NEWS
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IRIS Students shine at annual Confluence Poster Contest
On Friday, November 14, the University of Georgia’s River Basin Center hosted their third annual poster contest, showcasing work on all things water resources. Graduate students from across campus were invited to share their work at the Special Collections Library on UGA’s campus. Topics from the full range of water…
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Ducks Unlimited Magazine features Natural Infrastructure Graduate Fellowship
As floods, droughts, and storms intensify and aging infrastructure struggles to keep up, wetlands are increasingly in the spotlight—not just as habitat, but as vital systems that buffer storms, absorb floodwaters, and improve water quality across entire landscapes. The Natural Infrastructure Graduate Fellowship, launched in 2022 by Ducks Unlimited and the University…
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Listening In On Levee Setbacks
IRIS researchers are tuning in to how riverine infrastructure shapes the landscape–and soundscape–of ecosystems. As part of a NASA-funded research effort, assistant professor Charles van Rees and his research team have deployed automated recording units, or ARUs, across study sites on the Missouri River to listen in on the local…
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Nature-Based Approaches to Disaster Resilience Can Yield Big Returns in States
Across the country, state governments are faced with the increasing frequency and intensity of disasters and the compounding scarcity of resources to plan for and lessen their impacts. With these unprecedented challenges likely to grow, state leaders are turning to one another to share best practices and lessons learned to…
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New Resilient Futures Podcast: Disaster Prep in the Big City
What did you do during the COVID-19 social distancing era? Some of us learned to make sourdough, some of us perfected a viral whipped coffee, plenty of us did a whole lot of nothing- but this NYC subculture was busy taking notes. Anna Bounds, a Professor of Sociology at Queens…
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Reimagining insurance and climate resilience
Universities and insurers are joining forces to rethink how society understands and manages climate risk. Hurricane rainfall flooded road. Drowned car on city street in Florida residential area. Consequences of hurricane natural disaster. The University of Georgia and Duke University are partnering with leaders from the insurance and climate data…
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Marshall Shepherd to feature in new documentary: Superfloods
A new NOVA documentary premiering next week features Marshall Shepherd, Director of the UGA Atmospheric Sciences program and IRIS Associate Director of Climate Science and Outreach. “Superfloods” discusses the alarming threat of unprecedented flooding, such as that seen during Hurricane Helene last fall or in Texas over the Fourth of…
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Natural Infrastructure Fellow Aurora Fowler on Freshwater, Field Work and Frogs
For Natural Infrastructure Graduate Fellow Aurora Fowler, field work is a way to understand how ecosystems respond to change on the ground–and in the mud. During her six weeks living out of a camper along the lower Missouri River this summer, she investigated the froggy details of a region shaped…
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IRIS Field Course serves as a model for natural infrastructure education
What’s the best way to learn about interdisciplinary topics? A new Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems publication, “Assessing outcomes of a field-oriented course in natural infrastructure,” helps to answer that question. The publication, which was recently published in the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, highlighted how experiential learning can…
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Reflecting on Resilience: Q&A with Haley Selsor, IRIS Research Professional
We’re very proud to announce the recent graduation of PhD student Haley Selsor, who successfully defended her dissertation on flood risk and equity in the Athens area in early summer. To celebrate her successful defense, we sat down with her to learn about how she got to this point in…
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New Resilient Futures Episode: Going With the Flow
California relies on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta as a hub for water, biodiversity, agriculture, recreation, and more. How can we make sure that management actions are working as intended? A returning guest to the Resilient Futures Podcast, Stephen Elser is a Senior Environmental Scientist with the Delta Stewardship Council, which…
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Ask IRIS: What’s in Your Emergency Kit?
Do you know what to do when disaster strikes? Few people know exactly how to respond when faced with a hurricane, long-term power outage or sudden pandemic. Even those who have experienced these events in the past might not be ready to face them again tomorrow. According to FEMA’s 2024…
