Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Sustainable Urban Ecosystems

University Of Texas At San Antonio, San Antonio TX

Investigators

Abstract

Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Sustainable Urban Ecosystems Proposal Abstract -Part 1: The Engineering Research Center for Sustainable Urban Ecosystems will develop transforming technologies for one of the most important societal problems we presently face: managing the growth of large population centers so it remains sustainable and does not harm the safety and wellbeing of residents. To achieve this mission, the center will develop science and engineering systems needed by authorities and the private sector to make decisions that yield the most benefit to urban residents. Sustainable growth of large population centers is a very complex societal problem that will require advances in data science and engineering to improve efficiency, minimize the consumption of natural resources, and enhance the ability to adapt to disruptions of different types and magnitudes. The research center will address this need by developing distributed technologies such as instrument arrays, cloud computing, intelligent systems, and connected devices that enhance performance, eliminate inefficiencies, and allow large urban centers to cope with increasing demand for services, particularly during strenuous circumstances. . -Part 2: The Engineering Research Center for Sustainable Urban Ecosystems will develop transforming technologies for one of the most important societal problems we presently face: engineering of urban ecosystems to achieve sustainable growth without harming the safety and wellbeing of residents. Sustainability compels dual objectives of minimizing consumption of natural resources under normal operating conditions and possessing the ability to adapt rapidly and efficiently to disruptions of different orders of magnitude and duration. To achieve this mission, the center will develop the underlying science needed to create a distributed sensor and data science framework to assist authorities and the private sector make decisions most beneficial to urban residents. The proposed center will enable research and technology to improve urban infrastructure resilience through real-time data processing, storage, and dissemination, accelerating processing of large datasets in digital communities. Data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence experts will advance fundamental knowledge in their collective domains. Computing researchers will have access to the complete data flow chain and be able to study networking weaknesses against cyber-attacks. The networking will include narrowband and broadband wireless and wired data communication, networking with traditional and emerging sensor cloud environments, and various interfaces. Researchers will develop urban ecosystem and health informatics applications capable of exploring interdependences between these domains. Infrastructure researchers will leverage these advances to improve efficiency and resilience of urban infrastructures using real-time data during normal operating conditions, and during different types of disruptions such as cyberattacks, hurricanes, floods, and chemical spills. Through this planning grant, a diverse group on stakeholders will join forces to develop consensus on advances in science and engineering needed to achieve sustainable growth of urban ecosystems through convergent research. The outcomes of the planning will provide a roadmap to guide future research efforts and foster new collaborations not previously considered. Research on sustainable urban ecosystems will have a broad impact on society due to the large percentage of the population it affects (90% by 2050). The impact of inadequate services and disruptions is unevenly distributed among communities due to different exposures and vulnerabilities, with the highest levels of vulnerability and low adaptive capacity linked to underserved and underinvested communities. The planning grant will benefit large communities by strengthening collaboration between stakeholders to improve quality of life and resilience of urban ecosystems. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.