Conceptual Models for Infrastructure Leadership

Abstract

AbstractIn policy and aspirational documents both the American Society of Civil Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering have called for engineers of the 21st century to take a leading role in infrastructure discussions about and decisions. These discussions and decisions routinely involve stakeholders, constituencies, and organizations that are unfamiliar with traditional engineering modeling and analysis techniques; removing communication barriers is essential, but many find our engineering tools, methods, and explanations difficult to comprehend. Assuming a leadership role in these conversations requires engineers to adopt new conceptual models that enhance communication between people with dissimilar backgrounds and promote shared understanding. The West Point infrastructure models introduced in this paper provide engineers, decision makers, and members of society with a universal framework for understanding, visualizing, assessing, and describing complex infrastructure systems in a manner th...