Leader: Bill Eisenstein
The Urban Systems and Institutions thrust is focused on identifying and overcoming the challenges to the implementation and diffusion of the technologies developed by ReNUWIt researchers in the Engineered Systems and Natural Systems thrusts, as well as other promising water management technologies. We conduct research on decision support techniques for utility, municipal and regional planners, and analyze the potential legal, institutional, economic, financial and social barriers to technology diffusion and means to overcome them. In each of these areas, we focus on identifying appropriate decision criteria, assessing optimal degrees of system decentralization under various conditions, characterizing risk and uncertainty, assessing economic and financial implications of various technologies, and integrating new technologies into existing water infrastructures and urban landscapes.
