Research in the field

Hazardous-Facility Siting

Rancho LPG Siting

The Rancho LPG Holdings butane storage facility in San Pedro, California has been controversial since it was built in the early 1970s, owing to its proximity to residential neighborhoods. The Institute has examined the reports, meetings, and regulatory history surrounding the site and drawn four broader lessons about how we manage hazardous facilities.

1. Planned versus existing facilities are governed very differently. Rancho LPG exemplifies "obduracy through embeddedness" — persistence driven partly by regulatory inflexibility and resistance to intervention in established land use.
2. Grandfathering should have limits. The facility likely could not be licensed today under current environmental-impact and quantitative-risk-assessment standards. Open-ended grandfathering creates perverse incentives to keep aging facilities in place rather than address their risks; sunset provisions are a better tool.
3. Siting standards matter. Aboveground LPG storage should be located well away from population centers and critical infrastructure, with full tank containment required.
4. Sunk costs distort decisions. The facility's persistence reflects the weight of prior investment on political choices — something prospective, rather than retroactive, site analysis is better positioned to address.

Data & sources. Built from the facility's regulatory and permitting history and public reporting, evaluated against current environmental-impact and quantitative-risk-assessment standards. Facilities of this type file Risk Management Plans with the EPA.

Community Vulnerability

San Pedro & Wilmington Vulnerability Assessment

San Pedro and Wilmington are industrialized Los Angeles communities adjacent to the largest port complex in North America. They face compounding exposure to earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, industrial accidents, and deliberate attacks — yet local awareness and preparedness are not well understood. This project assesses that vulnerability and works to raise community awareness of the mitigation options available.

Phase one estimates the probability of future extreme events and maps their consequences using risk analysis, decision analysis, and geospatial tools, giving community leaders concrete guidance on resilience. Phase two focuses on risk communication — resident surveys, consultations with business and government, community meetings, a disaster-planning charrette, and a dedicated awareness resource.

Data & sources. Combines hazard-probability estimates with risk analysis, decision analysis, and geospatial mapping; sea-level exposure draws on Climate Central's Surging Seas.

Public Safety & Data

School Shooting Project

In the United States, data on school shootings and gun violence are not collected systematically under any federal grant authority — a gap that has blurred the line between data, information, and opinion. A central cause is the Dickey Amendment to the 1996 Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act, which for years effectively discouraged federally funded research into gun violence.

This project treats the distinction between data and information seriously: data becomes information only once it is subjected to analysis. Alongside collecting and organizing the available record, the Institute has mapped the range of potential policy responses to school violence in the U.S.

Data & sources. Assembled from the fragmented public record on school shootings and gun violence, organized into a map of policy options — and a case for a systematic national dataset.

Industrial Hazard Mapping

U.S. Ammonia Storage Facilities & Maximum Concern Zones

Federal law requires industrial facilities that store large quantities of extremely hazardous substances to file a Risk Management Plan (RMP) with the Environmental Protection Agency. Drawing on that reporting, this project maps ammonia storage facilities across the United States together with their "maximum concern zones" — the areas that would be affected in a worst-case release.

The result is an accessible picture of where concentrated ammonia hazards coincide with population, informing both emergency planning and the broader conversation about facility siting and disclosure.

Data & sources. Built from Risk Management Plans filed with the EPA (accessed via the Right-to-Know Network), mapping facilities against their worst-case "maximum concern zones."

Science Communication

Earth Sciences Communication Initiative

The Institute helped plan the Earth Sciences Communication Initiative (ESCI), a collaboration among USC, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and the Civic Center on Religion and Society. ESCI approaches climate communication not as a message to be delivered but as a shared, exhilarating challenge.

Its public events — including the ClimatePalooza gatherings — brought scientists, communicators, faculty, and students together to reframe how climate science reaches the public. The initiative reflects the Institute's conviction that technical analysis only changes outcomes when it is communicated well.

Collaboration. A joint effort with USC, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, focused on climate communication and public engagement.