9:03 a.m., July 14, 2009----Sue McNeil, professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Delaware, recently served on an ad hoc committee of experts appointed by the National Research Council (NRC) to identify and frame fundamental challenges in moving toward critical infrastructure systems that are physically, economically, and environmentally sustainable.

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The committee met initially in May 2008 and issued their final report, “Sustainable Critical Infrastructure Systems: A Framework for Meeting 21st Century Imperatives,” in April 2009. Their findings are summarized in the June 2009 issue of Civil Engineering, published by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The report points to the need for a totally new paradigm for the renewal of critical infrastructure systems such as water, wastewater, power, transportation, and telecommunications. According to the report, these systems “have become so much a part of modern life that they are taken for granted.”

However, the report says, large segments of the country's critical infrastructure systems are now 50 to 100 years old, and their performance and condition are deteriorating. While the need for renewal is clear, approaching it with the processes, practices, technologies, and materials developed in the 20th century will likely lead to increasing instances of service disruptions, higher operating and repair costs, and the possibility of catastrophic, cascading failures.

The authors recommend adoption of a collaborative, systems-based approach based on an over-arching vision that focuses on “a future of economic competitiveness, energy independence, environmental sustainability, and quality of life, not a legacy of deteriorating concrete, steel, and cables.”

McNeil, who joined the UD faculty in 2006, earned her Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University. She has joint faculty appointments in the College of Engineering and the College of Education and Public Policy. She also serves as director of UD's interdisciplinary Disaster Research Center, as well as the University Transportation Center on Resiliency of Transportation Corridors.

Her research interests include transportation asset management, life-cycle costing, application of advanced technologies, economic analysis, condition assessment and deterioration modeling, and decision support.

In addition to McNeil, the committee included representatives from several other universities, industry, consulting firms, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Article by Diane Kukich