Help Save Our Cities

From the Grand Challenges for Engineering:

Restore and Improve Urban Infrastructure

By Thomas Goodrich

In early 2008, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering convened a panel of 18 worldrenowned scientists, engineers, and thinkers. Together and with the help of dozens of other
field experts who reviewed their work, they identified 14 of the most prevalent issues in the
scientific fields of study. Today these issues, or Grand Challenges for Engineering, are the
subject of intense study and research, as we attempt to hurdle these obstacles and create a
brighter future.
This report focuses on challenge number seven: Restore and Improve Urban Infrastructure.
It is intended to reach all new engineers in the Civil or Environmental disciplines, or anyone
wishing to learn more about this challenge or help work towards solving it.

What are the Grand Challenges?

On February 15th, 2008 a diverse panel of critical thinkers from many different fields released
a list of 14 challenges that they had determined were the most pressing issues for science to
tackle next. The list does not rank the challenges by importance of difficulty, nor does it
include every important problem. Instead, it is meant to identify reasonable number of goals
that are both realistically attainable and beneficial to the planet and its people. The
challenges encompass a wide variety of subjects across many scientific fields, from computer
science, to physical science, to medicine.

Grand Challenges for Engineering

Advance Personalized Learning

Make Solar Energy Economical

Enhance Virtual Reality

Reverse-Engineer the Brain

Engineer Better Medicines

Advance Health Informatics

Restore and Improve Urban

Infrastructure

Secure Cyberspace

Provide Access to Clean Water

Provide Energy From Fusion

Prevent Nuclear Terror

The committee who produced this list was

convened by the National Academy of
Engineering and includes some of the
brightest minds from the scientific
community. The final list was reviewed by
dozens of additional experts in the relevant
fields, and input from other engineers,
scientists, and even the public was also
considered.
Humans have been solving scientific
challenges since the beginning of civilization.
From inventing the wheel to building Romes
aqueducts, societies of the past have
developed numerous ways to improve their
quality of life. The problems we face today
are more complex, but the root of the issue is
the same: how can our civilization continue
to advance, while improving quality of life,
eliminating vulnerability, and ensuring a
bright future?

Why the Emphasis on Infrastructure?

To really be able to understand why urban infrastructure and all of the problems that
surround it need to be addressed, we need to answer some more basic questions:

What is infrastructure?

What is our infrastructure like now?

How do we fix what we have already?

What needs to change?

How do we prepare for the future?

Some Background Info

The idea of infrastructure is as old as civilization itself. Over six thousand years ago when the
Sumerians settled in Mesopotamia, their society was known to be the first to erect buildings.
Ever since, humanity has been constantly working to maintain, improve, and add on to our
infrastructure, as civilization expands and progresses.
We grew to build the pyramids, the Great Wall, and
the aqueducts of Rome, all the way to Empire State
Building and cross-country highways. The progress that
weve made is indeed remarkable, but society is
growing faster than ever, and we must continue to
meet the new challenges this presents if we hope to
secure our future.

What does infrastructure mean to

us today?
Buildings and roads is one of the most common phrases one typically hears in
reference to infrastructure. While this is not incorrect, there is really so much more that it
encompasses. Paraphrasing Websters definition, infrastructure is the structures, facilities,
and organizational institutions that are necessary for a society to function.

Today, we as engineers take infrastructure to include

buildings, roads, power supply, water systems, waste
disposal, communication systems, and public
transportation.
Essentially, anything that contributes to society in terms of progress, convenience, and
stability. Some of these aspects have been around for thousands of years, and some are only a
few decades old, but all require constant maintenance, updates, and improvement in order to
meet the needs of society.
Engineers need to have a firmer grasp on these ideas than anyone else. In a city,
efficiency is a necessity. For example, traffic needs to be controlled, public transportation
needs to be accessible and convenient, water and power are essential, space is precious so
builders have to take advantage by building taller structures, and waste must be disposed of.

Even more recent developments like internet and cell phone are also accounted for. All of
these different pieces work together to create an environment that is most suitable for our
success as a society.

