Future Infrastructure and Systems Innovation

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In response to the growing need for sustainable infrastructure systems, I have established a research program that focuses on the nexus of infrastructure, environment, and health. Using systems analytics, we identify new approaches to planning, designing, and managing next-generation infrastructure that better protects the environment and public health. By focusing on the interdependency of built and natural environments, our work aims to ensure that the decisions we are making about our urban systems enhance both economic vitality and quality of life.

Population growth, social inequities, and other factors are currently putting enormous stress on our infrastructure systems. Our natural resources and the environment are being increasingly stressed as well. Consider the global transportation infrastructure: each year, nearly a billion cars and trucks move people and goods along the world’s roadways, and consumers spend trillions of dollars on their personal vehicles. Road networks and their supporting infrastructure are operating at or near capacity, and the demand for transport continues to rise. At the same time, transportation-related air pollution (e.g., ground-level ozone and particulate matter pollution) is a pressing issue. While upgrades are necessary, attempts to expand urban roadways raise environmental concerns, threaten the livability of cities, and in many cases are prohibitively expensive.

The problems of aging infrastructure systems are severe, and traditional approaches to updating them are no longer adequate or appropriate. Infrastructure construction, use, maintenance, and finance are not sustainable under the status quo. Current modes of construction and operation, for example, consume substantial amounts of energy and create unacceptable environmental impacts, including large quantities of greenhouse gases.

My research team is working on new ways to manage the interactions between urban infrastructure and environmental networks. We are also rethinking how to finance, design, deliver, and manage infrastructure systems so that they are sustainable over the long term. We have already been involved in several large-scale interdisciplinary projects to study environmental impacts, including assessing transportation emissions and air pollution in New York City and food supply chains in the Northeast United States.

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