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Climate-driven salt water threatens New Orleans and beyond

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01 Oct, 2023

This post was originally published on Sustainability Times

Source: Sustainability Times

People in New Orleans are preparing for the impacts of salt water intrusion caused by the 2023 summer drought in the United States, though sea level rise and other climate impacts also are raising the salt-water risk for agricultural loss and drinking water access around the world.

With New Orleans, it’s important to remember that the city sits below sea level along the heavily trafficked Mississippi River, near where the major U.S. waterway empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Fresh water normally flows down the river and into the gulf, but hot and dry conditions have meant two years of low water levels, some of them record-setting. This has affected key shipping routes but, in recent weeks, began to impact drinking water.

That’s because salt water is creeping up from the Mississippi Delta just below New Orleans, a city of more than 350,000 people. The salt water is more dense than fresh water, so it tends to move along the river bottom while forming a wedge with a “toe,” the point of the wedge that arrives first. When it does, that means that salt water that’s reaching the surface is about 15 miles behind it and moving upriver.

Plaquemines Parish, at the edge of the gulf, already is affected by salt water intrusion, with city officials warning that St. Bernard, Jefferson and Orleans parishes are forecast to experience the impacts within the next few weeks. The Algiers neighborhood, where there’s a water intake for an estimated 9.9 million gallons per day (MGD), will see salt water effects on October 22. For Orleans Eastbank, with 141 MGD, it’ll begin October 28.

“New Orleans and the other regional parishes get our municipal water supply from the river, so if the salt water reaches our water intakes it will threaten our ability to provide drinkable water,” the city says.

There’s little that can be done. Engineers have raised the sill (a sort of underwater dam that blocks salt water back flow) and say it will slow the advance, but they can’t stop it.

“The only other thing that would stop the wedge is an increase to the river’s flow. Unfortunately, drought conditions are expected to persist up north and no relief is in sight,” the experts explain. “Long-term forecasts can always change, but we have been told that the low river situation could persist until January or later.”

Solutions include diluting salt water with tanker water, but it’s unrealistic that imported water can meet demand. Connecting to a nearby system has structural compatibility challenges, and there’s not enough time for desalination at scale. Reverse osmosis machinery can help to filter the water; it was delivered to Plaquemines Parish on Thursday, where people have been limited to bottled water.

The impacts go beyond drinking water safety and the problem of salt water intrusion reaches far beyond New Orleans. Corrosion and infrastructure damage occur with salt water exposure, and damage to agriculture and ecosystems is unavoidable. In the U.S., salt water intrusion is a challenge along the East Coast. In Asia, it’s a problem for Vietnam, Bangladesh, and India, among others, and especially along the Mekong Delta.

In North Africa, where water resources are threatened for a host of reasons, salt water intrusion threatens aquifers in Morocco, Egypt, and other states where 60% of the populations live in coastal zones.

Long-term climate adaptation strategies from U.S. officials include improved groundwater monitoring, water access and storage infrastructure, as well as water conservation and changes in land use. In the meantime, President Joe Biden has declared a federal emergency for the incident and New Orleans is preparing for impact.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

The post Climate-driven salt water threatens New Orleans and beyond appeared first on Sustainability Times.

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Battery life and EV cybersecurity projects receive funding

Battery life and EV cybersecurity projects receive funding

Swinburne University of Technology researchers have been awarded close to $920,000 to advance two projects for battery life and EV cybersecurity, securing a portion of over $46 million shared across 75 new projects.

The university received the funding in the latest round of Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Linkage Projects 2024. The scheme, part of the ARC’s National Competitive Grants Program, funds research that delivers practical benefits and strengthens Australia’s innovation and industry capabilities.

Swinburne’s Deputy Vice Chancellor Research, Professor Karen Hapgood, said, “These projects demonstrate how our researchers are partnering with industry to deliver practical solutions, from extending the life of battery systems to securing Australia’s electric vehicle infrastructure. It’s a powerful example of how university research is driving innovation and supporting a more sustainable, technologically advanced future.”

The first of the two projects, led by Professor Weixiang Shen, received $449,882 to extend the lifetime of battery energy storage systems for power grids.

“This project will enable my team to develop an innovative control strategy to actively manage the operating conditions of an individual battery cell using digital twin technology. It offers an excellent opportunity to implement and validate our approach in inverter-less battery energy storage systems provided by our industry partner, which uniquely enables cell-level control within the system,” Shen said.

“The project’s outcomes will strengthen Australia’s leadership in advanced energy storage technologies, support the growth of the domestic manufacturing sector, and contribute to the creation of high-skilled jobs.”

Aiming to enhance energy storage performance, the three-year project will develop new strategies to slow battery aging within each cell. It will use digital twin technology, combining deep learning and electrochemical modelling, to predict the impact of operating conditions on battery aging and regulate these conditions to control the aging process and extend battery life.

Working in partnership with Relectrify Pty Ltd, the project team will support Australia’s transition to sustainable energy by delivering longer battery life and reduced downtime so that battery systems can produce more over time.

The second project, led by Professor Yang Xiang, received $474,531 to address cybersecurity challenges in electric vehicle charging stations.

“This grant will allow my team to build advanced cybersecurity tools that address the challenges posed by the interaction between EV charging stations, diverse EVs, the national power grid and wireless communication protocols,” Xiang said.

“It creates a unique opportunity to generate novel research insights, validate solutions in real-world settings, and produce tools with strong commercialisation potential. Its outcomes support sustainable economic growth by enabling the safe uptake of EVs, reducing emissions and creating jobs.”

Electric vehicle charging stations are widely deployed, but they face complex security risks due to the diversity of electric vehicles, their connection to the power grid, and wireless communication with users. The three-year project aims to address these challenges by functionality-guided, update-guided and greybox-guided fuzzing techniques.

Working in partnership with T-POWER Pty Ltd, the project team will explore methods for testing charging stations and developing advanced tools to secure EV infrastructure and improve cybersecurity within Australia’s expanding sustainable transport sector.

Image credit: iStock.com/narvo vexar

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