Today’s building codes were implemented as a result of devastating natural disasters that resulted in the loss of human lives and billions of dollars. But they aren’t retroactively applied.
The fire at Susan Bay magnified the lack of disaster management in Sierra Leone.
Lee Miles
While promoting better risk reduction is always sensible, it leads to a tendency for disaster management systems to lean heavily on experience and systems designs of other countries
The $1 trillion bill was a heavy lift for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (center). Next up: the budget reconciliation bill known as Build Back Better.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The government uses a process called public procurement. A professor of public policy explains how the process works and how it is increasingly used to achieve social goals.
Elon Musk is currently the world’s richest person.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
The 2021 election will define for citizens important aspects of South Africa’s political future. What is the governing ANC’s future, and what was the impact of President Ramaphosa on this election?
Our critical infrastructures are growing increasingly complex as the number of devices and connections in these systems continues to grow.
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Alaska is warming faster than any other U.S. state, and that’s causing problems, a team of bridge engineers and social scientists explains. The infrastructure bill in Congress would offer some help.
Climate change means more schools will need to install or upgrade cooling systems.
Bill Uhrich/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images
America’s public schools, which are over 40 years old on average, are not equipped to handle rising temperatures due to climate change, a new study reveals.
Crowds gather at dusk in Austin, Texas, to watch some 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats emerge to feed from their roost under the Congress Avenue Bridge.
Jeff Haynes/AFP via Getty Images
Bats roost under bridges and culverts across North America, so highway departments have to check for them before repairing bridges. A new AI tool makes those inspections faster and more accurate.
Chinese engineers pose after welding the first seamless rails for the China-Laos railway in Vientiane, Laos, June 18, 2020.
Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua via Getty Images
Through its Belt and Road Initiative, China has become the world’s largest country-to-country lender. A new study shows that more than half of its loans threaten sensitive lands or Indigenous people.
The lead pipes in some old buildings could contaminate drinking water.
AnnaER/Pixabay
High levels of lead were unexpectedly found in 14 UK schools’ drinking water: so how much do we really know about what’s in our pipes?
Solar panels on the roof of the Casa Dominguez low-income housing development in East Rancho Dominguez, Calif.
Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
A decade ago, solar power was a tiny sliver of the US energy supply. Today it’s expanding rapidly – and the Biden administration wants to make it much, much bigger.
Interstate 980 cuts off West Oakland, Calif., at top, from other Oakland neighborhoods.
Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images
Two urban policy experts explain why taking down highways that have isolated low-income and minority neighborhoods for decades is an important part of the pending infrastructure bill.
Images of water gushing into subway stations filled social media following heavy rain in New York City. Solutions are at hand – but it takes money and political will, an expert explains.
While a gas station might be 72 miles away, an EV charger may be much farther.
Pgiam via Getty Images
The infrastructure bill being debated in Congress looks like a small but genuine down payment on a more climate-friendly transportation sector and electric power grid. What comes next is crucial.
A construction site in Toronto in March 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
Canada’s election season highlights the country’s disjointed approach to infrastructure, which focuses largely on fast cash infusions to stimulate an underproductive economy.
Building collapses in Lagos are a frequent occurence.
US UTOMI EKPEI/AFP via Getty Images
Herat is home to an India-built dam that provides water for drinking, irrigation and bathing for much of western Afghanistan. If the Taliban control that water, they control the population.
Lobstermen attend a rally to protest Gov. Janet Mills’ support for offshore wind projects on April 28, 2021, in Augusta, Maine.
AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty