Princeton and University of Iowa researchers, including lead author Wei Zhang, a former AOS visiting associate research scholar (currently an assistant research scientist at Iowa's IIHR- Hydroscience and Engineering research center), and Princeton co-author AOS Faculty Member Gabe Vecchi, professor of Geosciences and the Princeton Environmental Institute, found that Houston's urban landscape directly contributed to the torrential rainfall and deadly flooding of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The results, published in the journal Nature, highlight the human role in extreme weather events and the need to consider urban and suburban development when calculating hurricane risk. Co-authors on the paper also included former CEE postdoc Gabriele Villarini, now an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of IIHR, and James Smith, a Princeton professor of civil and environmental engineering and AOS associated faculty.