Urban Infrastructure Systems Research Articles

Resilience-based seismic retrofit of urban infrastructure systems

Earthquakes are among the most devastating natural disasters, posing a significant threat to human life and property. With the rapid pace of urbanization, urban risk against earthquakes has increased, making them an increasingly pressing concern for human society. Urban infrastructure systems (UISs), such as electric power, water supply, and gas systems, are essential to the smooth functioning of modern society but are highly vulnerable to ground shaking, resulting in service interruptions to customers and triggering negative impacts on society. This article focuses on the seismic retrofit problem, which intends to enhance the resilience of UISs against seismic hazards. First, a two-stage stochastic programming model is developed for the seismic retrofit problem, where the first stage seeks an optimal seismic retrofit strategy under a limited budget, and the second stage attempts to identify a repair sequence to maximize the system resilience under the given retrofit strategy. Then, this article introduces a heuristic algorithm based on the scenario reduction method and integer L-shaped method to solve the formulated model. Finally, numerical experiments on the Qujing power transmission system are conducted to validate the proposed algorithm. Results show that they can be applied to the resilience-based seismic retrofit problem of large-scale UISs.

Efficient Energy Management for the Smart Sustainable City Multifloor Manufacturing Clusters: A Formalization of the Water Supply System Operation Conditions Based on Monitoring Water Consumption Profiles

This study is devoted to improving the energy efficiency of urban infrastructure systems (UISs), in particular, the centralized water supply of a city multifloor manufacturing cluster (CMFMC), by developing the principles of effective energy consumption management. The CMFMCs are located in the residential area of a megapolis and include manufacturing and service enterprises, residential and non-residential buildings, and a city logistics node. Demand monitoring and identification of the influence of seasonal and social environmental factors on its fluctuations is considered as a tool for identifying changes in the operating conditions of the water supply system (WSS) for the CMFMC facilities. To identify the typical operating conditions of water supply facilities, an approach is proposed that involves the analysis of daily water consumption profiles (WCPs). The formation of a database, the formation of groups of the same type of daily WCPs, and the construction of typical daily WCPs for typical groups and their description are the main stages of the proposed approach. The database contains a set of classification characteristics that describe the daily water consumption and its unevenness, as well as the shape of the daily WCP. The principal component analysis was applied to determine the dominant components of daily water consumption. A set of morphometric parameters was used to describe the shape of the daily WCPs. The methods of cluster and discriminant analysis were used to identify the influence of seasonality and social factors on water consumption and to form groups of the same type of daily WCPs. The analysis of sets of similar type of daily WCPs for typical days of typical seasons was carried out for a formalized description of the typical operating conditions of water supply facilities. The results of the analysis are the clarification of the equations of the dominant components of daily water consumption, the determination of the average values of the characteristics of daily water consumption, and the construction and description of typical daily WCPs for typical operating conditions of water supply facilities. The research results were obtained on the basis of the data of the monitoring systems for water supply enterprises in Ukraine and Poland in 2021–2022. The obtained results are the basis for planning the water supply process and adjusting the operation modes of WSS pumping stations for the CMFMC, as well as planning power consumption for typical operating conditions, which will contribute to increasing the efficiency of water and electricity use.

Quantifying the impact of green infrastructure change on landscape patterns using intensity analysis and landscape metrics in the Taipei metropolitan area.

