Infrastructure systems, such as those for energy, water, food, waste management, transportation, and telecommunications, interact with one another to provide essential services to the residents in large cities (e.g., Chicago and Hangzhou). The rapid growth of our cities has profoundly changed urban infrastructure systems, yielding historic and time-sensitive opportunities and challenges for city planners and managers. Resilience of interconnected infrastructure against natural and human-made disasters is crucial for effective protection of people and their livelihoods. This Center, as one of three themes of UIUC-ZJU JRC, focuses on developing innovative approaches to make infrastructure systems smart, resilient, and sustainable, ultimately forming more livable environments for residents. Instead of studying infrastructure systems in isolation, a holistic “Infrastructure Ecology” will be created that leverages the rapid advancements in autonomous technology, sensors and machine learning as well as policy innovations. The application of such methodologies will provide guidelines for policymakers to allocate resources to achieve Infrastructure-Resilient Cities as Livable Environments.
UIUC
Email: circle@illinois.edu
Address: Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory, 205 N Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL, 61801
ZJU
Email: circle@intl.zju.edu.cn
Address: Engineering Building, 718 East Haizhou Road, Zhejiang University International Campus, Haining, Zhejiang, China, 313300