Wisconsin

These WI Cities Could Be Ghost Towns By 2100: New Study

Published

2 years ago

February 12, 2024

These WI Cities Could Be Ghost Towns By 2100: New Study

WISCONSIN — Thousands of U.S. cities, including some in Wisconsin, are in danger of becoming ghost towns by 2100 due to a multitude of issues, ranging from the decline of industry to lower birth rates to the impacts of climate change, according to a study published recently in the journal Nature Cities.

These and other factors could cause further erosion in the populations of about 15,000 cities nationwide — in every state but Hawaii and the District of Columbia — making them virtual ghost towns with only a fraction of the population they previously had, according to the study.

Overall, the researchers from the University of Illinois Chicago found that population projections for 2100 suggest that nearly half of 30,000 cities nationwide could experience population losses of between 12 percent to 23 percent, and in 27 percent to 44 percent of the populated area.

In Wisconsin, the study said areas around Milwaukee, Green Bay, Wausau, and Superior could all see massive population drops.

But the Madison area will likely see increases.

Depopulation creates enormous, unprecedented challenges for planners, including possible disruptions in basic services like transit, clean water, electricity and internet access, the authors wrote.

Urban planning now is based on growth, but nearly half of U.S. cities are depopulating, senior author Sybil Derrible, an urban engineer at the University of Illinois Chicago, told Scientific American.

“The takeaway is that we need to shift away from growth-based planning, which is going to require an enormous cultural shift in the planning and engineering of cities,” Derrible said.

The authors said the exit from cities for the suburbs creates additional strain and possibly limits “access to much-needed resources in depopulating areas, further exacerbating their challenges.”

Also, they added, immigration could play a vital role in reversing the trend, but also that “resource distribution challenges will persist unless a paradigm shift happens away from growth-based planning alone.”

The Northeast and Midwest are the most likely regions to see big population losses, with Vermont and West Virginia the hardest hit, with 80 percent of cities between the two states expected to shrink.

Five states — Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi and New Hampshire — could see population declines in about three-fourths of their cities, according to the study.

Around 40 percent of cities are growing, including New York City, Chicago, Phoenix and Houston. Most of the places projected to see population growth by 2100 are located in the South and West, according to the study.

Most previous studies were based on big cities like Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, “but that doesn’t give us an estimation of the scale of the problem,” lead study author Uttara Sutradhar, a doctoral candidate in civil engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago, told the Scientific American.

The study was based on U.S. Census data from 2000 to 2020, data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and five future climate scenarios, called the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. That model shows different ways demographics, society and economics could change by 2100, depending on how much global warming the world experiences, according to Scientific American

Source link

Wisconsin

Where Wisconsin basketball ranks in AP Poll following win over Iowa

Published

2 hours ago

February 23, 2026

Press Room

Where Wisconsin basketball ranks in AP Poll following win over Iowa

Following a 1-1 week, Wisconsin basketball (19-8, 11-5 Big Ten) fell out of the AP Poll on Monday.

A week removed from victories over Illinois and Michigan State, which held the No. 8 and No. 10 positions, respectively, in the national hierarchy, Wisconsin fell 86-69 against conference foe Ohio State in Columbus on Feb. 17. UW rebounded with an 84-71 win over Iowa on Sunday, but the loss to the Buckeyes prompted voters to drop the Badgers from No. 24 to out of the top 25.

Greg Gard’s group, however, received 47 votes in this week’s edition of the ranking, which leads all programs on the outside looking in. Iowa, receiving three votes, is the only Big Ten squad alongside UW in that cohort.

The Duke Blue Devils, which defeated former No. 1 Michigan on Saturday, assumed the top spot in the hierarchy. Arizona, Michigan, Iowa State, Houston, UConn, Florida, Purdue, Gonzaga and Illinois round out the top 10. Big Ten squad Nebraska fell three spots, and the Spartans rose two spots to No. 15.

Alabama, powered by a seven-point win over LSU and overtime victory vs. Arkansas, rose eight spots to No. 17 for this week’s iteration. Only Florida (up five to No. 7) rose by at least five spots this week.

UW’s final four games of the season come against Oregon, Washington, Maryland and No. 8 Purdue. Gard’s team will then venture to Chicago for the Big Ten Tournament, where they will need to claw their way toward a double-bye.

Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes and opinion

Source link

Wisconsin

Answers to FAQs about AI data centers, including water, energy usage

Published

14 hours ago

February 23, 2026

Press Room

Answers to FAQs about AI data centers, including water, energy usage

The rapid development of artificial intelligence is sparking the development of data centers that provide computing power for the technology. Water usage and energy consumption are among the concerns.

The Journal Sentinel asked readers to send us their questions about Wisconsin data centers. More than 300 responded.

We will be posting the answers to those questions here over the next weeks as more are published. This story will also be updated with a video replay of our Feb. 23 town hall meeting. You can still get free tickets to the event, which will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Turner Hall ballroom in Milwaukee.