Developing a sound urban green infrastructure system is critical for addressing climate change. Green infrastructure (GI) also plays an essential role in the urban system by providing ecosystem services for urban residents. Although some research on GI has been published in Taiwan, there is a lack of understanding of how changes in land use and GI affect the landscape patterns in urban fringe areas. This study explores the impact of changes in GI on the landscape pattern of the urban fringe and urban core areas in the Taipei metropolitan area (TMA). We used intensity analysis to investigate changes in land area and land use intensity between 1981 and 2015 at three levels: interval, category, and transition. Landscape metrics were employed to analyze changes in GI patterns. We found, firstly, that although the rate of change in the urban core area of the TMA was faster than the rate of change in the urban fringe area during 1981-1995 and 1995-2006, changes in the urban fringe area nevertheless maintained a state of rapid change in 1995-2006 and 2006-2015. Secondly, forest and agricultural lands in urban fringe areas were the GI categories with the greatest changes in area from 1981 to 2015. Thirdly, transition areas among forest, agricultural, and built-up areas in urban fringe areas were larger during 1995-2015 than 1981-1995. Finally, the results of landscape pattern analysis indicate that the urban fringe area of the TMA is experiencing landscape fragmentation. Although forest land remained the main category in the urban fringe from 1981 to 2015, the integrity of its patch area decreased over time, and the prevalence of small and complex patches of built-up and agricultural land increased. Spatial planning should therefore consider how to build a GI system to promote ecosystem services in urban fringe areas so as to enhance the ability to respond to climate change.

Using digital technologies to plan and manage the pipelines network in city

AbstractPromoting the intelligent level of urban pipelines network planning and management is an important way to improve the rational development and utilisation of urban underground space and ensure the safe operation of urban infrastructure systems. The research on using the rapid and visual expression technology of 3D pipelines network model data, which has the functions of techno‐economic indexes calculation and automatic comparison of underground pipeline construction projects, effectively avoids possible errors in manual calculation and comparison and improves the efficiency and accuracy of the digital declaration process for project planning. In the 3D Geographic Information Systems (GIS) platform environment, this research help to develop many analysis and approval functions based on the data of the underground pipelines network model and the integrated pipes gallery Building Information Modelling, such as evaluating the compliance, feasibility and scientific of the planning scheme of the underground pipeline construction project, comparing the completion data with the data approved by the administrative departments of the project, evaluating the consistency of them and judging the compliance of the project completion data. The application results of some actual projects cases show that this research can improve the efficiency of planning declaration and approval analysis.

Interdependencies between Urban Transport, Water, and Solid Waste Infrastructure Systems

Developing integrated, sustainable, and resilient urban systems requires consideration of the different types of interdependencies between their infrastructure systems. The degree and nature of interdependencies among infrastructure systems vary widely. This article identifies and analyzes the interdependencies between urban transport, water, and solid waste. A comprehensive review is conducted, an interdependency matrix for the three systems is developed, and the interdependencies are analyzed qualitatively. The analysis shows that the three systems are highly interdependent, indicating that an integrated approach that considers the mutual impacts, conflicts, and interactions among them at all stages of their life cycles is necessary to promote sustainability and resilience. This article also identifies opportunities for developing new integrated planning and design approaches and emphasizes the need for further research in this area to quantify infrastructure interdependencies. This is particularly important in the context of rapid urbanization and the pressure on cities to adapt to climate change.

Regulation of water bodies to urban thermal environment: Evidence from Wuhan, China

Exploring how water bodies work on the thermal environment in a real and complex urban context is of great significance to develop urban blue infrastructure (BI) system for climate adaption. Previous studies mainly focused on the water cool island (WCI) effect in the microenvironment, which cannot provide enough evidence for systematic application. This study explored the cooling effect of water bodies on the urban environment in Wuhan, China based on three scenarios in which water bodies was regarded as individual samples, water network system and one landscape category of urban ecosystem, respectively. Results indicate that all detected water bodies expressed WCI effect with the mean WCI intensity of 5.5°C and the range of 1.1°C to 13.3°C. The main factors influencing the cooling effect of urban water body system were Percent of landscape (PLAND_W), Landscape shape index (LSI_W) and Contrast-weighted edge density (CWED_W) of water bodies, which could explain 69.0% of urban LST variation. An urban water body system with relatively larger water area, more regular boundary and simpler surroundings might be more efficient in cooling the urban environment. Nevertheless, when considering the interaction of water bodies with other land covers on thermal environment, the contribution of water bodies to the cooling benefit was depressed. The main factors were Similarity index_mean of Construction land (SIMI_MN_C), Class area of Construction land (CA_C), Total edge contrast index of Water body (TECI_W), Landscape shape index of Water body (LSI_W) and Percent of landscape of Vegetated area (PLAND_V). They combined to explain 71.9% of LST variation in urban areas. Developing an urban BI system by connecting the dispersed water bodies and fragmenting the contiguous construction land in rapidly urbanized areas can be more realistic for mitigating UHI effect and adapting to climate change.

