Archinect - News

New scientific study provides vital data on sinking Chinese cities

2024-04-23T15:08:00-04:00

The toll of urbanization in China has been documented in a new paper published in the journal Science by a team of researchers from different institutions around the country. Using a method called spaceborne synthetic aperture radar interferometry (or InSAR), they were able to establish the rate at which land is subsiding in major cities, affecting over a third (36%) of the country's urban population.

The paper's abstract states that 45% of metro areas surveyed are now subsiding faster than 3 millimeters per year, with another 16% subsiding faster than 10 millimeters per year. By 2120, upwards of 26% of all coastal lands will have elevations below sea level. The source of the sinking is the combined weight of buildings and the depletion of groundwater around urban areas. "Our results underscore the necessity of enhancing protective measures to mitigate potential damages from subsidence," the authors stated.

These latest findings could potentially have bearings on the work of Turensc...

ETH Zurich’s 3D printed sculpture oscillates between ‘opaque boundary’ and ‘transparent curtain’

2024-03-14T12:06:00-04:00

ETH Zurich has unveiled a 6.5-foot-tall lightweight shell fabricated from 3D printing.

Named 'Fluid Forms,' and created by the institution’s Digital Building Technologies group, the structure seeks to showcase “an innovative robotic additive manufacturing method that enables the printing of doubly curved thin shells more efficiently.”

Video courtesy Ιoanna.M/YouTube

The design of Fluid Forms was inspired by the Costa minimal surface, which belongs to a family of shapes that minimize area for a given boundary, resulting in a geometry with strong structural properties. In contrast to horizontal plane printing, the fabrication process sees the print paths align to principal curvature directions, which, according to the team, reduces the need for external support and enhances the precision and surface quality of the curved surface.

Image credit: Dominik Vogel

“The print path orientation is controlled through a vector-field optimization method that has been fi...

Researchers look at the possibilities of wood fly ash by-products as an alternative in rammed earth construction

2024-03-02T08:00:00-05:00

New findings published in the journal Construction and Building Materials from a team of materials researchers working at the University of British Columbia Okanagan's School of Engineering have demonstrated the sustainable qualities of using wood fly ash by-products as alternatives to traditional concrete additives.

The study was undertaken in light of some recent popularity of rammed earth construction in the architectural field, an ancient form of building whose mastery has propelled the 2022 Pritzker Prize winner Diébédo Francis Kéré and several others to prominence parallel with the industry's fight against climate change.

"Everything old is new again and that is precisely why we've been investigating rammed earth construction," Dr. Sumi Siddiqua explained to the UBCO news outlet. "There is an increasing demand for sustainable building products here in Canada and around the world, and materials like fly ash are just the start of a new and important trend."

Siddiqua’s team was...

Production begins on the world’s tallest 3D printed structure

2024-02-16T11:40:00-05:00

Production has begun on a 3D printed tower in Switzerland, which is expected to be the tallest structure of its kind in the world. Named the ‘Tor Alva’ or ‘White Tower,’ the project is currently being fabricated at ETH Zurich, where the first eight columns of the tower’s lower floor commenced 3D printing in February.

Image credit: Hansmeyer/Dillenburger

The columns’ fabrication sees a robot extrude the concrete in 8mm-high layered print paths. In a departure from traditional concrete construction, the 3D printing process means formwork is no longer required, freeing new avenues for the team to experiment with shapes, surface details, and cavities. The tower will also be the first instance of printed concrete being used in a fully structural manner, with steel reinforcement inserted during the robotic production process.

Image credit: R. Masallam

The tower will be constructed in the remote Swiss Alps village of Mulegns, where it will host music and theater performances. At 98 feet (nea...

Drexel University researchers develop AI-guided robotic structural inspection system

2024-02-12T08:00:00-05:00

Researchers based at the Drexel University College of Engineering have devised a new method for performing structural safety inspections using autonomous robots aided by machine learning technology.

The article they published recently in the Elsevier journal Automation in Construction presented the potential for a new multi-scale monitoring system informed by deep-learning algorithms that work to find cracks and other damage to buildings before using LiDAR to produce three-dimensional images for inspectors to aid in their documentation.

The development could potentially work to benefit the enormous task of maintaining the health of structures that are increasingly being reused or restored in cities large and small across the country. Despite the relative age of America’s built environment, roughly two-thirds of today’s existing buildings will be in use in the year 2050, according to Gensler’s predictions.

