US Ignite: Collaborative Research: Focus Area 1: Fiber Network for Mapping, Monitoring and Managing Underground Urban Infrastructure

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Underground infrastructure supports services critical to daily human life, including fresh water supply, waste and storm water sewage, natural gas, electric power, steam and telecommunications. Much of the infrastructure is aging, and in unknown locations and condition. This project proposes innovative research to monitor and map underground infrastructure by integrating gigabit network-enabled sensing and mapping, cutting-edge networking, and data analytics. These real-time and automated sensing and mapping techniques can improve maintenance and management operations through better planning, incident response and condition assessment. Success will improve construction and repair efficiency, and reduce unplanned service interruptions, and accidents that harm the public safety and environment. This is a collaborative research project between the University of Vermont and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The cities of Burlington, VT, Winooski, VT and Chattanooga, TN are providing access to their infrastructure facilities for testing. A notable feature is that all three cities have deployments of gigabit networks that are available for use on this project. The three participating cities are located in small metropolitan regions that ease implementation of research efforts, yet are big enough to identify key issues affecting scaling up to larger cities. This project also provides educational experiences for graduate students and participating municipal utility officials in gigabit network-enabled sensing and underground urban infrastructure. This project uses gigabit networks to integrate a mobile ground penetrating radar sensing with a cohesive network of sensors for detecting, assessing and reporting incipient conditions, such as emergent leaks. The processing and presentation of underground information will be rapidly transmitted to interested parties through secure, timely, and reliable communication, This project helps to build network-augmented position registration in an urban environment. Performance of the gigabit network-enabled utility mapping and sensing system will be measured in three participating cities. Success with this research will enable cities to manage, maintain and grow their infrastructure in manners that improve service, sustainability and resilience, while reducing costs, energy consumption and wasted resources. Since many of the aging underground infrastructure lies in older cities, often subjected to economic distress and decay, this project can help to provide basic human needs and rights, and help to provide social justice through reliable low-cost provision of clean drinking water, functional storm and waste water sewers, heat, electricity and telecommunications. Additionally, there is significant potential for increased resilience and rapid effective management of recovery from disasters.