CNH-S: Coupling of Physical Infrastructure, Green Infrastructure, and Communities

这一跨学科研究项目将审查共处一地的关键基础设施系统之间的连通性和功能相互依存关系，如天然气、给水和下水道管道、道路和城市顶棚，以及依赖、管理和维护城市基础设施的人员和机构网络。该项目将以老化、泄漏的天然气管道系统为中心，该系统破坏城市森林树冠，造成道路修复问题，降低空气质量，导致大气变暖，并可能通过爆炸风险危及人类安全。该项目将提供有关物理-生物物理-社会政治网络内部和之间的健壮性、冗余性和连接性的新见解。通过明确规划关键城市基础设施系统之间隐藏的和未被认识到的物理和社会联系，该项目将为更有效、更协调的城市基础设施管理和维护提供基础。调查人员将为可持续的城市基础设施系统开发一个通用框架，该框架可以应用于美国和其他地方的广泛城市环境。项目调查结果将广泛传播给潜在受益者，包括市政公共工程部门、地方公用事业部门的官员以及州政策制定者和监管机构。该项目还将为研究生提供教育和培训机会，并将邀请一名公立学校教师作为研究团队的不可或缺的成员，以提高向K-12学生有效传达调查结果和见解的能力，并帮助他们更好地理解基础设施管理的重要性。调查人员将使用植物生理生态学、地理空间科学和社会网络理论的方法来衡量共处一地的基础设施和社会网络之间的相互作用，并绘制整个波士顿大都市区的连接和功能相互作用图。他们将对大波士顿地区不同地理位置的已知天然气泄漏进行实地研究，并使用地理空间分析将泄漏数据与其他数据关联起来，例如树木健康和损害的衡量标准。他们将进行实地实验，以评估气体泄漏对树苗的影响，并评估甲烷可能通过树木排放到大气中的程度。对气体泄漏与人类社区之间的地理空间关系的分析将审查生物物理和人口数据之间的关系，开展两项广泛的案例研究将使人们深入了解网络中日常、中期和长期管理问题上的正式和非正式关系及相互作用。通过这些互补的方法，研究人员将提出城市功能的一般理论，该理论具有将科学转化为实际应用的力量，指导政策走向有效、高效和有利于环境的基础设施管理协调。该项目得到了美国自然与人类耦合系统动力学(CNH)计划的支持。

This interdisciplinary research project will examine the connectivity and functional interdependencies among co-located, critical infrastructure systems, such as gas, water and sewer pipes, roads, and the urban canopy, as well as the networks of people and institutions that depend on and manage and maintain the urban infrastructure. The project will center on an aged, leaking natural gas pipeline system that damages the urban forest canopy, creates road repair problems, degrades air quality, contributes to atmospheric warming, and can endanger human safety through explosion risks. The project will provide new insights regarding the robustness, redundancy, and connectivity within and across physical-biophysical-sociopolitical networks. By explicitly mapping out hidden and unrecognized physical and social linkages among critical urban infrastructure systems, the project will provide a foundation for more effective, coordinated urban infrastructure management and maintenance. The investigators will develop a general framework for sustainable urban infrastructure systems that can be applied across a wide range of urban settings across the U.S. and elsewhere. Project findings will be disseminated to a broad range of potential beneficiaries, including officials in municipal public works departments, local utilities, and state policymakers and regulators. The project also will provide education and training opportunities for graduate students, and it will involve a public school teacher as an integral member of the research team in order to improve capabilities to effectively communicate findings and insights to K-12 students and help them better understand the importance of infrastructure management.The investigators will use methods from plant physiological ecology, geospatial science, and social network theory to measure interactions among co-located infrastructure and social networks and to map their connectivity and functional interactions across the Boston metropolitan area. They will perform field research across a geospatially diverse set of known gas leaks in the greater Boston area and employ geospatial analysis relate leak data to other data, such as measures of tree health and damage. They will conduct field experiments to assess the impacts of gas leaks on saplings, and they will assess the degree to which methane might be vented through trees into the atmosphere. Analyses of the geospatial relationships between gas leaks and human communities will examine relationships among biophysical and demographic data, and the conduct of a pair of extended case studies will provide insights into the formal and informal relationships and interactions over daily, mid and long-term management issues within the network. Through these complementary approaches, the investigators will advance a general theory of urban function that has the power of transforming science to practical application in guiding policy toward effective, efficient, and environmentally beneficial coordination of infrastructure management. This project is supported by the NSF Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) Program.