Researchers use cellulose and algae to create 3D printed architectural material

2024-02-09T13:46:00-05:00

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have published their study into how materials made from nanocellulose and algae can be used as sustainable architectural materials. The research, conducted in collaboration with the Wallenberg Wood Science Center, “shows how the abundant sustainable material can be 3D printed into a wide array of architectural components, using much less energy than conventional construction methods,” according to the team.

Nanocellulose, molecules consisting of hundreds or thousands of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms, are already used in biomedicine to 3D print scaffolds for tissue and cell growth but have never been used in an architectural material. The researchers, therefore, mixed nanocellulose fibers and water with an algae-based material called alginate to produce a 3D printable material with architectural uses in mind.

“For the first time...

MIT researchers develop rapid 3D printing process with liquid metal

2024-01-30T12:40:00-05:00

News is circulating about a novel method for 3D printing liquid metals that was developed by researchers working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Self-Assembly Lab.

The invention can print furniture-sized components using molten aluminum and a ceramic nozzle graphite printer. They say their discovery works without re-melting the recycled materials, as is the case with many current technologies. It resembles a small furnace into which book-sized blocks of the material are fed. The technique, called liquid metal printing (LMP), creates material that is durable enough to withstand CNC milling and other steps in the post-design delivery process.

Image credit: MIT Self-Assembly Lab

The hope now is to refine the technique to allow for more consistent and higher-resolution prints. Such rapid and deployable solutions could become an attractive choice for architectural designers looking to scale up development and building projects in the future.

Image credit: MIT Self-Asse...

Buro Happold and Dialog unveil new urban thermal comfort study for Toronto

2024-01-22T18:45:00-05:00

The City of Toronto recently completed a groundbreaking study of its ‘thermal comfort’ done by Buro Happold and Dialog. The work will provide valuable lessons to urban planners, developers, and other stakeholders as the country’s largest metropolitan area prepares a strategy to suitably mitigate the growing number of extreme heat days it faces in a given year.

The study will go a long way in informing Toronto’s response to heat and climate, leading eventually to the creation and implementation of new comfort guidelines included as part of a broader Heat Relief Strategy that was debuted two years ago. Toronto's City Planning Division contracted Buro Happold and Dialog to lead the study based on the former’s extensive experience with similar plans for large metro areas such as New York, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis.

“These are significant new kinds of guidance that city leaders everywhere need to help protect their citizens and support public health in an era of rapid climate change,...

UIC researchers predict nearly half of all American cities will experience 'massive' depopulation trends by 2100

2024-01-17T12:05:00-05:00

The implications of this massive decline in population will bring unprecedented challenges, possibly leading to disruptions in basic services like transit, clean water, electricity and internet access. Simultaneously, increasing population trends in resource-intensive suburban and periurban cities will probably take away access to much needed resources in depopulating areas, further exacerbating their challenges.

Almost half (43%) of the 30,000 cities surveyed recently by the University of Illinois Chicago are expected to lose population while another 40% — among the country’s larger metros such as New York City and Phoenix — will experience growth through the end of this century.

Lead author Sybil Derrible told Scientific American: “The takeaway is that we need to shift away from growth-based planning, which is going to require an enormous cultural shift in the planning and engineering of cities.” Declining birth rates, income tax burdens, rising home prices, and the effects of climate change are all pivotal factors in causing the demographic change.

Exciting architecture fellowships to apply to in January 2024

2024-01-03T08:14:00-05:00

In early November, we highlighted five exciting fellowships to apply to. As we begin the new year, architecture schools continue to search for motivated designers, researchers, and emerging academics to apply to their upcoming fellowship opportunities.

To kick off 2024, we highlight four fellowships featured on the Archinect Job Board.

The University of Toronto offers the Emerging Architect Fellowship Award
Location: Toronto, ON

Details: "The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto, invites applications for a two-year Emerging Architect Fellowship Award in areas of architectural research and design, with particular focus on topics that address issues of climate and the built environment. This Fellowship Award will be a non-tenure appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor. The appointment is expected to begin on July 1, 2024, or shortly thereafter, and end on June 30, 2026." Learn more here.

*Application materials must be submi...

