The 2025 Los Angeles firestorms left an indelible mark on the landscape and the consciousness of Southern California. In addition to devastating communities, claiming lives, livelihoods and destroying property, discussions erupted across social and mainstream media, questioning whether water supply systems could have been more prepared to fight the fires.
These firestorms revealed some of the region’s critical vulnerabilities, making clear the need to better understand the relationship between water supply and wildfire dynamics. To address this critical issue and break through the torrent of misinformation, UCLA’s Climate & Wildfire Research Initiative (CWRI) is launching a new Urban Water Supply + Fire working group.
Led by the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI) in partnership with the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources’ California Institute for Water Resources, the group will serve as a research and policy coordination network focused on developing solutions to challenges related to water supply infrastructure, resilience and post-fire recovery.
“This partnership couldn’t come at a more urgent time,” said Greg Pierce, co-executive director of LCI and chair of the new working group. “The 2025 wildfires exposed significant vulnerabilities at the intersection of water supply and wildfire resilience.”
Modeled after the National Science Foundation’s Research Coordination Network, the working group’s network aims to advance science and education by fostering communication, collaboration and coordination among diverse groups of scientists, engineers and educators across disciplines, organizations and borders.
Faith Kearns, an LCI-affiliated scholar and expert on water, wildfire and climate; Edith de Guzman, a UCANR water equity and adaptation policy cooperative extension specialist with LCI; and Erik Porse, director of the California Institute for Water Resources, will co-lead the working group. Together, these experts will advance actionable knowledge and policy recommendations.
For more information on the group’s plans, including workshops, read the full story here.
