http://www.icivilengineer.com/editor@icivilengineer.comen-ushttp://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9317Five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, James N. Jensen, PhD, University at Buffalo professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering, says that probably the biggest lesson learned from that disaster was that municipalities and citizens now take orders to evacuate much more seriously. August 30 2010 20:23:51http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9316Professor Bob Bea, one of the country's top civil engineers -- whom President Barack Obama has asked to help investigate the Deepwater Horizon incident -- says the New Orleans levees and floodwalls today are still not a "system." Bea, who teaches at the University of California Berkeley, says "it is still a patchwork quilt." August 30 2010 20:21:35http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9315A second Katrina story on the state of levees and flood protection by PBS. August 30 2010 20:22:35http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9314A West Virginia University researcher is studying how emergency shelters can protect miners. The university designed a safe house and is testing it for safety. August 30 2010 20:18:08http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9313Many flood-control problems of today look eerily familiar to Aldrete, the University of Wisconsin historian. He completed a book titled "Floods of the Tiber in Ancient Rome" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007) just a week before Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. August 30 2010 20:16:30http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9310Some of the nation's most historic buildings and monuments may be better protected from decay in future, following a development by engineers. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have devised a method of forecasting damage caused by the weather to stone buildings – including statues, monuments and other historic sites, as well as modern masonry buildings. August 23 2010 20:23:32http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9309Researchers were in Miami last week to study how foundations that support structures such as bridges behave in soft clay during an earthquake, said K.K. “Muralee” Muraleetharan, a professor in the University of Oklahoma’s School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science and the project’s principal investigator. August 23 2010 20:15:07http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9305Virtual reality equipment at the UC Davis Keck Center for Active Visualization in Earth Sciences is allowing researchers to assess damage and predict whether faults are likely to move again in the near future. August 23 2010 20:00:51http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9304The Golden Gate Bridge is a global icon, a triumph of engineering, and a work of art. In American terms, it was shaped by the City Beautiful movement, the Progressive Era, and the Great Depression. August 23 2010 19:59:26http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9299A new University of Central Florida study will examine how rising sea level could harm estuaries and coastal communities along the Florida Panhandle and Alabama and Mississippi coasts. August 13 2010 15:43:00http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9298Two University of Oregon biologists and a professor of architecture will lead a scientific journey into what may be the most underexplored frontier on the planet -- the closed, indoor environment where people in industrialized countries spend an estimated 90 percent of their time. August 13 2010 15:41:16http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9296Have you ever considered what would happen to your house and your family inside it, if it were to be hit by a hurricane blown object such as a tree limb or timber pole? UH Ma-noa professors Ian Robertson and H. Ronald Riggs of the Civil Environmental Engineering Department have assembled an unusual experimental apparatus that can provide scientific answers to questions such as these. August 13 2010 15:36:39http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9294These paving slabs are coated with titanium dioxide (TiO2), which converts harmful substances such as nitrogen oxides into nitrates. Titanium dioxide is a photocatalyst; it uses sunlight to accelerate a naturallyoccurring chemical reaction, the speed of which changes with exposure to light. August 13 2010 15:31:16http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9293Urban Ecosystem Ecology is a new book from the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), the Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA). It takes on the important task of reconciling environmental sciences with the world’s growing urbanization. August 13 2010 15:28:46http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9282Two Stanford University engineers are developing a new sewage treatment process that would actually increase the production of two greenhouse gases – nitrous oxide (aka, "laughing gas") and methane – and use the gases to power the treatment plant. July 30 2010 20:13:05http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9281Nanomaterials are poised for widespread use in the construction industry, where they can offer significant advantages for a variety of applications ranging from making more durable concrete to self-cleaning windows. But widespread use in building materials comes with potential environmental and health risks when those materials are thrown away. July 30 2010 20:11:24http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9278Stanford engineer Brian Cantwell and colleagues originally designed this nitrous oxide thruster for spacecraft. A similar device could be used at wastewater treatment plants to decompose nitrous oxide gas into hot air. July 30 2010 20:04:40http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9277Groups representing states and cities in the Great Lakes region kicked off a $2 million study Thursday of how to slam the door on exotic species such as Asian carp by cutting links between the lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. July 30 2010 20:01:48http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9266The research involves changes to the way heat pumps operate to make them more efficient in extreme cold temperatures. The technology also promises to expand the geographic range in which heat pumps are capable of operating. July 20 2010 13:26:11http://www.icivilengineer.com/News/news.php?id=9265CEMENT and concrete have a shade of green. But that is all the green that most of us can associate with the building materials. Not Dr Sujit Ghosh. July 20 2010 13:24:14