What is our infrastructure like

now?
Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) issues a report card
that evaluates the current condition of infrastructure in the county, ranging from A-F. The
report card takes into consideration 16 categories that together comprise all infrastructure in
our society. In 2005, Americas grade was a D, and into 2013 it was bumped to a D+, and
it is currently estimated to be a $3.6 trillion investment required before the year 2020 if we
want to fix this poor situation. (ASCE 2013)

Figure taken from www.infrastructurereportcard.com. It depicts all 16 categories that contribute to the
overall evaluation of infrastructure in America. One lone B- for solid waste disposal is the highlight, while the
rest are alarmingly low.

Many of these grades are not just relevant to convenience of life, some propose
genuine safety hazards. For example a grade of D in Dams is extremely concerning. Dams
provide numerous services, and also hold huge amounts of water that could drastically affect
the area if something were to go wrong. If a dam were to fail, there would undoubtedly be
loss of life in addition to any economic issues that accompany a disaster like that. In fact,
there are over 10,000 dams in the US that are classified as high hazard and another 12,000
are significant hazard. (ASCE 2013) This is just one of the many examples of extremely
pressing issues that need to be addressed as we attempt to help ourselves.

It will take $3.6 trillion in the next four years to

restore and improve our infrastructure to the point it
needs to be.
Compared to other countries, America is ranked 25th in the world in terms of quality of
infrastructure. (Kawa 2013) Among the countries ahead of us are Oman and Barbados, which
are second and third world countries respectively. As a country that is so widely regarded as
the foremost world superpower, infrastructure is an area in which we are obviously lacking.
However, this issue is not exclusive to the US, as all over the world societies are growing more
quickly than their cities can support. As a result, engineers must work to provide
infrastructure to other areas of the globe that have none in addition to improving our own.

So what are our biggest problems?

There are several major problems standing in our way and preventing us from fixing our
infrastructure right now. We simply have not developed the methods that we need in order to
be able to tackle such an ambition project. The major ones are touched on below:
Lack of Energy and Resources: In the past, engineers have needed to develop ways of
providing clean water and disposing of waste in an efficient way. Recently, however,
infrastructure in our society has expanded to include things such as electricity, internet, and
cell phone service. While this is something we have been able to do, our population is still
growing and we are running out of ways to provide these services to so many people.
Developing efficient methods of harnessing wind and solar power will certainly provide more
opportunities. (NAE 2013)
Pollution: The rise in demand for energy and resources across the globe requires us to
produce at a rate that is somewhat out of control. Drilling for oil, burning coal in power
plants, and destroying forests to lay power lines is having a huge impact on the planet.
Greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere are raising temperature and creating acid rain that
destroys crops and poisons drinking water, fertile land is drying up, and our oil supplies are
dwindling. If we cant come up with a way to produce the resources that we need without
causing excessive harm to our environment, there is little hope of making any progress in
the long run.
Aesthetics: One of the major components in infrastructure that contributes to the quality
of life is the way everything looks and feels. Cities want buildings that are appealing, and
designing something with looks in mind can often increase cost dramatically. Similarly,
power plants are not built in the heart of a city because they are ugly, and transporting
power from the plant to citizens also costs money. If we want to create a world that can
sustain our growing population, we will need to come up with more efficient ways of

building and maintaining our cities. Automation can help with the building process, and
developing better materials will also create more opportunities.
Working with the Past: Much of the existing infrastructure is buried, posing several
problems for maintaining and upgrading it. (NAE 2013) This includes pipe networks, power
lines, and other systems. Maintenance on underground systems is incredibly difficult, as it
often involves digging up roads, underneath houses and buildings, and closing areas in order
to do so. To make matters worse, many of the records from the past are incomplete or
missing entirely, making this task all the more difficult. New methods of locating
underground systems and working on them without disrupting day-to-day life are necessary.

So What Needs to be Done?

1. Develop methods of harnessing sustainable energy sources in an efficient and affordable
way.
2. Provide infrastructure to areas that have none, in addition to improving what already
exists.
3. Develop a way to map underground systems, and access them with minimal disruptions to
society.

