Ilan Juran
Polytechnic Institute of NYU
OPENING COMMENTS
As the head of the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department during Prof. George Bugliarello’s tenure as president of Polytechnic University, I had the distinct pleasure and honor of working closely with him on shaping a vision for the development of the department and its urban-focused, nationally recognized research program. It was a most inspiring endeavor and a very stimulating learning experience.
George’s vision of the university’s core mission was anchored in the belief that, as the prime urban engineering and science university of New York, Poly should establish dynamic partnerships with metropolitan stakeholders, government agencies, and utilities to accelerate the development and application of state-of-the-art technologies and solutions to metropolitan renovation and sustainable development challenges. This universitywide initiative involved a great diversity of interconnected disciplines and supported the development of several academic centers, including the New York State–sponsored Center for Advanced Technology in Telecommunication (CATT, in 1982), Poly’s fast-expanding graduate program in financial engineering, and the research program of the CEE department, which was initiated with George’s personal commitment and support.
With George’s leadership and support, the CEE faculty have explored partnerships with government agencies and utilities involved in various metropolitan service sectors to launch several multidisciplinary research cen-
ters, including NSF-funded Civil Infrastructure Systems as well as Intelligent Transportation Systems, Urban Construction Management Technology, and Urban Energy and Water Utilities.
Simultaneously, with the support of the metropolitan agencies and utilities, faculty have pursued the development of new professional graduate education programs in construction management and urban systems engineering and management. On behalf of the CEE department I would like to thank the New York City infrastructure agencies and utilities for their support and cooperation. During the past 20 years, these industry-university collaborative efforts have continuously stimulated our research and greatly contributed to the development of nationally and locally sponsored research programs on cutting-edge technology solutions and smart infrastructure monitoring systems. In addition, since 2005, with the leadership of NYU-Poly President Jerry Hultin, George’s vision has inspired a universitywide initiative to establish the Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) as a city government-industry-university partnership for innovation in urban research and education.
George’s scientific legacy and academic vision will surely continue to greatly impact the education of the next generation of urban engineers and metropolitan systems managers, nurturing a professional culture that will recognize the integration of environmental risks, societal inspirations, economic viability, and technological innovation as key elements for sustainable urban development.
SESSION OVERVIEW
The purpose of this session was to provide a metropolitan infrastructure leadership forum for exploring the way forward in reinforcing the government-industry-university partnership for innovative solutions to infrastructure renewal challenges. The following four distinguished speakers—infrastructure experts and executives of the metropolitan agencies and utilities—accepted the invitation to share their vision of current infrastructure challenges, critical needs for infrastructure financing, strategies, and the role of technology innovation in their implementation. They also discussed anticipated impacts of the envisioned strategies on New York City’s sustainable development, the performance and resiliency of the city’s infrastructure, and the economic growth of the metropolitan region.
• Patrick J. Foye, executive director of the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey, represented by John Ma, chief of staff, talked about the Critical Role of Transportation in the Livable Cities of the Future, describing current Port Authority projects and their anticipated impacts on the economic development of the metropolitan region.
• Andrew W. Herrmann, president, American Society of Civil Engineers, addressed Sustainable Urban Renewal Challenges and Engineers’ Role in Changing the Built Environment. He emphasized infrastructure financing challenges and the critical economic impacts of failure to make the case for resources to rebuild the national infrastructure for water, energy, and transportation.
• Craig S. Ivey, president of Consolidated Edison Company of New York, presented his vision of Energy as the Core of New York City. He discussed the impact of introducing the oil-to-gas transition on the future of environmentally sustainable clean energy. He also spoke about the role of innovation and integration of electrical power smart grid technology in upgrading the reliability, efficiency, contingency capacity, and flexibility of including other energy sources and customers’ assets in cost-effectively responding to the growing energy demand of urban society.
• Daniel P. Loucks, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Cornell University, described the Challenges of Water and Wastewater Management for Urban Renewal, emphasizing the benefits of green initiatives and the potential of decentralization strategies for wastewater treatment and reuse.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
With the ever growing demand for more secure, affordable, safe, and sustainable metropolitan water and energy resources and supply systems, national and local governments and metropolitan utilities face the challenge of upgrading their infrastructure monitoring and system management capacity. Growing ecorisks of climate change impacts and accompanying uncertainties pose economic, financial, environmental, operational, and societal challenges to metropolitan governments and urban utilities for the strategic and operational deployment of their natural resources and the management of their interdependent urban distribution systems.
Sustainable urban economic growth and development over the coming decades will depend on cities’ capacity to respond to these challenges, which
in turn will require reinventing regional planning practices, adapting sustainable development strategies, and implementing smart control systems and proactive incident detection and mitigation measures. In addition, creative public-private partnership models are needed for critical infrastructure financing. Transportation infrastructure agencies as well as energy and water utilities need innovative solutions and “intelligent” quality control, infrastructure monitoring, and supply management systems for real-time system performance assessment, asset management, capital improvement optimization, incident control and command, disaster response and recovery, and contingency management.
Furthermore, as energy and water utilities face growing uncertainties of ecorisks and greater frequency of extreme events, they have a critical need for smart control capabilities for integrated and real-time system management, early incident detection, and preemptive mitigation. Expansion of distributed renewable power generation (e.g., through the use of solar, wind power) and renewable water resources (e.g., through the use of desalination, recycled wastewater) will introduce another set of multivariable management objectives for urban supply systems, raising risks of cascading systemic failure modes. The reliable management of urban systems requires the development and deployment of innovative solutions for integrating smart monitoring and “intelligent” management systems for ensuring environmentally sustainable and economically viable development.
We look forward to working with the metropolitan infrastructure and utilities agencies to turn New York City into a living laboratory for innovative solutions to infrastructure renewal challenges to energy, transportation, water, and wastewater infrastructure. The purpose is to strengthen the city’s creative resources, contribute to improved reliability and quality of urban services, and, ultimately, increase the city’s competitiveness in attracting high-tech businesses and dynamic global corporations.
