Urban Engineering and Sustainability for Infrastructure Design

Heekyung PARK
Professor and Head
Department of Civil and Env. EngineeringKAISTAbstract
Generally speaking, sustainability emphasizes three principles; ‡@ recognition of limitation of
carrying capacity (environmental conservation), ‡A distributive justice (equity among inter- and
intra-generations, and inter-species), and ‡B growth, but of a different kind (allocative efficiency
from savings, technology development and re-use). Since a great deal of human activities occur
in urban areas, civil engineers have played a key role in achieving sustainability, especially, in
urban dimensions through infrastructures they plan, design, construct, operate and maintain.
Engineering is a purposeful activity. To satisfy the three principles, therefore, the objectives in
design should be set up and system boundaries should be expanded until they contain all the
objectives. Moreover, system being newly defined requires quite tough works; dealing with
complexity and uncertainty with scientific application. Although it is possible to tackle the above
requirements for urban infrastructure design from various standpoints, we will introduce our own
approach, calling it by the name of gUrban Engineering and Sustainability (UES)h. In designing
urban infrastructures, this is to fully consider the three principles, and to effectively coordinate
various technologies. To do this, UES should be based on more integrated, organized, and
scientifically validated views. Also, its methodology is synthetic, quantitative, and flexible.
Just like other countries, Korea has been promoting sustainability, especially, in carrying out
large development projects. In spit of its efforts, it is not easy to say gquite successfulh largely
due to the unbalanced approach as shown in Fig.1. We need to change our pathway so that the
sustainable development can be achieved more smoothly and thus effectively. To do this at least
in the urban infrastructure domain, the Korea government and KAIST proclaimed new initiatives
and launched a number of R&D projects. KAIST President set a research plan recently (Suh,
2007). It focused on energy, environment, water and sustainability (EEWS) to solve global
problems in 21st Century, and then established seven KAIST Institutes (KIs). MOCT VC10 &
urban regeneration project (Fig.2): Since 2007, the urban regeneration research center headed by
the author has participated in the Urban Regeneration project supported by Korea Ministry of
Construction and Transportation. The center is in charge of developing urban infrastructure
regeneration technology for sustainable urban development with a budget of $ 44 million USD
for 7 years. In this project, we are now trying to develop technologies and systems, using the
concept of UES, to establish urban infrastructure systems just like an eco-system. For that, the
researches are driven by ten keywords; ‡@ technical innovation, ‡A high-efficiency, ‡B diversity,
‡C densification /compaction, ‡D convenience, ‡E stability, ‡F ecological conservation, ‡G
resource conservation, ‡H recycling, ‡I connectedness.
2
Fig.1. Two types of pathways for sustainable development
Fig.2. Systems in the Urban Regeneration Project􀂾 Unbalanced Sustainable
Nakdong River Contamination Crisis (1991)
Economy
Environment
Social
Equity
Range of
Sustainable
IMF & Green
Belt Dissolution
Leftistsf Fall
(2007~ ) - Uninformed & unbalanced
- Less adaptive & more rigid
- Frequent crises
- Vulnerability to uncertaintie
- Informed & balanced
- More adaptive & more flexible
- More effective
- Fit for engineering
Economy
Environment
Social
Equity
􀂾 Balanced Sustainable Pathway
Regeneration of
Structural Capability
CUIRS P ackage
Urban Environmental
Regeneration
Urban Disaster Prevention

Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - 209

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Evangeline Reyes