Sustainable Civil Infrastructure Systems

Despite rapidly growing interest in green building around the US, relatively little attention has been given to the issues of sustaining and greening the civil infrastructure systems that support and serve as a lifeline to green buildings. This project is the culmination of an ongoing collaboration between Georgia Tech’s School of Civil & Environmental Engineering and the Sustainable Facilities & Infrastructure (SFI) Branch of GTRI, and involves development of a new graduate-level course on Sustainable Civil Infrastructure Systems This course, developed under a Georgia Tech Teaching Fellowship in Spring Semester 2003, enhances and expands multiple research and training efforts currently underway at SFI, including research in alternative infrastructure system design, sustainability implementation in public sector organizations, economics of sustainable facilities and infrastructure, and force protection/distributed vulnerability of facility systems. The content of this course is unique in the nation and builds upon ongoing efforts in sustainability at Georgia Tech that have been growing since 1993.

The educational experiences of participating students are enhanced via laboratory experience with non-traditional materials and methods using GTRI research facilities. Students also have access to and be able to contribute to the development of multiple databases of sustainable facilities knowledge currently maintained by GTRI. Via exposure to and active collaboration with GTRI research faculty, students have the opportunity to develop skills essential for success in a professional environment, including proposal preparation, delivery of required products on time and in conformance with required scope of work, presentation skills, information access and processing, group problem solving, and research design. The course provides an over view of the issues and state of the art technologies for sustainable civil infrastructure systems, and builds upon and enhances predecessor courses in the CEE graduate curriculum, namely CEE 6120: Environmentally Conscious Design & Construction, CEE 6651: Civil Infrastructure Systems, and CEE 8802A: IT-Based Infrastructure Management. Students establish a baseline of understanding early in the term by reviewing existing infrastructure systems, then develop projects to compare traditional systems with emerging technologies for more sustainable infrastructure services. Upon completion of this course, students are able to identify and evaluate alternative infrastructure systems, develop conceptual designs, and plan the implementation of infrastructure systems. Throughout the term, general considerations include:

Centralized vs. distributed services
Demand-side vs. supply-side sustainability strategies
Relevant legislation and policy affecting CIS
International CIS development
Vulnerability assessment and design for vulnerability reduction
Public vs. private delivery and operation of CIS
Challenges of CIS, including planning for growth, maintenance, and disasters
Planning and implementation processes for CIS
Project design, including systems optimization and integration
Project delivery, including management of public projects, contracting, and team building

Specific topics to be covered include:

Energy systems (e.g., generation, distribution, district energy, industrial ecology, raw material sourcing, integration with civil infrastructure systems and vertical construction, distributed vulnerability and protection)
Water supply and treatment (e.g., natural treatment systems, rainwater harvesting, integration with vertical construction)
Wastewater (e.g., Greywater systems, alternative stormwater systems, living machines, constructed wetlands)
Transportation (e.g., alternative pavements and transport system technologies, transit, multi-modal systems and hubs, land use planning effects, smart growth initiatives, design for reduced vulnerability)
Solid waste systems (e.g., pyrolysis, waste-to-energy, recycling and composting systems)
Communication systems (e.g., Internet, wireless technologies, integration of communication systems with civil infrastructure and vertical construction, design for adaptability
Measurement systems (e.g., EIS, regional sustainability metrics, infrastructure sustainability assessment, holistic cost benefit analysis)

Students learn using a combination of lectures, readings, field trips, hands-on projects, case studies, and design exercises. Throughout the course, students are required to consider issues currently under debate in public forums, including air and water quality, sprawl, traffic congestion, land use policies, and energy/electric power.

Resources:

Vanegas, Jorge A., Pearce, Annie R., and Bosch, Sheila J. (2002). " Built Environment Sustainability: An Integrated Approach to Education, Research, and Outreach," Proceedings, Engineering Eduscation and Sustainable Development Conference, Delft, the Netherlands, October 24-26. – This paper and presentation present an overall curricular approach to sustainability being implemented at Georgia Tech. (to be uploaded)

Vanegas, Jorge A., Pearce, Annie R. and Bosch, Sheila J. (2002). " An Engineering Undergraduate/Graduate Course on Sustainable Design and Construction," Proceedings, Engineering Education and Sustainable Development Conference, Delft, the Netherlands, October 24-26. – This paper and presentation describe the design for an undergraduate/graduate course sequence in construction engineering that has been implemented at Georgia Tech (to be uploaded)

Pearce, Annie R. (2002). “Learning from the Designed Environment: A Georgia Tech Perspective,” Metropolis Educating Green Conference, May 20, New York, NY. – This presentation describes the problem-based learning techniques used in sustainability courses at Georgia Tech (to be uploaded)

Pearce, Annie R. (2001). “Sustainable Civil Infrastructure Systems.” CEE6xxx: Civil Infrastructure Systems, School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA. October 18. – this presentation provides an overview of the various types of alternative infrastructure systems with more sustainable properties than their traditional counterparts (to be uploaded).

Pearce, Annie R. (2001). “Sustainable Civil Infrastructure Systems: An Introduction.” CEE3000: Civil Infrastructure Systems, School of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA. September 6. – this presentation includes an overview of sustainability as it pertains to civil infrastructure systems (to be uploaded)

For more information, contact Dr. Annie R. Pearce at annie.pearce@gtri.gatech.edu.

Sustainable Facilities and Infrastructure Program
Georgia Tech Research Institute • SHETD/EOEML • Atlanta, GA 30332-0837
Phone: 404.894.7429 Fax: 404.894.2184
http://maven.gtri.gatech.edu/sfi