The January 2025 fires in Los Angeles made clear an issue that has been brewing for years: as wildfires become more urban in nature, what is the role of urban water systems in their prevention, response and recovery? How should water systems prepare for 21st century wildfire events? What policy changes and infrastructure investments are needed to increase resilience? 

Read about what the experts had to say about these questions at the first of four workshops hosted through a water supply + wildfire research and policy coordination network, organized by the UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge, the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, UC ANR's California Institute for Water Resources, and Arizona State University to bring together experts to help answer these questions and more.

New data comes from UCLA's 2025 Southern California Community Water Systems Atlas shows that in Los Angeles County, average household water bills climbed nearly 60% from 2015 to 2025, faster than inflation, putting significant strain on the region's lower-income households. Read more.

Global warming has advanced wildfire season from one to almost seven weeks earlier, a new UCLA study shows.

In the wake of the January 2025 LA fires, LADWP commissioned UCLA—through its long-standing partnership with the Sustainable LA Grand Challenge (SLAGC)—to bring together leading subject matter experts, high-level industry decision-makers at the cutting edge of innovation in water and energy infrastructure, and leadership from multiple regional utilities to tackle the challenges facing the country's largest municipal utility in the face of growing climate risks. Read more.

No roadmap for recovery from the devastating January 2025 LA fires would be complete without meaningful engagement and inclusion of those who lived through the disaster and who are now navigating its aftermath. Read about how UCLA facilitated a robust community engagement effort that ensured the voices, concerns, and perspectives of fire survivors could inform the Blue Ribbon Commission’s recommendations.

More than 40 scholars contributed their expertise to the independent commission, which issued its final recommendations today. 

The effort was led by the Luskin Center of Innovation, in partnership with the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and with support from the Sustainable LA Grand Challenge. Read more.

UCLA’s Climate & Wildfire Research Initiative (CWRI) Launches New Research and Policy Working Group on Urban Water Supply-Wildfire Dynamics, led by UCLA’s Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI) in partnership with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources’ (UCANR) California Institute for Water Resources

A new study from UCLA experts breaks down the misconceptions around the limitations vegetation management could have played in mitigating the destructiveness of the January 2025 LA fires. 

Director of UCLA's California Center for Sustainable Communities Stephanie Pincetl writes, "It is time to unleash creative imagination about how we create a livable future for the 10 million people in LA county." 

Read more about her thoughts on reimagining how we build and why.

UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES) and UCLA's Sustainable LA Grand Challenge (SLAGC) presents a webinar called: "Expert Insights on the Causes, Impacts and Aftermath of the L.A. Wildfires."

Featuring an informative panel of wildfire, water quality, air quality and climate science faculty experts: 

• Alex Hall, a climate science expert and faculty director of UCLA's Sustainable LA Grand Challenge
• Greg Pierce, a water quality expert and senior director of UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation
• Yifang Zhu, an air quality expert, associate director of UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability's Center for Clean Air, and professor of Environmental Health Sciences with UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
• Moderated by: Nurit Katz, UCLA Chief Sustainability Officer