Continuing Support for the Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment

National Academy Of Sciences, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION Directorate for Engineering 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Room 545 Arlington, Virginia 22230 ABSTRACT Proposal #: CMS-0431279 PI: Richard Little Institution: National Academy of Science Date: May 27, 2004 This award represents continued partial support of the Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment (BICE). The National Research Council, through its Division of Engineering and Physical Sciences, established the BICE in 1994 to investigate questions of technology, science, and public policy applied to urban systems and services; above ground and underground construction; the relationship between the constructed and natural environments, and their interaction with human activities; the effects of natural hazards on constructed facilities; and related issues of planning, design, construction management, surety, and use of the built environment. The BICE brings together in an independent forum expertise from a wide range of scientific, engineering, and social science disciplines to address problems and issues of infrastructure and the build environment. This award will provide funding for the Board to reassess its strategic plan, Guidance for Strategic Action on Civil Infrastructure Issues, as a means to foster dialog on emerging issues affecting critical infrastructure. As a result of this exercise, the Board will develop a program of activities including colloquia, roundtables, and lectures to implement the goals of the BICE strategic plan. These activities will be closely coordinated with sponsor agencies and designed to enlarge the knowledge base and advance policy discussions in areas such as building technology and performance, asset management, sustainable communities and infrastructures, the role of information technology in civil infrastructure systems, the effects of natural and technological hazards on the built environment, defensive design principles for facility and infrastructure safety and security, infrastructure investment and performance strategies, socio-technological factors in infrastructure and community design, building rehabilitation technologies, construction technologies, and increased use of the underground environment. Funding will also be used to enhance dissemination of BICE reports and the outcomes of other BICE activities through presentations and papers at several workshops and conferences including the 2nd International Conference on the Protection of Structures Against Hazards, the IEEE Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, and the 38th Hawaii International Symposium on System Science.