ABSTRACT CMS9526018 "Application of MDO to Infrastructure Planning on the Wasatch Front" PI: Balling, R., Brigham Young University The "Wasatch Front" is a metropolitan area of rapid growth in Utah, with about 1.5 million people in 70 cities along a narrow corridor about 80 miles long and 5 to 15 miles wide. The coupled problems of growth management and infrastructure renewal for this area are complicated. This research will address transfer of Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) technology to the planning and design problems associated with infrastructure renewal and growth management. The MDO approach will give individual agencies as much freedom as possible in making planning/design decisions while maintaining coordination between disciplines so that the overall system can be optimized. MDO tools consist of optimization and search algorithms, support for sensitivity analysis, approximate analysis models, robust design support, and other decision support tools. The research will be accomplished in a collaborative relationship among faculty from BYU, several departments in the Utah State Government, the Wasatch Front Regional Council, and the Mountainlands Association of Governments. The project will develop and generalize the MDO methodology, including development of a prototype application on a subsystem of the "Wasatch Front", and then continue with development of a detailed implementable plan for application of MDO to the larger regional system.
