UCLA law students participating in the California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic, hosted by UCLA Law’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, conducted wildfire research used to inform Senate Bill 63, introduced by Sen. Henry Stern. Through the aggregation of information from various, often conflicting sources, they created a thorough proposal for local-level wildfire prevention.
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California had its worst wildfire season on record in 2020 — enduring seven of the 20 largest wildfires in state history and suffering more than $16 billion in property damage. This dire reality is spurring an unprecedented response in academia, government and the private sector, as outlined in a special webinar hosted by UC Center Sacramento entitled “Do we have the science, tools and policies needed to predict wildfire and its impacts in California?”
A group of UCLA engineers has become the first university team to win the grand prize in the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE global competition. By mitigating the carbon footprint of concrete, the team’s invention could eventually be a major step in the global battle against climate change.
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For many Los Angeles residents, the daily commute is frustrating. A project by three UCLA faculty members aims to change that — especially for those who ride to work on two wheels — by creating bicycle “flows” that produce real-time digital art exhibitions throughout the city.
One of the project’s goals is to make cycling to work feel as accessible and safe as other modes of travel, so the professors envision groups, or flows, of cyclists that would be organized by a smartphone app. The app would encourage reluctant or inexperienced cyclists to participate by pointing them toward those flows, suggest routes that are optimized for enjoyability and safety over efficiency or speed, and enable participants to share their experiences.
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When buildings are aligned in rows with no gaps between them, pedestrians are usually exposed to higher concentrations of vehicle-related, ultrafine particles that harm human health, according to a study co-authored by UCLA air quality expert Suzanne Paulson.
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