Drexel team uses bacteria to create self-healing concrete

2023-12-29T11:40:00-05:00

A team from Drexel University has published their research into a self-healing system for concrete. The team, operating in the University’s College of Engineering, embedded bacteria in their concrete system that, when activated by water, can repair cracks in the concrete.

Named ‘BioFiber,’ the Drexel system sees a polymer fiber encased in a bacteria-laden hydrogel and a protective, damage-responsive shell. A grid of BioFibers embedded in a concrete structure can improve the system’s durability, prevent cracks from growing, and enable self-healing, according to the research published in the journal Construction and Building Materials.

The team was inspired by the ability of human skin tissue to self-heal, and the ability of vascular systems to help organisms heal their own wounds. The team identified a strain of Lysinibacillus sphaericus bacteria as a bio-healing agent for the fiber, which is found in soil and can produce a stone-like material capable of healing exposed cracks in con...

Research finds a link between social vulnerability and urban heat island effect

2023-12-29T11:32:00-05:00

New research from two U.S. universities has drawn a link between socially vulnerable populations and urban heat island effect. The team, drawn from the University of Texas at San Antonio and Pennsylvania State University, used Philadelphia as a case study to summarize how more vulnerable people live in neighborhoods that are “less green and that get hotter.”

The research was recently published in the Journal of Buildings, and examines the differing characteristics of two Philadelphia neighborhoods to study how the way a neighborhood is built, and the characteristics of the people who live there, are both related to how hot it gets. The team found a “clear link between outdoor temperature and specific urban characteristics” before asking “whether these urban characteristics can be related to the social vulnerability of the residents.”

The social vulnerability of different Philadelphia neighborhoods. Image credit: Research team, licensed under CC BY-ND

The group established a social vu...

Toronto Metropolitan University unveils plan for SCITHub, the 'world’s first fully digitally-enabled building'

2023-12-28T15:49:00-05:00

A new prototype demonstration of different burgeoning smart building technologies is coming to the campus of Toronto Metropolitan University as part of a cross-institutional effort that will result in the construction of a new 3,229-square-foot Smart Campus Integration and Testing Hub (SCITHub) designed by WZMH Architects.

The initiative has been in development since 2019, with a finalized design for the structure submitted two years later, and its construction is now fully funded through a mixture of public grants and private donations that covered the total project cost of about $6 million.

The TMU SCITHub is part of the Network of Living Campuses (NLC), which involves seven other universities across Canada. Researchers are hopeful it will serve as a kind of nexus for the various data-driven investigations into smart building tech that are happening at their respective campuses.

Image courtesy Toronto Metropolitan University

A mass timber building envelope and exterior Intellige...

Architecture's top green projects and sustainability innovations in 2023

2023-12-27T20:28:00-05:00

Wrapping up a year in the wake of the recently concluded COP28 UN climate summit that resulted in, well, mild levels of agreement on the role of fossil fuels, it is possible to sense a slightly increased urgency toward this most pressing planetary issue on a high-minded diplomatic level. As we're quickly approaching the quarter mark of the 21st century, however, much more concrete action and innovation in various sectors of the AEC domain is needed — and is already happening — on the ground level as well, as we have seen in our reporting on Archinect.

Continuing with our 2023 Year in Review series, let's take a look back at some of the story highlights focusing on decarbonization efforts, material research, policy implementation, and successful applications of sustainability principles this year.

Building Electrification

Energy-efficient heat pump technology is gaining in popularity. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons user Øyvind Holmstad.

The process of gradually phasing out fossil f...

Exciting student projects, academic research, and fellowships at architecture schools in 2023

2023-12-26T14:20:00-05:00

Continuing with our 2023 Year in Review series, we look back at the exciting design and research projects from students and faculty at architecture schools across the U.S. and abroad.

2023 proved to be a year filled with new academic research expanding on building materials, applications in AI, and 3D printed fabrication and modeling. We also covered the appointment of new academic fellows and published in-depth conversations about the results of their work, including the Harry der Boghosian Fellow and Schidlowski Emerging Faculty Fellow.

Notable Thesis Projects

Archinect's ongoing Thesis Review series offers a look at the work and process of thesis projects produced each year by graduate and undergraduate students. In 2023, we connected with B.Arch and M.Arch graduates to dive into their process, architectural perspectives, and their post-graduation pursuits.

51mi + 25km = 13ft — Archiving the place that remains, thesis project by Sophie Akoury. Thesis advisor: Marcelyn Gow. Image...