Modular Rainwater Storage Design Planning in Support of the Urban Infrastructure Systems Program

Technology to optimize the potential of rainwater that utilizes rainwater harvesting technology (PAH) cannot simply be accepted by the community, especially in urban areas. Urban areas have limited land to support rainwater storage which has large dimensions with the shape of a tube. Therefore, a modular form was developed that can help urban communities who do not have large lands to optimize the potential for rainwater that falls and is used as clean water to supply daily needs. These components are collected and classified according to urban infrastructure systems (UIS). The planned reservoir with dimensions that are more effective and easy to apply in various places is planned to have a maximum dimension of 1 meter high and 0.5 meters wide made of modular plastic. After going through the stages of analysis of the discharge that can be accommodated in the engineering of a modular rainwater reservoir, then proceed with the design process and provide clarity of designation examples. By utilizing the form with a capacity of 32 liters, this rainwater reservoir can be arranged and adjusted according to the designation of the people who want to use it.

Green, gray, glocal: governing urban resilience in the Tel Aviv metropolitan region

ABSTRACT This article addresses theoretical and policy challenges for governing urban resilience in fragmented metropolitan regions. By analyzing practical approaches manifested in plans and infrastructure projects in the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Region, we develop an innovative typology of urban resilience governance attuned to metropolitan scale and complexity. Based on analysis of policy documents and interviews with stakeholders in three case studies – Tel Aviv’s City Resilience Plan, Yarqon River Restoration Project, Ayalon Fourth Railway Project – we outline three distinct modalities: Glocal Resilience relates to methodologies promoted by global networks (particularly 100 Resilient Cities) and applied locally by cities, increasing metropolitan disparities; Green Resilience encompasses urban-natural ecosystems and facilitates cross-metropolitan cooperation between multiple stakeholders. Gray Resilience relates to large urban-infrastructural systems and operates through centralized control with limited metropolitan outreach. Together, our typology of Glocal, Green, and Gray Resilience captures the diversity of actually-existing urban resilience governance at metropolitan scale. Highlights Fragmented metropolitan regions are a key challenge for governing urban resilience We outline three modalities of metropolitan scale resilience governance Glocal: boosts city resilience locally but increases disparities in metro-region Green: collaborative yet fragile cross-metropolitan governance of ecosystems Gray: centralized governance of infrastructure impedes metropolitan cooperation

Science Mapping for Recent Research Regarding Urban Underground Infrastructure

The presented research conducted a bibliometric analysis regarding academic publications, especially journal publications, in the area of urban underground infrastructure (UI) systems (which include sewer pipes, drinking water pipes, cables, tunnels, etc.). In total, 547 journal papers published from 2002 to July 2022 (around 20 years period) were retrieved from Scopus using the proposed data collection method. Bibliometric analysis was conducted to extract and map the hidden information from retrieved papers. As a result, networks regarding co-citation, co-authorship, and keywords co-occurrence were generated to visualise and analyse the knowledge domain, patterns, and relationships. The eight most investigated topics in the UI research are identified and discussed, which provides an overview of the research history and focuses. Further, five potential research directions are suggested for researchers in the UI research area. The main contribution of this research is on revealing the knowledge domain of UI research in a quantitative manner as well as identifying the possible research directions.

