Sustainable Cities and Societies

With increasing global change pressures (urbanization, climate change etc.), coupled with existing un-sustainable factors and risks inherent to conventional urban water management, cities in the future will experience difficulties in efficiently managing scarcer and less reliable water resources. In order to meet these challenges, there needs to be a paradigm shift. This paradigm shift is based on several key concepts of urban water management including: resilience of urban water systems to global change pressures; interventions over the entire urban water cycle; reconsideration of the way water is used (and reused); greater application of natural systems for treatment.

The sustainable cities and societies (SCS) will serve as a one-stop support hub for sustainable water and renewable energy research and education. SCS hub will have an emphasis on integrating water, energy, and food with sustainable development, developing cross-disciplinary projects and providing excellence in stakeholder engagement and training.

Mission

The mission of SCS is to advance scientific knowledge and create tools and technologies for sustainable and resilient cities.

Long-term goal

To establish a one-stop support hub for WEFs research and education.

Short-term goal

To address key issues of food waste management and renewable energy production through WEF.

Strategic Directions

To fulfill our mission, we developed a road map shown in the figure below:

**Figure:** Thematic areas as a pillar for SCS Hub

Mobile water-energy-food systems (WEFs): ‘PowerKiosk’ for Disaster Resilience
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The Water-Energy-Food process can also be used to aid in disaster recovery. A Mobile WEF PowerKiosk is a concept that could be easily towed by a vehicle to a struggling community. It would have solar panels and a battery, as well as a small waste digester to convert food waste into electricity and nutrient-rich digestate for hydroponic fertilization. This system could bring power, food, and water to areas struggling after a disaster, particularly a hurricane.

Basic Diagram of a Mobile WEF System
Household Scale Biodigester
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Household Scale Biodigester

The focus of this project is to build a smart household-scale water-energy-food system (H-WEFs) that connects with a kitchen sink garbage disposal, and converts food waste into biogas, electricity and nutrient-rich digestate for hydroponic gardening purposes. This self-sustaining system will then cut back on food waste, have enough energy to power the stove and/or dishwasher, grow more food with water that it filters itself, fertilized by the digestate. The goal also includes the design being cost-effective, so that it can be implemented in as many homes as possible.

Figure: Preliminary design of the H-WEFs system
Cyber Infrastructure: Virtual-Reality based Water-Energy-Food System Simulation and Visualization
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A recreation of the current large-scale prototype WEF system was recreated in Unreal Engine 4 to provide a Virtual Reality based simulation of the real process.

The simulation allows the user to add waste, harvest the plants grown from the water overflow, use the gas produced, and most importantly, adjust the rate of speed that everything processes at.

The simulation also allows the user to view exactly how much solid and liquid waste is in each stage at any given time.

The recreation of the WEF System in Unreal Engine 4
Flood Resiliency: Virtual Reality for Flood Simulation
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Using topological data and drone scans, a reconstruction of the Florida Gulf Coast University campus was recreated digitally and a heavy rainfall scenario was simulated to determine how effective the storm water management system was. The simulation was built in Unreal Engine 4.

The Flood Simulation software
Precision Agriculture
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Integrated Urban Water Modeling
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Gray 2 Green (G2G)
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This is a plug-in for ArcGIS as well as a spreadsheet for analyzing site data to create a plan for transitioning to vegetation-based stormwater management. To learn more, check out https://gray2green.jimdofree.com/.
Faculty-Led Student Research Projects
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Partners and Collaborators
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Urban Infrastructure: Reflections for 2100

Independently Published

Collection of science fiction short stories, essays, and poems by 40 global experts about infrastructure for 2100. Edited by Sybil Derrible and Prof. M. Chester.

Urban Engineering for Sustainability

MIT Press

Textbook with examples and problem sets by Sybil Derrible introducing urban infrastructure from an engineering perspective with an emphasis on sustainability.

Post-Disaster Materials and Environmental Management

Report for NSF-sponsored workship (award #1922539) to identify the research topics and questions pertaining to post-disaster materials.

Have Questions?

If you have any questions, comments, opinions or just about anything to say, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Contact

Seneshaw Tsegaye, Ph.D

Backe Chair of Sustainable Water and Renewable Energy Research, Associate Professor

Department of Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering and Construction Management

U.A. Whitaker College of Engineering, Florida Gulf Coast University

10501 FGCU Blvd. So. Fort Myers, FL 33965-6565

Office: Holmes Hall, 423

239-590-7815
stsegaye@fgcu.edu