Louisiana State and NASA to develop waterless concrete for 3D printing on the Moon

2023-12-14T12:06:00-05:00

Louisiana State University is collaborating with NASA on a project investigating the potential for natural materials on the Moon to be used as 3D printed waterless concrete. The research is part of a wider mission to develop feasible robotic construction technologies that can support the building of long-term settlements on the Lunar surface, including habitats, landing pads, and radiation shields.

The research is a partnership between LSU Construction Management Assistant Professor Ali Kazemian alongside scientists Michael Fiske and Jennifer Edmunson from the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Together, the team will investigate how raw materials already available on the Moon and Mars, namely sulfur and regolith, can be used to develop 3D printed waterless concrete.

Related on Archinect: ICON to work with DARPA on a framework for Lunar architecture. Image credit: BIG

Supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, the team will study the performance and limits ...

Over 100 Gaza heritage sites damaged or destroyed by Israeli strikes, report says

2023-12-05T13:30:00-05:00

The Spanish NGO Heritage for Peace has published a report on the impact of recent Israeli airstrikes on Gaza’s cultural heritage. The report, released on November 7th, claims that over 100 cultural heritage landmarks have been damaged or destroyed as of publishing. Reports of subsequent damage since November 7th are not yet available.

The Heritage for Peace report lists 104 pieces of built heritage impacted by the latest war, of which 4 have been completely destroyed, 11 have been partially destroyed by direct shelling, and 89 have been partially destroyed by indirect shelling. The list of sites spans mosques, churches, archaeological sites, historical houses, shrines, cemeteries, and museums.

Among the sites completely destroyed by direct shelling is the Omari Mosque, described by NPR as “one of the most important and ancient mosques in historical Palestine.” Meanwhile, the Church of Saint Porphyrius was partially destroyed, described by NPR as “the third oldest church in the entir...

University of British Columbia develops ‘smart construction robots’ for basic on-site tasks

2023-12-01T12:00:00-05:00

A team at the University of British Columbia has developed “smart construction robots” for performing basic tasks on construction sites, such as lifting and moving objects. The team, led by Dr. Tony Yang from the University’s Smart Structures Lab, recently demonstrated the concept at a construction site in Richmond, British Columbia.

Photo credit: UBC Applied Science

The team’s process sees aerial drones fitted with cameras capture details that are used to create a digital twin of the construction site. AI-equipped cranes and forklifts use the information to move construction materials, such as beams and columns, around the site without a human operator.

Lead researcher Dr. Tony Yang observes as the robot decides how to navigate around the obstacle and complete its task, without n eeding a human operator. Photo credit: UBC Applied Science

“Our smart construction robots are able to recognize objects, performing detailed scans of structural components for quality assurance,” Dr. Yang ex...

ETH Zurich researcher develops 3D printed insulation foam using recycled materials

2023-12-01T11:48:00-05:00

ETH Zurich has published details of new research into lightweight building components produced using 3D printing. Led by doctoral architecture researcher Patrick Bedarf, the Airlements project centers on cement-free mineral foams derived from recycled industrial waste.

Working within the institution’s Digital Building Technologies group led by Professor Benjamin Dillenburger, Bedarf’s project emerged from a doctoral thesis on lightweight insulating construction elements, and how complex shapes could be manufactured with fewer material inputs. Bedarf ultimately deployed a sustainable insulation material produced by the ETH spin-off FenX using recycled industrial waste.

FenX’s mineral foam material is mostly made from fly ash, a waste product from industrial blast furnaces. Bedarf’s process then deploys 3D printing to shape the material into bespoke building parts without the need for formwork, which is traditionally only partly reusable and more time-consuming.

“Without automation, ...

Cambridge researchers develop AI model to help retrofit and decarbonize housing

2023-11-02T11:45:00-04:00

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have unveiled a “first-of-its-kind AI model” that can help policymakers identify and prioritize houses for retrofitting and other decarbonizing measures. The deep learning model, trained by researchers from the university’s Department of Architecture, promises “to make it far easier, faster, and cheaper to identify these high-priority problem properties and develop strategies to improve their green credentials,” the team says.

The model and wider research centers on ‘hard-to-decarbonize’ (HtD) houses that, while responsible for a quarter of all direct housing emissions, are rarely identified or targeted for improvement. According to the team, the age, structure, location, availability of data, and socioeconomic context can all lead to a house being classified as HtD.

