Managing our urban, subsurface spaces for sustainable and disaster resilient transportation and utility use is hampered by the absence of a central repository for relevant data and of computer systems that enable the simultaneous viewing of such data. Presently, there are major problems associated with the collection, integration, and visualization of subsurface data. These cross the spectrum from (1) cultural and legal issues, with respect to who owns that data and who is liable, if it is not correct, to (2) security concerns, to (3) the highly technical issues involved in having fully compatible data types and data systems that can accommodate intensely varied data related to natural geology and hydrology, as well as that of constructed infrastructure. Without such data resources, the next generation of urban infrastructure will not benefit from the wide range of emerging technologies that have the potential to make American cities safer, more affordable, and more resilient to natural and manmade disasters. To this end, this award will pair a wide range of scientists and engineers from academe and industry with governmental officials, big data specialists, data standards organizations, and community groups for a two-day workshop in New York City to help give voice to the individual needs of each of these groups of stakeholder. The first day will be open to the public and will accommodate as many as 200 participants including local area veterans and students from underserved communities. The second day will focus on crafting a document to promote a common understanding of the problems and challenges surrounding comprehensive subsurface documentation of America's cities. Both an artist and a science writer have been engaged to create dissemination vehicles that will help ensure that the workshop's outcomes will be fully understandable to the general public.
Urban subsurfaces are hotly contested spaces essential for the majority of urban system infrastructure including water, sewer, gas, steam, electric, telecommunications, and transit (road and rail), as well as hosting building foundations, basements, and parking garages. Yet, the subsurface is not only under-documented, but what documentation exists is typically held in siloed systems and populated by incompatible or non-computer readable data. This phenomenon of poor data documentation and integration in the intensively used subsurface represents a significant barrier to creating truly sustainable urban systems (SUS), both because these "invisible" assets are vulnerable to floods, subsidence, digging accidents, and failures of degradation and neglect and because the subsurface environment is not zoned akin to aboveground spaces. Pioneering new SUSs solutions will require a full appreciation of both existing systems and their surrounding constraints - built and natural. This demands achieving seamless, interoperable, three-dimensional data storage, visualization, and asset management systems. While not market ready, such technology does exist, though not in the form of a Building Information Model (BIM) approach, which is typically used for individual structures, or in the form of CityGML (commonly used for aboveground, city-scale representation). In fact, not only is there is not a widely agreed upon or even dominant approach for documenting the subsurface, there are now more than two dozen related (and arguably competing) initiatives. Some consider only constructed objects such as gas utilities. Others include only geological or hydrological factors. Some are strongly focused on compatibility with existing standards and undertakings, while others cover only application-specific support for a single industry or legacy system. Ultimately, if there are to be fundamental advances in the design and long-term stewardship of SUS, as well as a larger understanding of the development, zoning, and management of subsurface urban spaces, including the emerging area of geothermal heat pump systems, such piecemeal approaches to documentation and data access will have to be overcome. This includes addressing real concerns about both security and liability, as many of the barriers are based in policy and precedence. Importantly, to date there has not been a forum in which US-based engineering organizations, designers, and contractors interface with the asset stakeholders, stewards, and first responders. The DIG Around workshop will be the first such event to facilitate this dialogue. The two-day workshop begins with a full day event open to the public and concludes with a day-long opportunity for experts in the field and leading stakeholders to draft strategies and recommendations for transforming the disparate state of play into a more cohesive vision. As part of this (1) areas of alignment and gaps in existing subsurface data management paradigms and standards will be identified; (2) a broader understanding of the challenges and opportunities (scientific, technological, and policy-based) for effective subsurface data sharing will be forged; and (3) critical scientific gaps in the support of developing new SUS will be identified with input from an unprecedented diversity of stakeholders from first responders, critical governmental agencies, profession standards organization, domain-based professional societies, community organizations, utility companies, and researchers. Community accessible workshop outcomes will be developed by a writer and artist in order to help urban stakeholders at all levels of engagement and expertise to understand this crucial issue. Finally, this workshop will provide the first forum for leaders in the geotechnical community representing the Geo-institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the DIGGS effort, and other undertakings to formally interface with other organizations developing relevant standards (e.g. Open Geospatial Consortium).
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