We are we just hearing about the AI data centers now?

There are a few reasons why data centers have become so high profile across the country in the last few years — and in Wisconsin over the last year, especially. Much of the data center boom we’re seeing now is tied to the scale of computing needed to advance AI.

For one, the infrastructure needed for AI is much larger and more resource intensive than the existing data centers we’ve had for decades. That scale unlocks new cost-benefit analyses for the communities they’re proposed in, which often makes them much more controversial and often ignites community-wide, even region-wide discussions.

This is playing out across the country. Still, Wisconsin is not at the forefront of this data center buildout with 51. Virginia (570) has the most data centers in the country, followed by Texas (407) and California (288). And so when people are trying to figure out what a new data center proposal means for their community, they’re reading about how data centers are affecting other states.

How much land is being devoted to artificial intelligence data centers?

The answer depends on the project. In Wisconsin, the newer facilities range from 16 acres (the Meta site in Beaver Dam) to 250 acres (as proposed in Janesville) to 1,900 acres (the Vantage project in Port Washington). Those examples are a pretty good sample of what we’re seeing across the country. Most AI‑focused hyperscale data center campuses today are being planned on roughly 200–500 acres, with some of the headline projects at 1,000–2,000 acres.

For context, 16 acres is about 12 football fields. And 250 acres is comparable to one or to two large 18‑hole golf courses, a big regional shopping center plus its parking lot or a mid-sized university campus, like Northwestern University in Chicago. The University of Wisconsin–Madison’s main campus is around 1,000 acres, which is about the size of the Village of Shorewood.

Data centers also require land for supporting infrastructure

However, there’s a bit more complexity embedded into the original question. Data center sites themselves are a starting point for this conversation, but there’s a lot of additional infrastructure and land needed beyond those sites. Powering such facilities typically requires new energy generation in the form of new power plants and transmission lines, which also need land.

For instance, the first phase of construction in Port Washington, which will be used by OpenAI and Oracle, is 672 acres and requires about 1.3 gigawatts of electricity (one gigawatt equals one billion watts.) That could equate to the output of about one or two big modern power plants, or a few mid-sized facilities. And utility infrastructure isn’t just about power plants. Data centers also often need power lines to move the energy across the grid from the plant to the warehouse, if they aren’t built on-site. For example, there’s a transmission line project proposed to bring power to the Port Washington facility that spans across five counties in eastern Wisconsin and would be between 100 and 120 miles long.

With newer technology, why is so much water and power needed?

To answer requires a brief explanation of how artificial intelligence works. In the past, data centers were used to power the internet and for cloud storage, software and business records management.

AI requires a vast amount of data and computing power to perform numerous computations and to train chatbots and build enterprise tools for companies. The scale is higher than the amount of computing and data storage, requiring vast warehouses of interconnected computers and servers running around the clock. This requires a lot more power, typically at least 1 GW per data center campus.

That equipment generates heat and needs to be cooled, which also requires additional power — and water. Proponents point to the use of closed loop cooling systems in the Port Washington and Mount Pleasant projects which use considerably less water than previous coolant systems.

What are the life spans of data centers? How soon will they be obsolete?

Generally, data centers are designed to operate for around 10 to 20 years before they need major upgrade or full replacement, but different components have a range of life cycles. Like with most commercial buildings, the underlying building shell can last much longer that 20 year, but the internal systems, including specialized IT gear and power and cooling systems, are typically designed for 10-20 of use before they start to become “obsolete.”

However, the servers, which contain the chips that store and process data, have a much shorter lifecycle and are typically replaced every 3 to 5, though they can often function 7–10 years with good maintenance. There are several reasons for that. The frontiers of chip technology are constantly evolving and so using the newest hardware usually provides higher performance and energy efficiency, which reduces the risks of system failure.

Source link

Wisconsin

RECAP: Strong second half powers Wisconsin basketball to win over Iowa

Published

1 day ago

February 22, 2026

Press Room

RECAP: Strong second half powers Wisconsin basketball to win over Iowa

The Wisconsin Badgers’ men’s basketball team (19-8, 11-5 Big Ten) secured an 84-71 victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes on Sunday afternoon at the Kohl Center.

Fueled by 27 points from guard Nick Boyd and 18 points from veteran center Nolan Winter, the Badgers pulled away from the Hawkeyes during the final six minutes of action. Greg Gard’s group maintained a slight edge throughout the contest. The two teams traded punches for virtually the entire contest until Boyd, Austin Rapp and John Blackwell commandeered a 16-6 scoring surge to close the bout.

In addition to his 27 tallies, Boyd added nine boards and 10 assists in a near-triple-double effort. The San Diego State transfer set the tone with 15 points in the opening stretch, but the Hawkeyes shot 56% from the floor and 45.5% from beyond the arc to establish a 41-40 edge by intermission.