NEWS
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Thesis Defense: Modeling Oyster Reef Resilience with Rebecca Stanley
Join us for a IRIS graduate student’s thesis defense! Rebecca Stanley, MS candidate in Civil & Environmental Engineering with Emphasis in Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering, University of Georgia will defend her thesis: “Modeling Oyster Reef Resilience as a Form of Nature-Based Infrastructure in Response to Local Hydrodynamic Conditions” The application of…
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Rainwater Harvesting with Cisterns
Whether it’s at the turn of a faucet or a bucket from the well, every person in the world relies on having clean water. In Ceará, Brazil, where water scarcity is an issue, communities rely on collected rainfall in cisterns to ensure that they have access to water through the…
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IRIS Affiliate Jenna Jambeck awarded MacArthur Grant
Congratulations to Dr. Jenna Jambeck, a Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Environmental Engineering, for her being named a 2022 MacArthur Fellow! Jambeck was given this honor for her work investigating the scale of plastic pollution and galvanizing efforts to address plastic waste. Read the full story here.
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Sizing up marshes for flood prevention
Just how big do coastal marshes need to be to do their job as protectors of the coastline? IRIS researchers from the University of Georgia, Viyaktha Hithaishi Hewageegana, Matt Bilskie, Brock Woodson, and Brian Bledsoe investigated the matter by running simulations that tested how changes in marsh geometry impacted the…
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Special Section on LTER and Climate Change
Story by Sean Turner Forest and freshwater ecosystems are not just important for their natural beauty. They also provide our communities with drinking water, power, transportation, and provide habitat for other species. And because of their importance as infrastructure, it is imperative that we know how climate change has affected…
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Engineering coastal structures to centrally embrace biodiversity
Story by Sean Turner Image from Pexels.com Protecting ecosystems or protecting our communities is not an “either-or” scenario. Both are possible using natural infrastructure in place of and alongside gray infrastructure. Natural infrastructure is capable of protecting our coastal communities from floods as well as increasing biodiversity on our shorelines. Network…
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IRIS in the News: Leaky infrastructure driving antibiotic resistant pathogens in local waters
How are antibiotic resistant microbes and septic tanks related? IRIS affiliate Krista Capps and her collaborators were recently featured by the UGA College of Public Health for their research on the link between microbial resistance and leaky septic tanks: their research pointed to the fact that old infrastructure could be…
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IRIS Affiliate Clark Alexander voted 2022-23 president-elect of the Southern Association of Marine Laboratories
Congratulations to IRIS affiliate Dr. Clark Alexander, the director of the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, for being voted president-elect of the Souther Association of Marine Laboratories. He’ll serve his term during 2023-2024. Read the full story here!
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IRIS member Marshall Shepherd explains how extreme weather, justice and water supply factor into the Jackson Water Crisis
“The entanglement of environmental justice, disparities in infrastructure investments, and the ongoing era of amplified extreme weather defines the current crisis,” wrote IRIS Associate Director of Climate and Science Outreach, Dr. Marshall Shepherd in a recent piece published in the Jackson Water Crisis. Read the full story here.
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A Conversation with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Daniel Blackman
Join the Georgia Initiative for Climate and Society (Fall 2022 Seminar Series) on Tuesday, September 6th, 2022 at 4:00pm in the Miller Learning Center, Room 102 at the University of Georgia for a talk given by Dr. Daniel Blackman, the EPA Region 4 Administrator. President Biden appointed Daniel Blackman to…
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IRIS Director Brian Bledsoe Presented Keynote at National Hydraulic Engineering Conference
At the recent National Hydraulic Engineering Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, IRIS Director Brian Bledsoe presented the keynote address. His takeaways as some of the most pressing needs: -Our goal should be to view infrastructure systemically and understand its processes in time-When designing new infrastructure, we need to take an iterative,…
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Upcoming seminar: Modeling Coral Reef Restoration to Reduce Coastal Hazards from Scales of Kilometers to Centimeters
Mark your calendars for an upcoming seminar with USGS scientist Dr. Curt Storlazzi on November 4th, 2022! Seminar title: Modeling Coral Reef Restoration to Reduce Coastal Hazards from Scales of Kilometers to Centimeters Talk abstract: Coral reefs are effective natural barriers that protect adjacent coastal communities from hazards such as…
