Computational Approaches to Enable Smart and Sustainable Urban Systems

The world is rapidly urbanizing. By 2050, over 66% of the world’s population will reside in cities. As civil engineers, we will play an integral role in providing access to reliable, clean and sustainable sources of water, energy and air to this next generation of urban citizens. Recent advances in sensing and computing technologies and the rise of the “smart city” movement has led to the rapid of availability of new data streams on everything from energy usage to infrastructure health to human activity. However, major challenges exist on how such data can be utilized and leveraged to design, operate and manage smarter and more sustainable urban systems.