Most Relevant Sustainability Criteria for Urban Infrastructure Projects—AHP Analysis for the Gulf States

Infrastructure projects require lifecycle-based assessment, considering the interests of multiple stakeholders concerning the three pillars of sustainability. There has been a heightened curiosity in employing sustainability indicators for gauging the impacts of developmental projects. Even though the literature is abundant on sustainability assessment methods, there is no proper one for the assessment of urban infrastructure projects in the context of Gulf states. Thus, our research intends to fill in this research gap and recommend an incorporated, hierarchically coordinated approach of sustainability indicators to be employed for the sustainability assessment of urban infrastructure development projects. This aim is achieved through a questionnaire survey, by identifying the sustainability indicators related to the infrastructure projects for the cities, in the context of Gulf states. The survey uses the criteria; “Important”, “Practicality”, “Reliability”, and “Relevance” to assess those indicators. Based on expert opinions, the weights of the indicators are approximated through the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method. Thus, the study proposes an innovative hierarchically defined structure of sustainability indicators fitting for the Gulf context. Further, it informs urban planners and policymakers, particularly in the Gulf states, about the shift in the direction of sustainability of urban infrastructure systems.

TRABZON KENT MERKEZİ ÖRNEĞİNDE KENT ORMANI OLABİLECEK YEŞİL ALAN KULLANIMLARININ TERCİH EDİLEBİLİRLİĞİ

The rate of unplanned urbanization has increased with modern industrialization and the increase in migration from rural to urban areas, and as a result, people have been exposed to environmental problems (decrease in natural resources, noise, pollution, etc.). With deteriorations such as irreversible environmental problems, loss of mental and physical health of the city-dwellers a decrease in productivity in business life and difficulties in socialization have occurred, which has made green infrastructure systems in and around cities important. In this context, urban forests, which is an important part of the urban green infrastructure system, were discussed. In the study, a survey was conducted with a group of 130 people and primarily the awareness of the citizens about the open space recreation tendencies and the concept of the urban forest was specified. Then, the preferability of the 100. Yıl Park, Atatürk Mansion and Boztepe forest areas, which are in the green area system of Trabzon city as urban forests was discussed. Obtained data were evaluated as recreational and functional in line with the needs of people. Consequently, it has been emphasized that the urban forests planned with ecological design approaches should be given priority in the city of Trabzon.

A Native American Perspective on Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure in Southern California

Although the needs for sustainable urban infrastructure systems are increasingly being recognized and addressed, the same is not true for Native American communities, where existence, condition, and access to a collection of infrastructure systems is often lagging behind urban and non-native communities. To date, there has been a quite limited number of studies exploring Native American perspectives on infrastructure challenges and how to build sustainable and resilient infrastructure systems in their communities. Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify the challenges and opportunities for building sustainable infrastructure systems for Native American communities in Southern California and investigate how those communities experience, understand, and apply engineering practice in the context of their community and culture. Drawing from six group interviews, our study highlights challenges and opportunities for building sustainable and resilient infrastructure systems on tribal reservations in San Diego County, California, from the perspectives offered by Native Americans themselves. We focus on infrastructure systems fundamental to well-being: built environment, water/wastewater, telecommunications, transportation, energy, human capital, and education. Our research participants emphasized the importance of their cultures, sovereignty, and care for the welfare of their communities in innovating sustainable and resilient infrastructure. To accomplish this, a key priority should be to train native engineers, who are best positioned to understand the infrastructure needs and opportunities in their own communities.

High-Resolution Carbon Accounting Framework for Urban Water Supply Systems.

Decarbonization of urban infrastructure systems is imperative to meeting global climate goals. Urban water supply systems (UWSSs) account for 1-3% of urban electricity consumption in the U.S., a value expected to increase, as municipalities tap nontraditional water supplies that are either more distant or require more energy-intensive treatment. Reducing the carbon intensity of UWSSs will require a combination of infrastructure upgrades, operational modifications, and behavioral interventions, but urban water planners, water treatment system operators, and consumers lack transparent tools for quantifying the carbon emission implications of these decisions. We propose a high-resolution carbon accounting framework that allows for attribution of carbon emissions to individual water sources, water system components, or individual consumers in a UWSS. The high temporal resolution of this framework also enables rapid assessment of the potential for operational and behavioral interventions to reduce the carbon intensity of UWSSs. We demonstrate this carbon accounting framework on a real-world UWSS serving a city of roughly 100 000 residents. The high spatial and temporal resolution, coupled with the scalability of this approach, makes it a valuable tool for consulting engineers, operators, and consumers seeking to deliver Net Zero water supplies.

