Institution: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Proposal Number: 0835982 EFRI-RESIN: Interdependence, Resilience and Sustainability of Infrastructures for Biofuel Development
The goal of this project is to develop innovative engineering insight for the expansion and operation of interdependent infrastructure systems to sustainably support the emerging bio-economy. The infrastructures under consideration are biofuel development from cellulosic feedstocks and associated supporting infrastructures, including water supply and quality, as well as transportation to supply the agricultural production and bioconversion processes. Its objectives are to quantify infrastructure interdependencies and resilience and sustainability in the context of a complex adaptive system; detect bottleneck infrastructure and quantify long-term behavior of system dynamics; examine the influence of social and institutional resilience on infrastructure systems; and advance fundamental knowledge to support appropriate engineering designs and sustainable local, regional and national policy decisions. The research methodology is built on a unique network and agent-based modeling tool to depict system dynamics with incorporation of both physical and social details through a computationally tractable framework. A holistic approach will provide a structure for engineers to work with environmental and social scientists and community stakeholders on integration of multiple but key aspects of complex infrastructure systems.
