Submitted by

Professor Rae Zimmerman

NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service

For the University of Illinois

Workshop on Human-Centered Systems for Solving National Challenge Problems

November 13-14, 1997, Alexandria, VA

Note: This abstract is based upon some of the research from the NYU (Wagner School)/Polytechnic (NY) research project entitled, "Integrated Decision-making for Urban Infrastructure Performance," supported by the National Science Foundation.

Civil infrastructure systems involve complex interdependencies and connectivities among multiple disciplines, such as engineering, the natural and physical sciences, and various social sciences. Moreover, interconnections often exist among a large numbers of stakeholders defined not only in terms of disciplines but in terms of interest orientation as well.

A considerable literature exists on how to conceptualize these linkages through case analysis and complex modeling of generic decision processes that incorporate the environment or context of the decision-making. Many of these linkages have been based upon interactions that involve communication and information exchange. The provision of infrastructure services and its performance is a rich field for the development and application of analytical frameworks based upon interactions and defined in terms of the exchange and interchange of people, resources, information, communication, and other factors.

The NYU/Polytechnic project has completed some hypothetical interaction diagrams for events, conditions or decisions with respect to transportation (congestion management and bridge maintenance), water supply distribution (main breakage), and wastewater treatment (overall wastewater treatment and nitrogen removal). These are and will continue to be based upon extensive case analyses. The geographic base is the New York Metropolitan area, some comparison cities (initially, the City of Boston), and the City of Paris, France. A list of cases is appended. Interactions have been conceptualized at varying levels of detail and complexity, depending on the case. A next step is to identify and employ a metric to characterize these interactions.

Early literature on communication theory applied to interactions within and among organizations made heavy use of the type, volume, and frequency of communication among persons and organizational sub-units within the organizational framework or system being analyzed. Types of communication typically include direct correspondences (electronic and paper) as well as news media. Information and communication patterns are often weighted according to factors such as importance and strength, based on frequency and degree of use.

This phase of some of the project's work will explore communication theory and related frameworks as one means of testing the qualitative conceptualization of the strength and direction of linkages and interactions among stakeholders with respect to performance of infrastructure. This analysis will initially be conducted for some of the water quality and water supply cases. Interactions will be defined at the level of individuals, organizations or organizational sub-units specifically involved in the infrastructure issue of interest. Interaction patterns are ideally defined for a particular function or event, that is, they are function or event-focused. This filters out other kinds of interactions, which would be considered as environmental or external contextual factors, such as the degree of prior conflict and existence of formal and informal relationships among the organizations. Ways of quantifying or characterizing interactions that are being explored with respect to infrastructure performance include: frequency of communication by type among organizations or entities within organizations, the salience of these interactions (from the point of view of the participants), and the sense of shared or common purpose (reinforcement) that exists among the organizations with respect to their infrastructure missions or the goal of a particular infrastructure issue.

Transportation: Mass Transit and Bridges

New York University, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service:

Professor Rae Zimmerman, PI/PD (urban and environmental planning and management)

Professor Roy Sparrow, co-PI/PD (political science and management)

Professor Dick Netzer (economics and finance)

Danielle Renart, Graduate Research Assistant (Master of Urban Planning student Undergraduate major: political science)

Carlos Restrepo, Graduate Research Assistant (Ph.D. student; Undergraduate major: Physics and engineering)

Tracy Fischetti, Graduate Research Assistant (Master of Urban Planning student, who joined the team as of 9/97; Undergraduate major: economics)

Pierre Tisserand (1996-7), Master of Science in Management ('97), from ENTPE, Lyon France (engineering)

Laurent Caplat (1996-7), Master of Science in Management ('97), from ENTPE, Lyon France (engineering)

Professor John C. Falcocchio, P.E., co-PI/PD

Professor Ilan Juran, co-PI/PD

Professor Dipak Roy, P.E.

Assistant Professor Angelos Protopapas

Assistant Professor Makarand (Mark) Hastak

Jacqueline Llanos, Ph.D., Research Associate

Annie Raven-Vanrenterghem

Eduardo C. Serafin, M.S.E., P.E., Program Manager, Urban ITS Center

Eyal Juran