Urban Forestry and Its Impact on the Health of Residents of Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State

In every environment, the presence or lack of urban forests impacts the built environment. Urban forestry, a branch of Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI), refers to an urban framework in which individual trees and tree populations in urban settlements are cared for and also managed to promote the health and well-being of the occupants of the urban settlements. Urban forestry strongly posits that trees are an integral part of the urban setting. The urban forest is an urban green infrastructure system that largely contributes to multiple service sectors and functions in urban environments. Although the environmental advantages of urban forests have been realised, the essentiality of urban forests in learning environments and educational communities alike, few have been largely neglected in existing research. Therefore, this research paper aims to investigate the impact of urban forests on the mental health of residents of Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria. Data for this research was collected through the use of structured questionnaires and field observation. The data collected was analysed through the use of the IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The results obtained from the analysis of collected data explicitly highlights the effects of urban forests in learning environments and their positive impact, on the mental health and overall wellbeing of the residents of the university community. This research endeavour recommended that more urban forests should be planned and put in place within built up environments to improve the stability of the eco-system and the overall wellbeing of the residents of that urban environment.

Accimap and crowd flow in urban infrastructure: Case study of Elphinstone road railway station tragedy, Mumbai, India

AbstractThe aim of this article is to show how Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) methods can be used to improve urban public infrastructure systems in densely populated countries, such as India. In this case, we use Accimap analysis with crowd flow approaches to inform safety and policy. We demonstrate the need for sociotechnical systemic safety by a case study of accident analysis of the Elphinstone Road railway station stampede. On September 29, 2017, the Elphinstone Road, Mumbai, India, railway platform bridge stampede killed at least 23 and injured 39 other commuters who traveled through the Mumbai Suburban railway. In this study, we understand the accident as it is presented in newspaper articles. We analyze the accident by a sociotechnical accident analysis method called the Accimap. The Accimap method helps by identification of various stakeholders and their interactions in the different levels of hierarchy in a sociotechnical system. This ensures moving away from individualistic and blame‐based accounts of media reporting to a coherent sociotechnical account based on understanding the dynamics of the situation. The findings from the Accimap analysis identify the problem areas in the commuter transit system and provide recommendations. These recommendations range from commuter flow management to enforcement of rules for supporting pedestrian flow. The article concludes with an emphasis on the development of the sociotechnical dimension of public safety and infrastructure from a human factors perspective, above and beyond what is currently practiced in India.

Post-Earthquake Functionality Assessment of Urban Road Network Considering Emergency Response

ABSTRACT As one of the most important urban infrastructure systems, the road network plays a vital role in post-earthquake emergency response. Quantitative evaluation of the emergency response functionality of road network under earthquakes can provide decision support for emergency planning and future construction. In this paper, a novel network performance metric is proposed to consider both the special traffic demand in emergency response and the supply capability of road network. On this basis, an integrated probabilistic assessment framework for post-earthquake network emergency response functionality is presented, considering various uncertainties. In the framework, a penalty-based approach is proposed to consider the impact of partially degraded links on network functionality. At last, the proposed methodology is illustrated on the road network of Tangshan city, China, under different seismic scenarios.

