Overview

The National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network, studies the food, energy, and water nexus for sustainable and resilient urban development. Through science, engineering tools and principles, stakeholder engagement, and utilizing the City-as-Lab concept, the RCN looks to provide scientific advancements that contribute to a healthy, prosperous, equitable, sustainable, and resilient urban future, with particular consideration on the effects of population growth, urbanization, aging infrastructure, and weather extremes. Strategy focusing on: 1. Visioning of an integrated FEW infrastructures for sustainable urban development 2. Modeling framework for urban FEW Nexus 3. Establishing effective community engagement approaches 4. Enriching data availability for model validation 5. Validating models with stakeholders input The City as Lab develops: (1) Research directions for the areas where current knowledge gaps exist (2) Consensus on a framework for integrated urban FEW infrastructure research (3) A networking consortium to deepen existing early-stage collaborations (4) A dynamic education program for students with diverse backgrounds (5) Expansion of the network and evaluate the success of the network activities. Managed by 5 principal investigators from CUNY, NYIT, NYU, working in partnership with universities of Arizona State University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the Illinois Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University, Louisiana State University, Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan. International collaborating partners from McGill University in Canada, HFT Stuttgart in Germany, and the Chinese University of Finance and Economics in China. Stakeholders engaged: NYC Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and Resiliency, DEP, NYCHA, DSNY, NYSERDA, NYC DHMH, ConEd, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, American Institute of Architects, etc.