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Urban infrastructure refers to engineered systems that provide water, energy, transport, sanitation and information services to more than half of the world’s population living in cities today. With rapidly increasing human populations, projected resource scarcities and vulnerability to natural and man-made disasters, cities require new, high-performing, cost-effective… more »

Urban infrastructure refers to engineered systems that provide water, energy, transport, sanitation and information services to more than half of the world’s population living in cities today. With rapidly increasing human populations, projected resource scarcities and vulnerability to natural and man-made disasters, cities require new, high-performing, cost-effective, and environment-friendly infrastructures for future urban sustainability.

The over-arching question addressed in this Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) project is: What are the inter-connections between infrastructure engineering, urban planning, public policy, health and human behavior that must be explored today to design effective and sustainable urban infrastructure systems of the future? This question will be answered through a unique, multi-disciplinary graduate curriculum on sustainable urban infrastructure linking engineering, architecture and planning, public affairs, and health and behavioral sciences.

IGERT research will integrate emerging technologies, urban development patterns, economic instruments, policy strategies, and human behavioral factors for design of future urban water supply, energy supply, transportation, waste management and public health infrastructures. Active fieldwork will occur in collaboration with the City of Denver, Colorado and Chennai, India. The project has the potential to directly impact more than 200 graduate students at UCDHSC, the 580,000 residents of Denver and the 4 million people of Chennai. The dissemination potential is high for cities world-wide, where about 3 billion people currently live.

IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. « less