Conference: US-UK Workshop on Transformation in Urban Underground Infrastructure; 28-29 September 2023

This award supports a workshop that will bring together leading experts from diverse, but complementary backgrounds in civil engineering, urban planning, disaster management, computer science, operations engineering, public policy, sensing, energy and other fields to identify gaps and opportunities for advancement and define a vision for supporting the transformation of underground urban infrastructure systems. Urban cities across the world have been a major driver of economic growth, technological innovation, and cultural vitality.

However, their infrastructure systems are often patchworks of legacy and new components with incompatible standards, materials, and governance structures. As a result, the performance of such systems has been inherently unpredictable under normal conditions and more so when subject to extreme events. Without a paradigm shift in how infrastructure systems are engineered, constructed, and operated, the gap between the service they can deliver and the demand from citizens will continue to widen in the foreseeable future.

Within urban settings, the challenges faced by underground infrastructures, such as water and wastewater, transportation, telecommunication, and power, are exacerbated due to difficulties in access and the harsh environment in which they reside. Early success in building digital models at city scales through smart city and digital twin concepts offers a promising direction that is now newly enabled by breakthroughs in sensing and computation. However, key knowledge gaps remain a barrier to wholesale changes.

The workshop will catalyze creative thinking and knowledge exchange with the purpose of devising a vision for transformation in underground infrastructure. It will expose relevant research areas, knowledge gaps, research opportunities, barriers, and fundamental research needs. It will aid in identifying fundamental theories and methods needed to answer fundamental, open questions, such as, “How do we plan for and achieve decarbonization goals for and by way of underground infrastructure systems?” and “How do we optimize day-to-day operations of underground infrastructures under normal, changing normal, and disaster conditions?” Through a joint workshop with the United Kingdom, this award will create an international research roadmap.

It will also generate networking opportunities across nations, disciplines, and between academia and industry.

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.