Two CSIC articles on the future of infrastructure have been published in journals from the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) this month.
A paper titled ‘Flourishing Systems: Re-envisioning Infrastructure as a Platform for Human Flourishing’, authored by CSIC Director Dr Jennifer Schooling, Research Associate Dr Didem Gürdür Broo and Chief Technical Officer at Mott MacDonald and Head of the National Digital Twin Programme at the Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB) Mark Enzer, has been published in the ICE journal ‘Smart Infrastructure and Construction’.
The paper makes the case for infrastructure’s connection to the flourishment of human beings and the role of infrastructure in the social, economic and environmental outcomes that determine the quality of people’s lives. It advocates that infrastructure is a complex, interconnected system of systems that must deliver continuous service to society, and be managed as a whole to do so. Read the paper on the ICE website.
An article also authored by Dr Schooling and Dr Gürdür Broo, titled ‘A Framework for Using Data as an Engineering Tool for Sustainable Cyber-Physical Systems’ has been published in the IEEE Access journal. The article proposes to use data throughout an asset’s whole life cycle – from identifying the need, planning and designing to construction, operation, integration and maintenance – and can be read on the IEEE website.
This has received support from the Centre for Digital Built Britain’s (CDBB) at the University of Cambridge which is within the Construction Innovation Hub and is funded by UK Research and Innovation through the Industrial Strategy Fund. The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Innovate UK funded Construction Innovation Hub (CIH), the EPSRC/Innovate UK funded Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) (Grant Numbers EP/N021614/1 and 920035) and the Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation (CSEI) at Imperial College London, which collectively funded the research which contributed to this paper.