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Engineers Worry Cities, Subway Networks Are Not Ready For Climate-Fueled Flooding

Published August 9, 2021 at 12:46 PM CDT
July 15, 2021: The Ahr river floats past destroyed houses in Insul, Germany. Due to heavy rain falls, the Ahr river dramatically went over the banks the evening before. The mayors of three German towns badly hit by July's deadly floods are appealing for more help from the state and federal governments, saying the disaster caused billions of euros worth of damage. (Michael Probst/AP/File)
July 15, 2021: The Ahr river floats past destroyed houses in Insul, Germany. Due to heavy rain falls, the Ahr river dramatically went over the banks the evening before. The mayors of three German towns badly hit by July's deadly floods are appealing for more help from the state and federal governments, saying the disaster caused billions of euros worth of damage. (Michael Probst/AP/File)

Recent flooding in Germany, the United Kingdom and China has swamped subway systems and swept away homes. These environmental crises have also underscored the need for engineering and urban design solutions for natural disasters turbo-charged by climate change.

Here & Now‘s Robin Young speaks with Robert Traver, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Villanova University.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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