The local governance of digital technology – Implications for the city-scale digital twin

The project set out to examine how governance structures, processes and socio-political systems affect the adoption of new (digital) technologies – e.g. City Digital Twins – that provide evidence for policy making and implementation in urban planning and the management of urban infrastructures. Situating City Digital Twins as next-generation urban models, we analysed the existing practice of using computerised models to support decision-making in the multi-actor governance context of the Cambridge city region in the United Kingdom. The study traced modelling practices and evidence informed decision-making processes across a variety of sectors: transport, energy, land-use planning and telecommunications. Outcomes include the mapping of governance stakeholders in the wider Cambridge area, and the analysis of network relationships, to develop recommendations for the design and implementation of a Cambridge City Digital Twin. The role of citizens in the production of evidence was also examined with a participatory research approach to analysing citizen engagement initiatives and the impact of digital tools on democracy, participation and transparency in the local context. The results of the Cambridge case study are contrasted with international practice and global experiences pertinent to City Digital Twins in British, European and international cities. This comparative perspective provides initial insights to understand generalisation possibilities from the Cambridge case study

Towards the future-proofing of UK infrastructure

Ensuring long-term performance from key infrastructure is essential to enable it to serve society and to maintain a sustainable economy. The future-proofing of key infrastructure involves addressing two broad issues: (i) resilience to unexpected or uncontrollable events (e.g., extreme weather events); (ii) adaptability to required changes in structure and/or operations of the infrastructure in the future. Increasingly, infrastructure owners, designers, builders, governments and operators are being required to consider possible future challenges as part of the life cycle planning for assets and systems that make up key infrastructure. A preliminary study is reported here that aimed at exploring the following questions related to infrastructure (systems): what does ‘future-proofing’ of infrastructural assets mean? Why and when should critical infrastructure be future-proofed? How can infrastructure assets (systems) be prepared for uncertain future events? How can future-proofing considerations be incorporated into infrastructure asset management practices? To seek answers to the above questions, two industrial workshops were conducted that brought together leading practitioners in the UK infrastructure and construction sectors, along with government policymakers. This paper captures lessons learnt from the workshops and proposes a framework for linking future-proofing into asset management considerations. Case studies of Dawlish railway and Heathrow airport are also presented. The authors would like to acknowledge the Centre for Smart Infrastructure & Construction, EPSRC (Grant EP/K000314/1), Innovate UK and the industrial partners, which collectively funded this project. The authors are thankful to the CSIC industrial partners involved in the futureproofing project. The authors are also thankful to the speakers and delegates from London Underground, Costain, UCL, IBM, Crossrail, John Dora Consulting, Heathrow, Cementation Skanska, CIRIA, Network Rail, Arup, Highways Agency, Atkins, Halcrow/CH2M, Lang O’ Rourke, Lend Lease, Infrastructure UK, Committee on Climate Change and CSIC, who attended the CSIC workshop(s) on infrastructure futureproofing. The authors are also thankful to the following companies who responded to our questionnaire on futureproofing strategies for industrial assets and systems: ABB, BAE Systems, Boeing, Caterpillar, EA Technology, Exxon Mobil, Finning, Hitachi, IBM and Rolls-Royce.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from ICE Publishing via http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/jinam.15.0000

Designing user-centric transport strategies for urban road space redistribution

Cities worldwide are geared to promote economic growth, improve accessibility, address environmental issues, and enhance the quality of life. However, the processes that lead to the design of urban roads, particularly the space distribution, reflect the inequalities existing in the fabric of our society. Motorists often have shorter travel time and more space than passengers of other modes. Furthermore, the existing transport appraisal and planning tools that frame sustainable transport policies fall short of considering the dimension of social justice. Therefore, our urban transport systems are essential areas for advancing sustainability through a transport justice-based approach to planning that can pivot the distribution of infrastructure investments over different social groups and transport modes. This study proposes such an approach by which such suitable urban transport strategies can be identified, co-created with users and appraised while considering the commuters’ needs. Specifically, the interaction between the multidimensional characteristics of sustainability and the principles of transport justice are investigated. The proposed approach is applied to London and Birmingham. The results show that a transparent and holistic approach to integrating users within transport planning is an effective way to reflect diverse needs and local circumstances and thereby ensure a just transition to sustainable urban transport policies. The results from the case studies highlight a strong rationale for the centrality of justice in any urban transport planning and policy making efforts, particularly in the allocation of road space

Infrastructure sensing.

Design, construction, maintenance and upgrading of civil engineering infrastructure requires fresh thinking to minimize use of materials, energy and labour. This can only be achieved by understanding the performance of the infrastructure, both during its construction and throughout its design life, through innovative monitoring. Advances in sensor systems offer intriguing possibilities to radically alter methods of condition assessment and monitoring of infrastructure. In this paper, it is hypothesized that the future of infrastructure relies on smarter information; the rich information obtained from embedded sensors within infrastructure will act as a catalyst for new design, construction, operation and maintenance processes for integrated infrastructure systems linked directly with user behaviour patterns. Some examples of emerging sensor technologies for infrastructure sensing are given. They include distributed fibre-optics sensors, computer vision, wireless sensor networks, low-power micro-electromechanical systems, energy harvesting and citizens as sensors

Flourishing Systems: Re-envisioning infrastructure as a platform for human flourishing

This paper advocates a vision for infrastructure that is: People-focused – recognising the fundamental role of infrastructure in the social, economic and environmental outcomes that determine the quality of people’s lives. Systems-based – recognising infrastructure as a complex, interconnected system of systems that must deliver continuous service to society. It articulates how the industry should re-envision itself to unlock greater value for people, from the systems

Network- and bridge- level management under uncertainties associated with climate change

Bridges are strategic connection points within the transport network, underpinning economic vitality, social-wellbeing, and logistics of communities. Currently, most of the transport authorities are not able to identify bridges at higher risk of disruptions, due to limited data or lack of a risk-informed assessment, and this is particularly true for bridge scour. The situation is exacerbated with the distributed knowledge about the condition of bridges, constrained resources, and concerns about the risks of climate change. To be effective, the strategies designed to improve the reliability and resilience of bridge assets needs to account for the uncertainties associated with predicting the performance of the bridge, progression of scour depth, and the impact of climate change hazards. To this end, this paper sets the scene for establishing a rational and systematic approach to evaluate the factors that affect bridge scour risk and condition, identify, and prioritise appropriate measures, thereby improving the allocation of scarce management resources. The bridge-level decisions are optimised to provide a wide range of monitoring and maintenance options that the network level subsequently uses to prioritise based on budget availability, scheduling, probability of disruptions and the associated wider impacts. The functional framework presented within this paper would provide a basis for the development of a scour-focused module within the bridge management systems