A Transdisciplinary, Transinstitutional, and Transnational Approach to Urban, Civil Infrastructure Systems, and Facilities Sustainability

21st century challenges require new bold, innovative, systems based, and contextually sensitive

approaches to the development of solutions for a Sustainable Built Environment (SBE) in general, and

more specifically, for Sustainable Urbanism, Civil Infrastructure Systems, and Facilities (SUCISF)

solutions, given the interrelationships, interdependencies, and complexity of the external factors

affecting their delivery. Five key imperatives drive the response to these challenges. First,

governments, together with other stakeholders in the public and private sectors, must work

collaboratively at local, national, regional, and international levels to pursue integrated SBE/SUCISF

solutions. Second, public and private sector initiatives to plan, finance, develop, and deliver these

types of SBE/SUCISF solutions need to address formally, explicitly, and proactively, in an integrated

way, the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, social, and economic), as well as the

elimination, reduction, and mitigation of risk and vulnerability of the built environment to natural

hazards. Third, these initiatives also cannot afford to continue following the same strategies,

mechanisms, and processes that have been used to date. Fourth, government officials, policy makers,

regulatory agencies, finance institutions, public and private owners of civil infrastructure systems and

facilities, community leaders, planners, architects, landscape architects, engineers, suppliers,

constructors, or end-users cannot overcome these challenges alone. Finally, fifth, all stakeholders

must link, coordinate, and integrate their efforts as a single cohesive critical mass, pooling,

leveraging, and sharing their resources, within public/private partnerships at any level, from local to

international, in the pursuit of SBE/SUCISF initiatives of common interest and benefit to all.

This presentation will discuss a current initiative to address these challenges and respond to these

imperatives: a transdisciplinary, transinstitutional, and transnational approach to urban, civil

infrastructure systems, and facilities sustainability. This approach to SBE/SUCISF (1) aims to create

sustainable urban places by synthesizing and filling the gaps between sustainable development and

urban planning, design, and construction at a broader level; and more specifically (2) explores

sustainability by focusing on the design, form, function, and beauty of the built environment ? i.e.,

land developments, built landscapes, civil infrastructure systems, and facilities ? that collectively

make up human settlements at various spatial and temporal scales. The presentation will discuss

fundamental principles for sustainable urbanism, and basic strategies for the planning, design,

procurement, construction, and commissioning of civil infrastructure systems and facilities, which can

be applied to achieve built environment sustainability as one of the means for satisfying the critical

needs of society today, both in the U.S. and internationally