The NSF Convergence Accelerator supports use-inspired, team-based, multidisciplinary efforts that address challenges of national importance and will produce deliverables of value to society in the near future.
The broader impact and potential societal benefit of this Convergence Accelerator Phase II project is to minimize economic and human losses from future urban flooding in the United States. Floods impact a series of interconnected urban systems – the Urban Multiplex, that include the power grid and transportation network, surface water and groundwater, sewerage and drinking water systems, inland navigation and dams, all of which are intertwined with the socioeconomic and public health sectors. This project uses a convergent approach to integrate these multiple interconnected systems and merges state-of-the-art practices in hydrological and hydraulic engineering; systems analysis, optimization and control; machine learning, data and computer science; epidemiology; socioeconomics; and transportation and electrical engineering to develop an Urban Flood Open Knowledge Network (OKN), the final deliverable of the project. It will be built with unprecedented engagement between urban domain and flooding experts, practitioners, scientists, and technology specialists. This partnership includes universities, nonprofits, private companies, national labs, federal agencies, states, counties and municipalities across the country. The Urban Flood-OKN will empower decision makers and the general public by providing information on how much flooding may occur from a future event and will also show its cascading impact on natural and engineered infrastructures of an urban area.
The convergence research and development team supporting this effort has integrated researchers and methods from across disciplines including civil and environmental engineering, hydrology, geography, computer science, meteorology, public safety, emergency response, and economics. The partners engaged as advisors, potential users, and developers include more than a dozen municipalities and water management districts, federal agencies (NOAA, USDOT, NIST, USGS, EPA, FEMA), a national lab (PNNL), non-profits (Consortium of Ocean Leadership, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science), for-profit organizations, consortia, and individuals.
The real impact of flooding on the Urban Multiplex is currently very difficult to quantify because many of its systems are independently designed and managed. Hence an open knowledge network that captures the interconnectedness of these systems and how they impact each other is critically needed. This project will semantically link the Urban Multiplex, whose subsystems generate data that are currently not interoperable. This will enable meaningful queries on flood-related information relevant to urban sustainability. The Urban Flood-OKN will help increase urban resilience and minimize damage from future urban floods due to changing climate and changing land use patterns. It will allow identification of early-warning signals of critical transitions/shifts of a complex interdependent infrastructure system responding to external pressures, and how shifts will be affected by the structure of the Urban Multiplex and failures propagating across its subsystems. This project also has the potential to bring about a societal transformation in the way practitioners, researchers, and the general public engage with, consume, and act upon information about the potential response of the Urban Multiplex to extreme external pressures. This project will allow internet queries that produce actionable information on what to do during storms and flooding, how to plan long-term, and how these decisions will contribute to urban sustainability and resilience – all based on solid science.
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.
