In several regions of the world, there are problematic public water supply shortages, expansion limitations on sewer systems, natural gas delivery constraints, and electrical grid transmission and production constraints, leaving critical infrastructure systems open to a range of vulnerabilities. From a practical perspective, making improvements to practice in the design and management of these systems might lower the burden on aging infrastructures, thus reducing the cost of providing services through them and providing a path toward overcoming resource limitations. From a theoretical perspective, improving understanding of combined human and technological systems—operating within environmental, geographic, fiscal and regulatory contexts—extends systems science through the development of measurement instruments and analytic methods.

The proposed work combines field- and simulation-based studies to investigate opportunities and limitations for achieving sustainable design in the provision and use of energy and water systems in urban buildings. The specific focus of this work is to examine scientific, engineering, and human factors affecting potential self-sufficiency of urban buildings. Data associated with engineering performance and human behavior are collected from three urban buildings, all of which vary with respect to their design and to the social structures that exist within them. An interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary investigation of engineering performance and human behavior is intended to multiple layers of examination (e.g., qualitative and quantitative analysis of the behavior of individual and collective components—whether human or technological—of the buildings themselves). In addition, the proposed work will draw upon data from one simulated building. Taken together, the studies of real and simulated environments provide an immediate link with two methods of assessing the claims about the nature of sustainability. These methods will involve statistical and analytic approaches, as well as simulation. Employing these methods is expected to lead to advances in understanding of the forces that determine whether building designs are sustainable, but also to recommendations for practice on how to account for external factors in trying to achieve sustainable designs. Workshops and outreach conducted in cooperation with an established science center will provide the work with a broad exposure to varied audiences.