UC Davis researchers have developed low-cost, portable sensors to help California communities detect harmful air pollutants. Their goal is to provide real-time data on toxic metals, empowering residents and regulators to identify pollution sources and push for cleaner air.
The water quality of Clear Lake — California’s largest natural freshwater lake — suffers from low-to-no-oxygen conditions that contribute to harmful algal blooms (HABs) and other issues, according to a report from the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center and the U.S. Geological Survey and that was led by Civil & Environmental faculty and researchers.
Producing materials such as steel, plastics and cement in the United States alone inflicts $79 billion a year in climate-related damage around the world, according to a new study by engineers and economists at the University of California, Davis. Accounting for these costs in market prices could encourage progress toward climate-friendly alternatives.
Production of cement is responsible for nearly 7% of global CO2 emissions. This is because concrete is the second most consumed material in the world, and the chemical reactions that occur during concrete production using traditional methods give off CO2. Concrete is used in pavements, buildings, dams, among many other uses. We urgently need ways to make concrete more climate friendly. Two UC Davis professors are helping drive the changes needed, Prof.’s John Harvey and Somayeh Nassiri.
Prof. Emeritus Patricia (Pat) Mokhtarian was elected to the 2024 class of the National Academy of Engineering for her contributions to "improved transportation systems planning and practice through quantifying human behavior." Prof. Mokhtarian is a world-leading researcher on travel behavior. Her work on the impact of telecommunications technology on travel behavior long predates the huge shift that has taken place over the last few years.
Massive rainstorms. Earthquakes. Natural phenomena are constantly reshaping the world around us, sometimes with disastrous consequences. In the Rock Hardepisode of the hit public TV show Home Diagnosis Prof.'s Jason DeJong and Ross Bolanger and Dr.
Naturally occurring microbes could help stabilize the ground under buildings during earthquakes due to the way they reduce the water content in soils, according to new research.
One existing approach to stabilizing liquefaction-prone soils known as grouting is to inject concrete into the soil under vulnerable structures to cement the ground together.
Scientists at the UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling have compiled the most detailed experimental data yet seen on how liquefaction-induced downdrag can add to the structural load applied to a pile foundation during earthquake shaking.
Prof. Mike Kleeman is one of the authors of recent research, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, that demonstrates how switching to renewable energy like solar, wind, and water power will also reduce racial and ethnic disparities in exposure to air pollution.
Every year, we see more electric vehicles (EVs) on the road. By 2035, all new passenger vehicles sold in California will be EVs to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful pollutants. As EVs take over, we need new approaches to deal with manufacturing EV batteries and the end-of-life challenges EV batteries face.
Civil and environmental engineering professor Sabbie Miller has received $1.5M in federal funding from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E agency to advance the methods and metrics necessary to quantify greenhouse gas (GHG) sequestration in building materials.
The department is honored to be hosting Dr. Amit Varma as he delivers his 2021 T. R. Higgins Lecture "SpeedCore and Steel-Concrete Composite Construction: The Best of Both Worlds." This lecture will be held from 4-5 pm on March 11, 2022, in 1003 GiedtHall. There will be a reception after the event.
In a continuation of the Bischel team's work on wastewater analysis with Healthy Davis Together, Hannah Safford, Karen Shapiro, and Professor Bischel published an op-ed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. The article, titled Opinion: Wastewater analysis can be a powerful public health tool—if it’s done sensibly, can be found here. Congratulations, Hannah and Professor Bischel!
CA Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed landmark legislation by State Senator Josh Becker that will make California the first state to directly target greenhouse gas emissions from cement. Senate Bill 596 also is the first bill in any California sector to focus on achieving net-zero emissions.
Decarbonizing California Transportation by 2045
Report to State Outlines Policy Pathways to Meet the Zero-Carbon Time Crunch
UC Davis News and Media Relations recently highlighted the research contributions of department faculty members Austin Brown, Dan Sperling, and grad group member Susan Handy for their work on the "Driving California’s Transportation Emissions to Zero" report.
Professor Brian Maroney speaker on panel at ASCE/SEI Symposium
Many UCD students and alumni attended the ASCE/SEI San Francisco Chapter hosted a symposium on resilience to mark the 30th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake. The speaker panel consisted of representatives from BART, Caltrans, EBMUD, City of Oakland, and the San Francisco Office of Resilience and Capital Planning. This event presented a unique opportunity to learn about the resiliency efforts of major building and infrastructure agencies in the Bay Area.
Everyone knows cigarettes are bad for you. Much research has been done and because of that, legislators have put a lot of sales restrictions and taxes on them. This is why companies are developing new products that deliver nicotine such as vapes, small cigars and cigarillos that have sugary flavors to addict a new generation of users.
These newer products have really caught on, especially with young people, who are adopting them faster than they can be researched or regulated.
Lake Tahoe, with its iconic blue waters straddling the borders of Nevada and California, continues to face a litany of threats related to climate change. But a promising new project to remove tiny invasive shrimp could be a big step toward climate-proofing its famed lake clarity.
UC Davis’ Women in Water Research team announced it will take the plunge for the third consecutive year in the Trans Tahoe Relay, a 10-mile swim across the alpine lake — no wetsuits permitted.
The NSF-funded workshop, the product of a year and a half of planning by UC Davis civil and environmental engineering professors Alejandro Martinez and Jason DeJong, brought together 60 experts from engineering and science research, as well as industry, to foster dialogue and collaborations to better establish the field of bio-inspired geotechnics.
A return to more normal weather and streamflow conditions in 2018 saw Lake Tahoe’s annual clarity value improve dramatically to 70.9 feet. This represents a 10.5-foot increase over the 2017 value. That is according to a report of Lake Tahoe clarity released by the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center.
CEE Professor Heather Bischel and graduate student Hannah Safford were chosen to receive the top $40,000 prize from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Pathogen Monitoring Prize Competition.
A small group of scientists and doctoral students from the University of California, Davis, recently returned from Antarctica, where they became the first group to collect turbulence measurements from an underwater glider beneath an ice shelf.
Professor Ross Boulanger and the rest of the team at the CGM were thrilled to have UC Davis Chancellor Gary May tour the Center for Geotechnical Modeling.
Mohamed Elkashef, a postdoc working with Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor John Harvey and University of California Pavement Research Center Associate Director David Jones, recently received a 2018-2019 Mistletoe Research Fellowship.
On June 12, the UC Davis Solar Decathlon team, led by Professor Frank Loge in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, received the Excellence in Structural Engineering Award from the Structural Engineers Association of Central California for their work designing and building OurH2Ouse for the 2017 U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition.
A University of California, Davis research team led by civil and environmental engineering professors Geoff Schladow and Alex Forrest, along with environmental science and policy professor Steve Sadro, is launching a new project this month to test and optimize a strategy to improve water clarity in Emerald Bay and Lake Tahoe.
UC Davis research by a team including CEE’s Dr. Frank Loge connecting electricity savings and urban water conservation was spotlighted in The Los Angeles Times.
The California Energy Commission awarded the Center for Water and Energy Efficiency at UC Davis $3.1 million to pilot-test a system to help water utilities optimize their energy use and reduce operational costs while continuing to meet customers’ water needs.
