology
  • Blog
  • Bussines
  • Cancer
  • Chemistry
  • Climate
  • Earth Science
  • Marine
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine
  • Pediatry
  • Policy
  • Psychology & Psychiatry
  • Science Education
  • Social Science
  • Space
  • Technology and Engineering

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 5,183 other subscribers

© 2025 Scienmag - Science Magazine

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • HOME
  • SCIENCE NEWS
  • CONTACT US

© 2025 Scienmag - Science Magazine

Discover more from Science

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading