Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Sustainable Urban Ecosystems

摘要-第1部分：可持续城市生态系统工程研究中心将为我们目前面临的最重要的社会问题之一开发转型技术：管理大型人口中心的增长，使其保持可持续发展，不损害居民的安全和福祉。为了实现这一使命，该中心将开发政府和私营部门所需的科学和工程系统，以做出最有利于城市居民的决策。大型人口中心的可持续增长是一个非常复杂的社会问题，需要在数据科学和工程方面取得进步，以提高效率，最大限度地减少自然资源的消耗，并增强适应不同类型和程度的破坏的能力。该研究中心将通过开发分布式技术，如仪器阵列、云计算、智能系统和连接设备来满足这一需求，这些技术可以提高性能，消除低效率，并允许大型城市中心应对日益增长的服务需求，特别是在艰苦的环境下。-第二部分：可持续城市生态系统工程研究中心将为我们目前面临的最重要的社会问题之一开发转型技术：城市生态系统工程，在不损害居民安全和福祉的情况下实现可持续增长。可持续性要求实现两个目标，即在正常运行条件下最大限度地减少自然资源的消耗，并拥有快速有效地适应不同量级和持续时间的中断的能力。为了实现这一使命，该中心将开发创建分布式传感器和数据科学框架所需的基础科学，以协助当局和私营部门做出最有利于城市居民的决策。拟议中的中心将使研究和技术能够通过实时数据处理、存储和传播来提高城市基础设施的弹性，加速数字社区中大型数据集的处理。数据分析、机器学习和人工智能专家将在各自的领域推进基础知识。计算研究人员将能够访问完整的数据流链，并能够研究网络攻击的网络弱点。网络将包括窄带和宽带无线和有线数据通信，与传统和新兴传感器云环境的网络，以及各种接口。研究人员将开发能够探索这些领域之间相互依存关系的城市生态系统和健康信息学应用程序。基础设施研究人员将利用这些进步，在正常运行条件下以及网络攻击、飓风、洪水和化学品泄漏等不同类型的中断期间，利用实时数据提高城市基础设施的效率和弹性。通过这项规划拨款，一个不同的利益相关者团体将联合起来，就通过融合研究实现城市生态系统可持续增长所需的科学和工程进展达成共识。规划的结果将为指导未来的研究工作和促进以前没有考虑到的新合作提供路线图。可持续城市生态系统的研究将对社会产生广泛的影响，因为它所影响的人口比例很大（到2050年将达到90%）。由于面临的风险和脆弱性不同，服务不足和中断的影响在社区之间分布不均，服务不足和投资不足的社区脆弱性最高，适应能力低。规划拨款将通过加强利益相关者之间的合作，提高生活质量和城市生态系统的复原力，使大型社区受益。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Sustainable Urban EcosystemsProposal Abstract-Part 1: The Engineering Research Center for Sustainable Urban Ecosystems will develop transforming technologies for one of the most important societal problems we presently face: managing the growth of large population centers so it remains sustainable and does not harm the safety and wellbeing of residents. To achieve this mission, the center will develop science and engineering systems needed by authorities and the private sector to make decisions that yield the most benefit to urban residents. Sustainable growth of large population centers is a very complex societal problem that will require advances in data science and engineering to improve efficiency, minimize the consumption of natural resources, and enhance the ability to adapt to disruptions of different types and magnitudes. The research center will address this need by developing distributed technologies such as instrument arrays, cloud computing, intelligent systems, and connected devices that enhance performance, eliminate inefficiencies, and allow large urban centers to cope with increasing demand for services, particularly during strenuous circumstances. . -Part 2: The Engineering Research Center for Sustainable Urban Ecosystems will develop transforming technologies for one of the most important societal problems we presently face: engineering of urban ecosystems to achieve sustainable growth without harming the safety and wellbeing of residents. Sustainability compels dual objectives of minimizing consumption of natural resources under normal operating conditions and possessing the ability to adapt rapidly and efficiently to disruptions of different orders of magnitude and duration. To achieve this mission, the center will develop the underlying science needed to create a distributed sensor and data science framework to assist authorities and the private sector make decisions most beneficial to urban residents. The proposed center will enable research and technology to improve urban infrastructure resilience through real-time data processing, storage, and dissemination, accelerating processing of large datasets in digital communities. Data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence experts will advance fundamental knowledge in their collective domains. Computing researchers will have access to the complete data flow chain and be able to study networking weaknesses against cyber-attacks. The networking will include narrowband and broadband wireless and wired data communication, networking with traditional and emerging sensor cloud environments, and various interfaces. Researchers will develop urban ecosystem and health informatics applications capable of exploring interdependences between these domains. Infrastructure researchers will leverage these advances to improve efficiency and resilience of urban infrastructures using real-time data during normal operating conditions, and during different types of disruptions such as cyberattacks, hurricanes, floods, and chemical spills. Through this planning grant, a diverse group on stakeholders will join forces to develop consensus on advances in science and engineering needed to achieve sustainable growth of urban ecosystems through convergent research. The outcomes of the planning will provide a roadmap to guide future research efforts and foster new collaborations not previously considered. Research on sustainable urban ecosystems will have a broad impact on society due to the large percentage of the population it affects (90% by 2050). The impact of inadequate services and disruptions is unevenly distributed among communities due to different exposures and vulnerabilities, with the highest levels of vulnerability and low adaptive capacity linked to underserved and underinvested communities. The planning grant will benefit large communities by strengthening collaboration between stakeholders to improve quality of life and resilience of urban ecosystems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.