Civil Systems

Supply-chain delays, rising equipment prices threaten electricity grid

Susan Glairon — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 18:50:52 +0000

Supply-chain delays, rising equipment prices threaten electricity grid Susan Glairon Fri, 11/14/2025 - 11:50

In this Conversation story co-written by Associate Professor Kyri Baker, the authors explain how two new Silicon Valley data centers sit idle because essential electrical equipment isn’t available—highlighting a nationwide shortage of transformers, breakers, cables and other critical grid components. These supply-chain bottlenecks are delaying projects, raising costs and straining the reliability of the U.S. power grid.

Off

Traditional

White

AWWA Journal Cover Story: Q&A with Professor Karl Linden

Susan Glairon — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 22:44:00 +0000

AWWA Journal Cover Story: Q&A with Professor Karl Linden Susan Glairon Wed, 10/22/2025 - 16:44

Professor Karl Linden received the American Water Works Association’s 2025 A.P. Black Research Award, which honors outstanding contributions to water science and supply. Linden was recognized for his pioneering work in developing and applying ultraviolet technologies to improve water and wastewater treatment.

Off

Traditional

White

Wildfires pose growing threat to drinking water systems

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 22:57:39 +0000

Wildfires pose growing threat to drinking water systems Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/03/2022 - 16:57

In this American Society of Civil Engineers article, Assistant Research Professor Brad Wham talks about the steps water utilities can take to protect their infrastructure from wildfires.

Off

Traditional

White

Studying the Marshall Fire recovery to help communities rebuild

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 17:24:06 +0000

Studying the Marshall Fire recovery to help communities rebuild Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/16/2022 - 11:24

Jeff Zehnder

Related News

Webinar: Building Capacity for Safe, Disaster-Resilient Housing - Sept. 20

Tuesday, Sept. 20 | 12:00 p.m. | Zoom - Register Now

Safe, disaster-resilient housing is critical to our way of life, prosperity, and sense of security. Yet, many houses remain vulnerable to damage from earthquakes, hurricanes, and other hazards, affecting communities in the near and long term.

In this webinar, Professors Amy Javernick-Will and Abbie Liel will describe findings from research that their team conducted to enhance housing safety in the multi-hazard context of Puerto Rico.

Considering that a large portion of housing stock is built informally, where building codes and regulations may not be followed, they argue that how builders and residents perceive housing safety influences how housing is designed, built, and maintained.

Focusing on one misalignment, the installation of hurricane straps, they will discuss their initial efforts to build capacity in the region by partnering with a community-based organization.

Find out more and register to attend

The Marshall fire screamed across the prairie, exploding into homes with 80 mph winds and destroying entire neighborhoods. It caused over a billion dollars in damage in less than a day and took everything from more than 1,000 homeowners in Superior and Louisville, Colorado, leaving behind little more than ash and concrete foundations.

Nine months have passed since the disaster, and as families work to rebuild, an interdisciplinary team of University of Colorado Boulder researchers has received a major National Science Foundation grant to study long-term community impacts to help improve outcomes from future disasters.

“In this project, we’re really interested in how jurisdictions and homeowners are rebuilding, particularly in light of future risks,” said Amy Javernick-Will, a professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering and lead investigator on the grant. “There have been other fires in California and Oregon, but the scale of this destruction was pretty dramatic.”

As disasters increase, destroying homes and infrastructure, families and governments have to make decisions on how to rebuild. Those decisions include adoption and enforcement of building codes that can have a long-term influence on community outcomes in resiliency and environmental sustainability. Those codes, however, come with a tradeoff, including potential increased costs and time to rebuild.

It is an obstacle facing one member of the research team first-hand. Matthew Koschmann, an associate professor of communications, owns a rental property in Superior that was destroyed by the fire.

“Do I want to incorporate this new ordinance or opt out? I’m part of these conversations on Slack channels online. Some people are saying we should upgrade our houses to be more fire resilient, that it will help protect the entire neighborhood, but others are saying the added cost to their rebuild is insurmountable,” Koschmann said.

The research is particularly focused on the social aspect of rebuilding: how communities are connecting, influencing each other, and making major decisions about moving forward. A goal of the grant is to provide guidance on the decisions and uncertainties homeowners and governments face during the rebuilding process and identifying the processes and codes that meet collective goals after a disaster.

“In fires, what your neighbors do affects your property,” Javernick-Will said. “This shared action is really important, and we want to uncover this process. Most studies look at just the immediate response, the first couple of weeks. There are far fewer long-term studies.”

Much of the work will be conducted through personal interviews with homeowners, as well as builders, insurance companies, and municipal government officials. Noah Gershon, a civil engineering PhD student, is leading this part of the effort.

“There is a complicated interplay between the different groups,” Gershon said. “We want to study each to see how we can make things better. There’s a perception that after a disaster, everything is taken care of and funding is available for everyone. It’s just not true. Homeowners have to figure out a lot themselves. We want to improve that process.”

A goal of the work is to bridge the gap between engineering and human social interaction to understand the real-world impacts of decision making after disasters.

