Newswise — Experts from North America and Europe met in New York City to explore developments in urban interconnected critical infrastructure (ICI), including the latest tools to enhance the resilience of food, energy, and water (FEW) systems. The workshop, “Urban Infrastructures: Analysis and Modeling for Their Optimal Management and Operation,” included nearly a hundred participants from U.S. national laboratories, private consultancies, universities, and American, Canadian, Austrian, and German research institutess.
New York City is a natural meeting ground for such a diverse group, since it is geographically central, has a wide range of infrastructure facilities, and enjoys support from the NYC Mayor’s Office of Sustainability. Urban areas around the world are facing multi-faceted challenges to increase sustainability and to be resilient to environmental impacts, and this group of participants represents the forefront of resiliency efforts in many fields.
Engineers, urban planners, data scientists, policymakers, and others met over two days in the workshop, which was sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research, NYIT (New York Institute of Technology), and German institution Hochschule für Technik (HFT) Stuttgart.
Workshop participants enjoyed seeing results from new simulation tools designed to show stakeholders the potential impact of various environmental events. Planners can put various parameters into the software and see models that demonstrate what could happen, including islands emerging from what is now low-lying land. A major area of concern in coastal areas is flooding, and already various parts of the United States are experiencing “sunny day flooding” because of rising sea levels.
“With these tools, local decision-makers can better understand the interdependence within ICI systems,” said workshop organizer Ziqian (Cecilia) Dong, Ph.D., associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at NYIT. “There are so many factors to consider, and these new technologies can help people decide where to target their efforts.”
In addition to technologies associated with data collection, analysis, and visualization, other panels addressed systems-based and holistic approaches to ICI for FEW supply; the evolution of urban infrastructure; urban informatics; and FEW case studies involving supply, distribution, and waste disposal and recycling systems.
Dong said, “This workshop has enhanced scientific cooperation among a wide range of stakeholders, including scholars and educators; representatives of industry and government agencies; and urban planners and policymakers. We are excited to share what we’ve done here, because these are longstanding challenges that deserve continuing attention.”
About NYIT
New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) offers 90 degree programs, including undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees, in more than 50 fields of study, including architecture and design; arts and sciences; education; engineering and computing sciences; health professions; management; and osteopathic medicine. A non-profit independent, private institution of higher education, NYIT has 10,000 students attending campuses on Long Island and Manhattan (New York), online, and at global campuses in Canada, China, and the United Arab Emirates.
NYIT is guided by its mission to provide career-oriented professional education, offer access to opportunity to all qualified students, and support applications-oriented research that benefits the larger world. To date, 100,000 graduates have received degrees from NYIT. For more information, visit nyit.edu.
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