Urban Infrastructure Systems (MS)

With the fast growth of urban population, local governments, public service agencies, and urban utilities presently face increasing public demand for greater reliability, safety, affordability and resiliency of the aging urban infrastructure systems. These systems have to be continuously adapted and upgraded (often with technology-driven solutions) to efficiently support the essential public services, urban development and economic growth. The infrastructure systems support a variety of urban sectors, including transportation, energy & water supply, sanitation & wastewater management, public buildings, district heating, public health & safety, waste management, telecommunication and other essential services. Their sustainable development engages a wide variety of public and private sector stakeholders and greatly depends on a broad range of institutional, environmental, economic, societal and operational factors. Such factors include public policy objectives, land use and geo-physical system characteristics, regulatory requirements, environmental issues, availability of renewable resources, customers’ awareness and culture, management capabilities, and other operational state variables. With rising societal concerns with regard to climate change impact, environmental sustainability and economic viability of the fast-growing urban centers, both Government and Industry presently face increasing needs for innovative capabilities of dynamic monitoring and “smart” system control to effectively meet the challenge of upgrading the aging urban infrastructure systems.