Urban Informatics for Sustainability and Resilience (UrbInSuRe) Center

Barbara MinskerDepartment of Civil & Environmental EngineeringNational Center for Supercomputing Applications

April 2014

UrbInSuRe MissionEnvision a future city that is smarter and more

livable.Tap into the Big Data stream to improve

environmental, social, engineered, and economic sustainability and resilience in a rapidly changing world.

Source: VentureBeat.com

Sources include: Heidelberg Collaboratory, Minsker, GMES

Integrated, Information-Based Decision Making

Human, Physical,

Virtual Sensors

Bots

, Act

ors

Visualization Dashboard

Information-Based

Decisions

Calibration

Automated Provenance

…Seamless Computing…

Archives

Data Fusion

ModelingMultimodalData

Products

UrbInSuRe Objectives

1. Foster multi-disciplinary interaction and collaboration with partner cities on urban challenges

2. Provide shared resources (funds, space, staff, and cyberinfrastructure) to support collaborative urban research, education, and public engagement.

3. Support education and training for multi-disciplinary research teams and their city partners to contribute to these activities.

4. Raise the national and international profile of Illinois’ data-driven urban research, education, and engagement.

Imaginations unbound

Informatics & Synthesis Pipeline

Synthesis Workshops

Synthesis Working Groups

• Led by faculty & staff fellows.

• Student fellows assigned to each group

Synthesis Proposals &

Projects

New Knowledge &

Solutions

New Technologie

s

Publications

Open Source Cyberinfrastructu

re• Flexible,

modular architecture.

• Community services (workflows, tools, models, data)

• Committers and contributors

Domain & IT

Communities

Training Workshops

Synthesis Working Group Open Community Engagement Process

From the Water Science Software Institute S2I2 conceptualization team, 2011.

Proposed Working Group 1. Data-Driven Urban Informatics & TechnologiesResearch Questions

• What methods & computational solutions best address Big Data variety, volume, and velocity challenges?

• How can technology be used to better define, measure, and advance urban sustainability and resilience?

• What computational models are most accurate in predicting behavior of urban “systems of systems”?

Proposed Working Group 2. Risk and Resilience of Coastal CitiesResearch Questions

• How can coastal risk mitigation measures be designed to optimize economic, ecological, and societal outcomes?

• How can we develop resilient strategies that evolve and adapt with changing risks?

• How can coastal risks be assessed and rapidly communicated?

Super Storm Sandy- 2013 NYC

Proposed Working Group 3. Rural and Urban InterfacesResearch Questions

• How can the costs of goods and services provided in urban centers reflect the full environmental and social costs of production and delivery?

• What are the trade-offs between urban and rural pollutant sources, and how would they be affected by a life cycle costing approach?

Food Water

Energy

Proposed Working Group 4. Healthy Urban Living: Improving Human and Ecosystem WellbeingResearch Questions

• What data, models, technologies, designs, strategies, or policies would improve complex human and ecosystem health problems?

• What would a healthy, sustainable, and resilient city look like, and how can we measure progress towards such a goal?

Technology & City Platform

Cyberinfrastructure for Urban Big Data Analytics & MOdeling

Status and Next StepsFirst internal funding commitments promised

(College of Engineering, Prairie Research Institute)Discussions ongoing to secure additional internal

funding (Fine & Applied Arts, Library & Information Sciences, Agriculture, Law, Liberal Arts & Sciences, NCSA, Graduate College, Campus, other institutes)

Soft launch Fall 2014Create Web site & brochuresFirst 2 working groups launched with student supportWorkshops & meetings with city partnersProposal writing

Acknowledgments: Initial Working Group Members1. Data-Driven Urban Informatics and

Technologies (Co-Chairs: Jong Lee, NCSA, and Jana Diesner, GSLIS; Initial participants: Jon Gant, GSLIS; Danny Powell, NCSA; Nora El-Gohary CEE and Joshua Peschel, CEE; Mei-Po Kwan and Shaowen Wang, Geography; Scott Poole, Communications)

2. Risk and Resilience of Coastal Cities (Co-Chairs: Gary Miller, PRI, and Paolo Gardoni, CEE; Initial Participants: Barbara Minsker, CEE; Jesse Ribot and Ryan Sriver, Geography; Brian Anderson, INHS; Arden Rowell, Law; and Colleen Murphy, Philosophy)

Acknowledgments: Initial Working Group Members3. Rural and Urban Interfaces (Co-Chairs: Luis Rodriguez,

ABE, and Anna-Maria Marshall; Initial Participants: Craig Gunderson, ACE; Daniel Work and Bill Buttlar, CEE; Sam Wortman, Crop Sciences; Jong Lee, NCSA; Shaowen Wang, Geography; Brian Anderson, INHS; Jim Miller, NRES; Gary Miller, PRI; Bev Wilson and Bumsoo Lee, URP)

4. Healthy Urban Living: Improving Human and Ecosystem Wellbeing in the Urban Environment (Co-Chairs: Mei-Po Kwan, Geography, and Barbara Minsker, CEE; Initial participants: Craig Gunderson, ACE; Nora El-Gohary, CEE; William Sullivan, LA; Scott Poole, Communications; Luis Rodriguez, ABE; Kate Williams, GSLIS; Jim Miller, NRES; Bev Wilson and Bumsoo Lee, URP; Julie Cidell, Geography; Marilyn O’Hara, VetMed)