In response, a team including urban researcher and data scientist Maoran Sun and the university’s Sustainable Design group lead, Dr. Ronita Bardhan, has developed their AI mo...

University of Illinois launches center for autonomous construction research

2023-08-23T11:26:00-04:00

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Grainger College of Engineering has announced the creation of a research and development center dedicated to autonomous construction technologies. The initiative, funded by the US Army Corps of Engineers, will engage with research on self-driving construction vehicles and their integration into modern construction practices.

The Center for Autonomous Construction in Manufacturing at Scale (CACMS) will delve into prominent challenges in autonomous construction, including control systems, artificial intelligence applications, system architecture, and advanced manufacturing methods such as additive manufacturing. Vehicles ranging from traditional wheeled vehicles to tracked units will also undergo testing and development at the center, which will also hold a fleet of self-driving cars.

Within these fields, CACMS's primary mission ...

Stanford research explores using plastic waste in construction

2023-07-28T14:20:00-04:00

Stanford University has published new research exploring the use of plastic waste in constructing roads and buildings. The research project, funded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), identified that recycled glass fiber-reinforced polymer composite – a tensile plastic used extensively in car, boat, and plane parts – shows potential for repurposing in building applications.

The team, led by Stanford engineers Zhiye Li and Michael Lepech, incorporated computer modeling, scientific research, field data, and stakeholder interviews in their research, which was recently published in a white paper. They studied real-world applications such as the utilization of plastic waste for façade panels in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and pavement in a California Department of Transportation road project.

The research highlighted significant challenges in existing p...

MIT team tests open-source cooling chamber using 75% less energy than refrigerated cold rooms

2023-07-27T11:18:00-04:00

MIT researchers have published details of a new open-source forced-air evaporative cooling chamber. Described as being less expensive than refrigerated cold rooms, the chamber is intended to offer accessible cold storage for smallholder farmers, as well as significantly reduce post-harvest waste in hot and dry climates.

The chamber, which can be housed in a used shipping container and powered by either grid electricity or solar panels, has a capacity of 168 produce crates. The design uses industrial fans to draw in hot, dry air, which is passed through a porous wet pad. This creates cool, humid air that is directed through crates of produce, allowing rapid cooling. The air is then directed through the raised floor and to a channel between the insulation and the exterior container wall, where it flows to the exhaust holes near the top of the side walls.

The project was led by MIT Professor Leon Glicksman of the Building Technology Program within the Department of Architecture and Res...

Ohio State researchers use machine learning to create 3D digital models of lost historic neighborhoods

2023-07-21T12:38:00-04:00

A team of researchers from The Ohio State University has developed a machine learning technique that converts old urban maps into three-dimensional digital models. According to the team, the models could potentially revolutionize research involving historic neighborhoods and the economic impact of their demolition.

The study, recently published in the journal PLOS ON, involved extracting and digitizing data from Sanborn Fire Insurance maps. The maps, created during the 19th and 20th centuries and frequently updated, were used by fire insurance companies to estimate their liabilities in about 12,000 U.S. cities and towns.

"We now have the ability to unlock the wealth of data that are embedded in these Sanborn fire atlases," said Ohio State Geography Professor Harvey Miller, a co-author of the study. "It enables a whole new approach to urban historical res...

The ASLA Fund announces two winners for its Inaugural National Competitive Research Grants

2023-07-19T15:32:00-04:00

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) fund has just announced a pair of winners of its inaugural national competitive grants, offering a total of $25,000 to researchers working towards solutions to both climate change and the ongoing biodiversity crises in the United States.

"We help communities adapt to climate-driven extreme weather and support biodiversity,” ASLA CEO Torey Carter-Conneen explained at the announcement. “The infrastructure challenges in municipalities across the country are enormous —landscape architects bring transformative solutions.”

Learn about the grant winners and their research below.

The Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve: A Showcase of Eluethera's History, Native Plans, and their Medicinal Uses. Eleuthera, The Bahamas. Raymond Jungles, Inc. Image courtesy of ASLA.

Landscape Architecture Solutions to Extreme Heat
By Dr. Daniella Hirschfeld, PhD

"Dr. Hirshfeld will explore landscape architecture- and nature-based solutions that are effective at redu...

