SERC TALKS: “How Can a Systems Approach Help Critical Civil Infrastructure Become Smarter, More Sustainable and Resilient?”

Abstract

Climate change, NetZero energy, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution are all game changers for infrastructure providers. Inadequate and ill-prepared infrastructure will increase the consequences of rapid urbanization, extreme weather events and digital disruption, driving up the costs to individuals, businesses, and society, reducing economic productivity and undermining the quality of life for people and plant. To build smarter, more sustainable, and resilient infrastructure, cities will need to reimage infrastructure services they provide, and arrange deeply interconnected technological, social and environmental systems to do so. Infrastructure 4.0 is comprised, not just of physical assets and digital twins, but an interconnected web of social, institutional, and ecological systems. New, complex forms of socio-technological systems are emerging that require a synthesis across traditional disciplines of engineering, information technology, environmental science, and policy. Leaders in smart, sustainable cities are embracing information and communication technologies and other means to meet the needs of populations without compromising future generations, envisioning new possibilities, and developing transformational roadmaps for a smarter, more sustainable and resilient future.

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