What civil engineers are reading this week

• Venice kept dry as dam system wards off exceptional high tide

  A dam system built to protect Venice, Italy, and its famous Piazza San Marco from flooding withstood the challenge of an exceptionally high tide on Tuesday as heavy rains swept across the nation.

• Sip or guzzle? Here's how Google's data centers use water

  With a pledge to restore 120% of the “water it consumes” by 2030, Google is rethinking the approaches used to cool its massive data centers.

• Hundreds of Arizona households set to be without water by end of year

  Homes in the Rio Verde Foothills were built without their own water systems. Instead, people living in the arid locale rely on private wells or water trucked up from the nearby city of Scottsdale.

• Europe's biggest battery storage system switched on

  The site, believed to be able to store enough electricity to power 300,000 homes for two hours, went online in England on Monday.

• White House giving $1.1B to help keep California nuclear plant online

  Nuclear energy in California got a jolt of financial support from President Joe Biden's administration as the Department of Energy awarded a $1.1 billion grant to Pacific Gas & Electric to help extend the life of its Diablo Canyon Power Plant.

• Building green energy facilities may produce substantial carbon emissions

  Researchers' calculations included possible emissions produced in mining, manufacturing, transport, construction, and other activities needed to create massive farms of solar panels and wind turbines.