MIT's 'Ways of Seeing' project offers scholars renewed access to four important cultural sites in Afghanistan

2023-07-05T14:24:00-04:00

A new research project at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has produced a useful documentation of four hard-to-access multireligious architectural heritage sites in Afghanistan using a combination of digital renderings, satellite imaging, crowdsourced data, and XR technology.

MIT News recently profiled the school’s “Ways of Seeing: Documenting Endangered Built Heritage in Afghanistan” effort, which was the product of multiple departments and research centers within the university. The project was led by MIT’s Sociotechnical Systems Research Center director Fotini Christia, who said it “combines field data, technology, and art to protect heritage and serve the world” in a true evocation of the university’s cross-disciplinary collaborative tradition.

The end result produced two open-access digital archives co-managed via Archnet and MIT Libraries by the Aga Khan Documentation Center and Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Class of 2006 M.Arch graduate Jelena Pejkovic contributed ...

Termite mounds hold secrets for energy-efficient buildings, researchers find

2023-05-30T10:58:00-04:00

Researchers have uncovered a methodology for reducing energy consumption in buildings by studying the structure of termite mounds. Led by Lund University’s Dr. David Andréen and Nottingham Trent University’s Dr. Rupert Soar, the research suggests that the properties of lattice networks in termite mounds, known as an ‘egress complex,’ can be copied to optimize the interior climate of buildings.

“Here we show that the ‘egress complex’, an intricate network of interconnected tunnels found in termite mounds, can be used to promote flows of air, heat, and moisture in novel ways in human architecture,” said Andréen about the study, which was recently published in Frontiers in Materials.

Image credit: Dr. David Andréen

The team grounded their research in the egress complex of Macrotermes michaelseni termites in Namibia, which they observed appeared to promote moisture regulation and ventilation. The mounds are regarded as some of the world’s largest biological structures, capable of reachin...

Researchers claim to have uncovered world’s oldest architectural plans

2023-05-19T15:30:00-04:00

Engraved between 7,000 and 9,000 years ago, these representations are by far the oldest known to-scale architectural plans recorded in human history, the team reported on Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE. They also highlight how carefully planned the desert kites may have been by the ancient peoples who relied on them.

The “desert kites” in question are essentially large-scale slaughter pen-type catchalls used to herd and kill wild animal herds in the prehistoric regions known today as the Levant and Central Asia. Researchers will soon display the plans, which are engraved in stone slabs, in a special exhibition at Jordan’s Al-Hussein Bin Talal University. The paper can be found here.

Co-author Wael Abu-Azizeh told the New York Times the engravings “could also be symbolic commemorations of the desert kites, which may have been an important part of the cultural identity of the ancient peoples who made and used them.”

A new Brookings Institution report extends solutions to America's struggling office-to-residential conversion market

2023-05-02T13:21:00-04:00

A new report published by the Brookings Institution is offering potential solutions for developers, architects, and urban planners engaged in office-to-residential conversions in the hopes of remedying the spate of downtown declines that are beginning to plague cities across the country.

Co-authors Tracy Hadden Loh, Egon Terplan, and DW Rowlands explain: “This report begins by identifying the five common arguments made by proponents for converting offices into housing. It then evaluates the myths and realities of each argument, using data from cities across the United States. It concludes with six recommendations for what cities should do about conversions and what other long-term strategies they could adopt.”

By first identifying and then debunking the critical “myths” they say predominate thinking in the market, the authors make possible a clearer path towards more informed conversion strategies. Notions that conversions are either too pricey or the key to providing solutions to a...

New AI-powered system uses images of stop signs to capture flooding data

2023-04-20T12:29:00-04:00

A professor from Texas A&M University is developing an AI-infused system to capture flooding data in real-time. The system, developed by professor of construction science Amir Behzadan, uses crowdsourced public images of floods to inform rescue and mitigation efforts.

Behzadan began developing the system in response to the lack of flood data-gathering measures in many neighborhoods around the United States. While flood gauges are operated by the U.S. Geological Survey and local governments, such maps often have limited coverage and do not provide detail on how floodwaters move in urban areas.

“When it comes to disaster impact, there are ‘data deserts’ — large areas in our communities in which we have very little information about the likelihood and extent of damage,” Behzadan explains. “If this data is available, informed decisions can be made about immediate needs like search and rescue, as well as longer-term needs such as debris cleanup, economic recovery efforts, and where insur...