PANEL: Resilient Futures Enabled by Smart and Connected Communities

Organizer/Moderator: Nalini Venkatasubramanian (University of California, Irvine) 

Prof. Nalini Venkatasubramanian, Professor, Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, Co-Director, Center for Emergency Response Technologies, University of California, Irvine.  

SCC Project:  SCC-IRG-Track2: Creating an Extensible Data Exchange and Analytics Sandbox for Smart Water infrastructures

Panelists: 

  • Kendra Abkowitz (Office of the Mayor, Nashville, TN) Kendra Abkowitz, Director of Sustainability and Resilience, Metro Nashville and Davidson County, Office of Mayor Freddie O'Connell (Focus Domain: Smart Transit, Sustainability) 
     
  • Ulrike Passe (ARCH) Prof. Ulrike Passe, Professor of Architecture and Director of the Center for Building Energy Research at Iowa State University, USA,   SCC Project: SCC-IRG Track 2: A data-driven approach to designing a community-focused indoor heat emergency alert system for vulnerable residents (CommHEAT) 
     
  • Jian Peng (OCPW) Dr.  Jian Peng,  Chief of the North County Monitoring and Assessment Section at OC Environmental Resources, OC Public Works, County of Orange. (Focus Domains:  Ecosystem Resilience, Natural/Manmade Adverse Events, Intelligent Stormwater Systems) 
     
  • Kenichi Soga (University of California, Berkeley) Prof. Kenichi Soga, Donald H. McLaughlin Professor in Mineral Engineering, Director - Berkeley Center for Smart Infrastructure, UC Berkeley SCC Project:  SCC-IRG Track 1 Designing Smart, Sustainable Risk Reduction in Hazard-Prone Communities: Modeling Risk Across Scales of Time and Space 
     
  • Geoffrey Urbach (Innovation) Geoffrey Urbach, Smart City Senior Manager, Office of Innovation, City of San Antonio.  (Focus Domains: Vulnerable Populations, Cross-agency data agreements and the Smart San Antonio effort) 

Abstract:   Advances in sensing, the Internet-of-Things, edge-to-cloud technologies, wireless networks and AI-driven data analytics have spurred the creation of smart communities and a variety of smart city applications.  New modalities of information and new channels of communication have enabled novel services to enrich the lives of citizens and build resilience to unexpected events/disasters. This panel of academic and practitioner experts will address the challenges and opportunities to enable resilient societies along multiple dimensions.  We will hear about different perspectives of what constitutes a community and its resilience (from smart infrastructure to extreme event preparedness).  Under fairly localized events and failures, many communities (large/small, rural/urban, old/young, diverse socioeconomic, ethnic) may be resilient, i.e. able to tolerate limited levels of (specific) failures.  They may be able to degrade gracefully by exhibiting reduced levels of operation, but continue to function. However, when large regional disruptions (such as COVID, floods, earthquakes) occur, there is a significant drop in resilience.  The panel will cover some key questions that arise in building and bolstering resilience for our communities to large and small disruptions. 

Format:  The panel will begin with the moderator providing a very brief introduction on community resilience and argue for a cross-layer perspective (geophysical, built infrastructure, cyber instrumentation, and humans/societies) to build resilient communities. Then each panelist will give a short (5 minutes for SCC PIs, 7-10 minutes for community partners) introduction to their topic area (total of about 40-45 minutes). The floor will then be opened up for Q/A session.

Some Issues/ Questions to Think About:

  • The role of planning in Infrastructure resilience vs. community resilience.  By (civil) infrastructure, I am referring to lifelines such as water, power, transit/transportation systems etc.; with the term community resilience, I am referring to the ability of populations and different demographics to recover. 
  • How have technology innovations been incorporated in building resilience? What is the level of acceptance of new technologies by agencies and the public at large?  
  • What are examples of operational issues that arise in your specific jurisdiction/community  and the processes in place to help address these challenges.  Can technology help? How can apriori planning and preparedness help (or has helped).  What have been hindrances to implementing and realizing plans? 
  • What are examples of extreme events faced by your communities and who are the at-risk communities? What measures are being taken to handle extreme events? What are barriers to having plans take effect? 
  • Infrastructure and community interdependencies – Provide examples of how improvements in  infrastructure have had a significant impact on  communities.  What are preparedness and resilience needs of special-needs groups and communities?  
  • How do natural vs. manmade hazards impact communities, their vulnerability and their perception of vulnerability?