News: CEE

The Kaveri River in India is the source for an extensive irrigation system and for hydroelectric power. Provided.

Study exposes global ripple effects of regional water scarcity

By: Syl Kacapyr

Water scarcity is often understood as a problem for regions experiencing drought, but a new study from Cornell and Tufts universities finds that not only can localized water shortages impact the global economy, but changes in global demand send positive and negative ripple effects to water basins across the globe. “We are looking at water scarcity as a globally connected and multi-sector phenomenon,” said Jonathan Lamontagne, M.S. '14, Ph.D. '15, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Tufts University, who co-authored the study with Patrick Reed, the Joseph C. Ford... Read more

College of Engineering's 2019-20 Presentations Awards announced

The College of Engineering’s CUP (Cornell University Presentations) Awards, hosted by the Engineering Communications Program have been announced. The CUP Awards competition invites engaging, unique, insightful technical presentations from undergraduates. For 2019-20 there were three categories of awards and multiple winners in each category. Current applications for all three competitions for AY 2020-2021, where significant prizes are awarded, are now open. Full details are provided on the CUP website . The three categories of awards are these: Roger K. Berman Oral Presentation Awards... Read more

Cornell Giving Day logo

Cornell Giving Day is March 11th.

Join us on Cornell Giving Day, March 11th! Make a gift to CEE. The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering is so grateful for the many esteemed and generous alumni who support our school. Help our students gain the skills to help make the world a better place.

This year we are raising funds for... Read more

molecular structure abstract background

Carbon mineralization pathways for carbon capture, storage and utilization

By: Greeshma Gadikota, Nature, Communications Chemistry

Carbon mineralization is a versatile and thermodynamically downhill process that can be harnessed for capturing, storing, and utilizing CO 2 to synthesize products with enhanced properties. Dr. Greeshma Gadikota discusses the advances in and challenges of carbon mineralization, and concludes that tuning the chemical interactions involved will allow us to unlock its potential for advancing low carbon energy and resource conversion pathways. Read more

Flowchart depicting the research field of multi-sector dynamics.

Reed awarded $1.4M grant to advance human-natural system modeling

By: Syl Kacapyr

A Cornell engineer is advancing the field of ‘multi-sector dynamics’ with a new $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy that will focus on techniques for better projecting the outcomes of human interactions with the natural world. Patrick Reed , the Joseph C. Ford Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, received the grant in collaboration with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Integrated Multisector Multiscale Modeling project . As scientists and policy makers increasingly turn toward mathematical modeling to help inform their decision making... Read more

Dr. Zall in Alaska in 1973. provided to the NY Times by Linda Zall

Inside the C.I.A., She Became a Spy for Planet Earth

By: By William J. Broad

CEE Alumni Dr. Linda Zall's work is featured in this New York Times article. Linda Zall played a starring role in American science that led to decades of major advances. But she never described her breakthroughs on television, or had books written about her, or received high scientific honors. One database of scientific publications lists her contributions as consisting of just three papers, with a conspicuous gap running from 1980 to 2020. The reason is that Dr. Zall’s decades of service to science were done in the secretive warrens of the Central Intelligence Agency. Now, at 70, she’s... Read more

city skyline with graph overplayed over illustration by Elizabeth Nelson

Evaluating Weather-Related Risks for Cities

By: Cornell Research

Cities significantly alter local and regional weather patterns. Pavement and brick raise surface temperatures, skyscrapers generate air turbulence, and heat from cars and other forms of energy consumption affect air currents. Collectively, these factors interact with the lower atmosphere to change the likelihood of floods, droughts, and extreme weather generally. In effect, urbanization is concentrating populations and economies in the crosshairs of weather-related hazards. John D. Albertson and Qi Li, Civil and Environmental Engineering, are developing a predictive framework to understand the... Read more

Colorado Forest with water/lake

Different Models, Different Answers in Water Resource Planning

By: Terri Cook  - American Geophysical Union Eos Research Spotlight

The experimental design used in climate vulnerability assessments can strongly influence the assessments’ findings and skew decisions about which factors are most important for informing adaptation. Effective management of water resources depends on accurately predicting future water supplies and demands that regularly fluctuate because of population growth, climate change, and many other factors. To deal with large uncertainties in these considerations, water resource planners often use what is known as a scenario-neutral approach in their projections. In contrast to scenario-driven methods... Read more