UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation

Recent wildfires, including the 2025 Los Angeles fires, have demonstrated that restoring drinking water after a disaster requires more than repairing infrastructure. Communities also need timely, credible information to determine when their water is safe to use, yet confidence in tap water has declined nationally and misinformation increasingly shapes public understanding during emergencies. 

This workshop synthesis report examines how wildfires affect drinking water quality, public confidence in tap water, and post-disaster communications. Drawing on a May 2026 workshop convened by the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, it synthesizes insights from 54 participants representing water systems, regulators, nonprofit and community organizations, journalists, technical experts, and researchers. 

The workshop found that effective post-disaster communication depends on trusted relationships established before disasters occur, with community organizations, local media, and other intermediaries playing essential roles alongside water utilities. Participants also identified significant research and policy needs, including better understanding how long wildfire-related declines in tap water confidence persist, improving communications in an increasingly fragmented information environment, and providing water systems with the funding, flexibility, and technical capacity needed to restore service and public confidence after major fires.

As climate change intensifies, engaging the public in climate adaptation requires approaches that connect scientific research with people's everyday experiences. This report examines Roots of Cool: A Celebration of Trees and Shade in a Warming World, an interactive art exhibition and public engagement program presented at Descanso Gardens by the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation and University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. Through visitor surveys, postcard activities, and other participatory experiences, the exhibition explored how art can build public understanding of shade equity while generating insights into community perspectives on climate adaptation. Analysis of more than 3,500 survey responses and nearly 2,000 visitor postcards found that participants expressed an overwhelmingly hopeful, solution-oriented outlook, with themes like care, kindness, shade, and relief appearing more frequently than fear or despair. Visitors also overwhelmingly identified trees as their preferred source of shade in their communities. Together, these findings demonstrate that interactive art exhibitions can serve as effective climate communication tools and valuable participatory research platforms — generating actionable insights to inform more equitable, community-centered climate adaptation strategies.

As part of the Climate Action–Community-driven eLectric vEhicle chArging solutioN (CA–CLEAN) project, researchers at the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation worked to improve procedural equity in the siting of public electric vehicle (EV) charging stations by co-designing charging infrastructure with communities. The team partnered with three community-based organizations across the City of Los Angeles, including Redeemer Community Partnership in Pacoima. Between 2024 and 2025, the team held three workshops in each community to understand residents’ perspectives and preferences regarding EVs and public charging. This guide summarizes 1) what the community shared during the workshops and through written surveys, 2) presents key challenges and opportunities, and 3) provides an overview of pathways to charger installation. It also provides a list of financial resources to support EV purchases and home charging.

As part of the Climate Action–Community-driven eLectric vEhicle chArging solutioN (CA–CLEAN) project, researchers at the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation worked to improve procedural equity in the siting of public electric vehicle (EV) charging stations by co-designing charging infrastructure with communities. The team partnered with three community-based organizations across the City of Los Angeles, including Pacoima Beautiful. Between 2024 and 2025, the team held three workshops in each community to understand residents’ perspectives and preferences regarding EVs and public charging. This guide 1) summarizes what the community shared during the workshops and through written surveys, 2) presents key challenges and opportunities, and 3) provides an overview of pathways to charger installation. It also provides a list of financial resources to support EV purchases and home charging.

Wildfires are destroying homes, displacing communities, and driving escalating costs, prompting new interest in “managed retreat” as a potential response. This report examines whether managed retreat—the process of relocating homes and infrastructure away from high-risk areas, typically those prone to flooding—can be effective, equitable, and feasible in wildfire contexts. Drawing on a 2024 UCLA workshop with researchers, practitioners, and community leaders, we synthesize key themes, tensions, and knowledge gaps. Findings highlight the importance of land management, coordinated (not piecemeal) approaches, and the social, cultural, and political complexity of relocation. The report underscores that retreat is not a one-size-fits-all solution, and calls for targeted research and local community-informed planning to guide future policy and practice.

The Center for Heat Resilient Communities’ collective work has been compiled into a toolkit to help communities assess, plan for, and implement strategies to address extreme heat. It integrates climate modeling, vulnerability assessment, governance, equity, and other considerations to guide data-informed, locally tailored heat action. This toolkit is intended for practitioners and presents a comprehensive framework for heat planning, along with a workbook of interactive activities to help communities identify priority strategies. Practitioners who use the workbook will ultimately create a strategy document to guide further action.

The Los Angeles Residential Energy Transition (L.A. RESET) Tool estimates how household energy use and bills across Los Angeles will be affected by two major factors: the transition to renewable energy and home electrification. UCLA researchers designed the L.A. RESET Tool for the L.A. Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to inform the LA100 Plan, the utility’s roadmap to achieve 100% carbon-free electricity.

This technical guide documents the tool’s logic, data sources, capabilities, scenarios, and variables. The 2026 technical guide reflects updated LADWP electricity rate projections and a modified household income estimation method. The 2025 handbook documents the original tool design and data as presented in the 2025 report, “Impacts of Household Electrification on Energy Affordability in Los Angeles.” The original handbook was developed with a high level of detail for use by LADWP staff and is available here for documentation purposes. The updated guide has been simplified to be more accessible.

This work was funded by LADWP through the LADWP/UCLA Memorandum of Agreement. The UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge provided coordination and support for this project.

As catastrophic wildfires grow more frequent and severe across the western United States, water systems face rising pressure to support emergency response while continuing to provide safe drinking water, maintain financial stability, and protect affordability. This report examines a central, but largely unexplored issue: how water systems should finance infrastructure and services related to wildfire preparedness and response. Drawing on a January 2026 workshop convened by the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, the report synthesizes insights from 54 participants representing water systems, fire agencies, regulators, nonprofit organizations, technical experts, and researchers. The workshop found that existing infrastructure, legal frameworks, and funding mechanisms are poorly suited to support major wildfire-specific investments. Expanding fire-flow capacity could strain affordability, water quality, and system viability, especially for small and medium-sized systems. The findings underscore the need for clearer roles, stronger interagency coordination, and durable funding strategies. This research can help policymakers and practitioners develop more equitable, realistic financing approaches to wildfire resilience.

Building electrification is critical to reducing emissions, but many low-income households face cost, complexity, and administrative barriers that limit participation. This report evaluates the 2025 Community Contractor Pilot in Los Angeles County’s Gateway Cities, which integrates early home assessments and case management into Southern California Edison’s Charge Ready Home program.

Using program data, documentation, and stakeholder interviews, the study examines how this model affects participation and program efficiency. Findings show that early contractor involvement, dedicated case management, and streamlined processes improved application rates, increased follow-through, and reduced timelines and customer burden.

These results underscore the need for approaches that build trust, simplify processes, and assess feasibility upfront. The report calls for expanding case management models, developing a universal home assessment, and better aligning programs to reduce barriers and accelerate equitable electrification.

As California strives to achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2045, the state has increasingly focused on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from buildings, which account for more than one-third of total GHG emissions in the state. Several policies and programs aim to transition buildings from gas-based systems to zero-emission alternatives—part of a process called building decarbonization. This document addresses key questions about residential building decarbonization in California, with a focus on Senate Bill (SB) 1221, an initiative that establishes a neighborhood decarbonization pilot program to explore how entire residential blocks or neighborhoods can transition away from gas service in a coordinated way. As the state agency responsible for SB 1221 implementation, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is working with stakeholders to develop the program design and guidelines for deployment in 2026. This FAQ provides our interpretation of statutory materials and information published by the CPUC, to answer common questions about building decarbonization and SB 1221—and note where important questions are yet to be answered publicly.