Challenges, drivers, and benefits to integrated infrastructure management of water, wastewater, stormwater and transportation systems

Infrastructure systems are known to be interdependent systems; however, infrastructure systems are typically managed individually by agencies in charge of these systems. The existing literature has proposed the concept of an integrated infrastructure management approach, yet this literature has focused on managing infrastructure systems in short-term contexts (e.g., response to natural and human-made disasters). As such, limited understanding exists about implementing an integrated infrastructure management approach in the long-term (i.e., maintenance and rehabilitation). This study aims to explore the challenges, drivers, and benefits of implementing an integrated urban infrastructure management approach by agencies managing urban water, wastewater, stormwater, and transportation infrastructure systems in the long-term. This study qualitatively analyzed 15 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in the management of infrastructure systems in Chile. It was found that the implementation of an integrated infrastructure management approach is challenged and driven by organizational instead of technical aspects. It was found that the local context where agencies operate represents a challenge for the successful implementation, the willingness to collaborate of infrastructure agencies’ workers represents a driver to implementation, and that benefits encompass agencies and users. Infrastructure agencies can use our findings to account for contextual conditions to successfully implement an integrated infrastructure management approach.

A multi‐perspective framework for seismic retrofit optimization of urban infrastructure systems

AbstractUrban infrastructure systems play essential roles in the smooth functioning of modern society but are also threatened by seismic hazards in the earthquake‐prone areas. Retrofitting critical components of those systems has been considered as the most frequently used mitigation strategy in both the literature and practice. The seismic retrofit budget is usually limited, then it needs to identify a set of critical components to be retrofitted, which is generally formulated as a seismic retrofit optimization problem. This article proposes a multi‐perspective modeling and solution framework for the seismic retrofit optimization of urban infrastructure systems, which allows choosing different performance measures including vulnerability, resilience loss and economic loss as the objective function. The proposed framework can be used to explore how different performance measures and the infrastructure interdependencies affect the seismic retrofit decision. Taking the interdependent Shelby power and gas systems as an example, results show that if considering single systems, the optimal economic loss‐based performance improvement ratio (PIR) is larger than the best resilience loss‐based PIR, which is larger than the vulnerability‐based PIR; if considering interdependent systems, the interdependency intensity is indeed a key factor affecting the retrofit decision.

PROBLEMSOF LOCAL FLOODS AND THEIR RELATION TO BOGOR CITY DRAINAGE INFRASTRUCTURE SYSTEM

Highland areas are not necessarily without flood problems, especially local flooding. The problem of poor drainage can be the cause of a local flood, as happened in Bogor City, West Java. Development evaluation related to local flooding in a city is an exciting topic to study further. The purpose of this evaluation is to answer the need for public information about the philosophy of flooding in the highlands, existing policies, and factors causing local flooding in Bogor City. The benefits of this analysis can also provide policymakers with input on strategic steps in the planning of urban drainage infrastructure systems, both in terms of physical channels, social approaches, and aspects of land carrying capacity within the ecological framework. The method used in this evaluation is in the form of literature studies and direct field observations of Bogor City's drainage infrastructure at specific points. The recommendation for the Bogor City government is to carry out comprehensive data collection and re-topography, namely by collecting data on buildings and drainage, determining the slope and height of the channel, and implementing risk management at each stage of its implementation. In addition, strict supervision and community participation in overseeing the development process and reducing waste disposal in the river supports the improvement of drainage development.

Measures and Suggestions for Smart Community Development Based on Urban Renewal

The development mode of urban construction has gradually changed from the rapid development and construction mode of new areas to the renewal of old urban areas. The old urban areas are demolished, transformed, upgraded, invested, and constructed, and the backward urban functions are replaced with new urban functions and then restore vitality and prosperity. In urban renewal, the upgrading and transformation of urban information infrastructure and intelligent systems is an important part of urban development, and the smart community construction system is a new development concept after urbanization has been updated to a certain extent. The goal is to address the disparity between the material and cultural needs of a growing population and the unbalanced and unplanned management of cities. In addition, with the rapid development of information technology, new applications and demands emerge. Based on urban renewal, this paper proposes corresponding countermeasures for the upgrading and transformation of intelligent facilities and intelligent application in the development of smart communities in combination with new technologies such as cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things, 5G, and AI for reference in planning and design.