“There are complex social interactions here. It isn’t just technical scientific stuff. It’s both,” Koschmann said. “There’s a level of stress and tension that’s part of it and dealing with different insurance policies, neighbors, building codes. This isn’t abstract. It has real personal impact.”

In addition to Javernick-Will, Koschmann, and Gershon, the research team also includes Abbie Liel, a professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, and Megan Ellery, a civil engineering PhD student.

Off

Traditional

White

Intense heat waves, flooding are battering America’s aging infrastructure

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 20:26:08 +0000

Intense heat waves, flooding are battering America’s aging infrastructure Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/07/2022 - 14:26

A heat wave that pushed California’s power grid to the limit and the water system failure in Mississippi are just two examples of how a growing maintenance backlog and increasing climate change are creating a golden age of infrastructure failure. �� engineering expert Paul Chinowsky shares on The Conversation.

Off

Traditional

White

Chinowsky discusses heat-induced rail problems with ABC News

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jul 2022 19:56:37 +0000

Chinowsky discusses heat-induced rail problems with ABC News Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 07/14/2022 - 13:56

Professor Paul Chinowsky discusses solutions to heat-caused problems with railroads in a new piece by ABC News

The article highlights how heat waves are causing warping on Amtrak rail lines, leading to travel slowdowns.

Chinowsky, an emeritus professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and director of the Environmental Design Program, is an expert on climate and infrastructure.

Read the full article at ABC News...

Off

Traditional

White

Researchers to explore link between women’s perspectives and resilient housing design

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 17:39:37 +0000

Researchers to explore link between women’s perspectives and resilient housing design Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/27/2022 - 11:39

Engineers have studied disaster resilience in housing for decades – exploring and creating better solutions to keep people safe and in place after events like earthquakes with minimal disruption to their daily lives.

New research from �� Boulder aims to take that work further by better incorporating the perspectives and attitudes of those living in impacted homes in that development process. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the project will look specifically at how the inclusion of women’s knowledge, priorities, and perceptions in the decision-making process changes both the policies proposed and ultimately selected, as well as the development of new approaches over time.

Professor Abbie Liel in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering is leading the work. She said she has become increasingly convinced of the vital importance of both engineering better, more resilient housing and the central role women will play in that process.

“In Turkey, I saw seismic safety education programs directed at children and their mothers that were more successful at addressing risks than other programs. And in Oklahoma I saw homeowners – the most visible of whom are women – filing class-action lawsuits about earthquake damage to their homes caused by deep injection of wastewater from oil and gas activities,” Liel said. “So while there has been a lot of progress made in building codes and construction standards, women’s and residents’ knowledge – and their ‘ways of knowing’ – are not well represented in this process and are underserved by our approaches.”

Liel said that while more than half of U.S. households – about 60% among Black households – have female heads, women continue to be underrepresented in the building engineering, architecture, and construction professions, as well as in the development of standards and policies that govern design, construction, permitting, and inspection of homes.

“And despite decades of advances, houses still remain particularly vulnerable to damage from earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and other hazards,” she said. “This idea for this research argues that the problem of underrepresentation of women and women of color in the building industry and the problem of inadequate disaster resilience of housing are indeed linked together closely.”

Liel has conducted extensive structural resilience research in her career. However, this time she is approaching those questions through a diversity, equity and inclusion lens. The goal of this project, she said, would be to use focus groups and other activities to better understand perspectives around seismic upgrades and what makes a home habitable after an earthquake. Ideally, the information gathered could be used to improve building codes or shape construction standards over the next few decades.

“Safe, disaster-resilient housing is critical to our way of life, prosperity and sense of security,” she said. “I am really excited to start this project and see where the research goes with these new perspectives included.”

Off

Traditional

White

Sherri Cook discusses wastewater management with KGNU

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 15:31:15 +0000

Sherri Cook discusses wastewater management with KGNU Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/19/2022 - 09:31

Assistant Professor Sherri Cook is featured in a new piece by KGNU radio on "Putting Wastewater to Work in Boulder County."

Cook, an expert in sustainable water design and resource recovery from waste, discusses opportunities for wastewater to benefit humanity.

Listen on KGNU.org...

Off

Traditional

White

Baker discusses electric cars as a power grid backup with Vox

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 20:37:37 +0000

Baker discusses electric cars as a power grid backup with Vox Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/10/2022 - 13:37

Assistant Professor Kyri Baker is featured in a new piece by Vox on a California pilot project to use electric cars to back up the power grid.

Baker, whose research focuses on power systems, smart grids, and renewable technology, discusses pluses and pitfalls of the project, which is a joint effort between General Motors and Pacific Gas and Electric.

Read the full piece at Vox...

Off

Traditional

White

Science Friday interviews Abbie Liel on infrastructure resilience

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 22:50:21 +0000

Science Friday interviews Abbie Liel on infrastructure resilience Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 02/25/2022 - 15:50

Professor Abbie Liel was interviewed by Science Friday, a weekly NPR program dedicated to science and technology.

She discusses bridge infrastructure and new ways of building more resilient structures in a segment produced following the recent bridge collapse in Pittsburgh.

Liel's research focuses on ways to make communities safer and more resilient in the face of natural hazards.

Listen to the interview at Science Friday

Off

Traditional

White