So How Can we do it Better?

Infrastructure includes buildings, roads, water and electricity, waste, energy, communication
systems, and transportation. All of these different aspects of society contributes to its ability
to function, and they all have room for improvement.

Building Better Structures:

Buildings are probably one of the most defining aspects of urban life.
They house all of the people, businesses, and institutions that make
up a society, and in order to accommodate the rising population,
some improvements have to be made.
New materials are one possible solution to this problem. Steel and
aluminum, two of the most common materials used in general
construction are very expensive to produce and transport, which is
problematic in a lot of scenarios. Concrete is another very common
material, and although cheap, it is unappealing to look at and takes

up a lot more space than building with other materials. Material Engineers must work to
develop new alloys and material designs in order to aid in the process.
Another promising solution is to reinvent the building process itself. Most of the methods
commonly used today are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. Manual construction like
laying brick, digging foundations, and building scaffolding to work on the structure is an
inefficient use of both time and money. Many aspects of the process could be greatly
improved with automation and robotics. This would lower costs, speed up the lengthy
process, and eliminate any risks to humans working in dangerous situations. Transporting
power and electricity from the source to the job site could also be improved by developing
better computer systems.
A great example of ingenuity
in structure design is in
Washington State, where
engineers recently built a
7,700 foot floating bridge
across Lake Washington. This
project was undertaken to
provide more convenient
access to the surrounding
areas, where conventional
bridges would not do the
job. The soft bed of the lake
would have made it
impossible to build a
conventional bridge, so
engineers decided a floating system could suit their needs better. The project was long, and
could definitely still have benefitted from an improved construction method, but the result is
excellent considering the circumstances.

Building Better Systems:

Transportation, power, and water are all equally as essential to societys success as the
buildings are. Once again, we are seeing more and more shortcoming in the systems currently
in place as population rises and these resources are more highly demanded.
Transportation is absolutely vital to
success in todays world. Cities are
huge and constantly growing, and the
need to travel farther distances in
order to live in society is a growing
issue. Cities around the world struggle
with gridlocked traffic, making
commutes extremely inconvenient, and
public transportation is often too

expensive or in an inconvenient location for many people to take advantage. While roads and
highways will always be a part of our cities, but their efficiency needs to be streamlined. In
some cities, efforts are already underway by establishing hubs where trains, taxis, busses,
pedestrian paths, and parking areas that are all centrally located near one another. In Hong
Kong, several transportation services are linked in a system that allows a single smart card to
be used to pay for all the services, including gas and parking. (NAE 2013) Systems such as
this would certainly aid in streamlining the efficiency of the transportation systems in our
own county as well.
Water and electricity are the
other major components of
urban infrastructure that
need to be addressed. Right
now, many areas use systems
that attempt to supply every
part of the city from one one
central source. While this
does provide consolidation of
space and resources, many
cities have too large a
population for the system to
work efficiently for
everyone. Some engineers
propose that localizing water
and power stations to service
a specific suburb or
neighborhood rather than
the entire city would be
much more convenient and efficient, as transport costs would decrease, and problems at the
source would not affect so many people at once. The challenge here would be to engineer the
facilities in such a way that they are not encroaching on anyones space or adding an eyesore
to the community. This idea would be best implemented in emerging societies that dont
already have centralized systems, like many that are in developing areas like China or India,
allowing engineers to observe the results of this new method. (NAE 2013)

So What Can We Take Away From

This?
Our infrastructure is in decline, and its a problem that we need to address if we want to
build a future for ourselves that can sustain a growing population while not harming the
quality of life that we are used to. It is extremely important that new engineers particularly
in the Civil and Environmental disciplines are educated about the obstacles we face. Before

we can move ahead, we have to come up with new ways to produce energy while at the same
time reducing the harm that this does to the planet. We must create new methods of
development, maintenance, and organization in our cities, and address any problems as they
arise, rather than ignoring them and allowing them to get worse.

And so, a major grand challenge for infrastructure

engineering will be not only to devise new
approaches and methods, but to communicate their
value and worthiness to society at large.

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