Future Cities and Infrastructure Engineering Research

Urban-environmental research at Birmingham is led by Professor Christopher Rogers , together with Dr Nicole Metje, Dr David Chapman and Dr Dexter Hunt and a large team of post-doctoral and postgraduate researchers. A few of this group’s current and recent world-leading projects, some of which are in collaboration with practitioners and other stakeholder partners in order to maximise the impact of the work, include:

Future Cities

Urban Futures: a multi-partner, multi-disciplinary, £3.2million ground breaking project that has established alternative future scenarios and has tested a variety of engineering interventions in cities, providing insights into the potential sustainability and resilience to future change of today's urban regeneration decisions. Although the funding for this project has finished, the research continues to deliver impact as the methodology is taken up in many different spheres of policy and practice, most prominently via the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Foresight Future of Cities initiative.
Liveable Cities: a multi-partner, multi-disciplinary, £6.3million EPSRC Programme Grant that is envisioning future low-carbon, resource secure cities of the future in which individual and societal well-being is prioritised; conducting urban metabolism analyses in three case study cities; and devising a methodology to measure the performance of cities from all relevant perspectives (social, environmental, economic, policy and governance).
Infrastructure Business Models, Valuation and Innovation for Local Delivery (i-Build)
Mapping Artificial Lightscapes: high resolution solutions to artificial light pollution in cities
Sustainability and resilience assessment framework of food systems in cities
Urban Escape Places (pdf)
Smart cities: a comparative analysis of low carb emission systems and their applicability to Birmingham (pdf)

Infrastructure Monitoring and Sensors

Environmental Engineering - mapping the underworld — Multi-sensor laboratory used in the field

Mapping the Underworld (MTU) - Using a multi-sensor device together with intelligent data fusion and information about the ground and from statutory records to detect the position of buried pipes and cables.
Assessing the Underworld (ATU): Exploring the use of geophysical tools based on the MTU multi-sensor platform, combined with in-pipe sensors, to assess the condition of the three interdependent infrastructures that operate in the street:
- the buried pipes and cables,
- the ground in which they are buried, and
- the surface transport infrastructure that overlies them.
ATU includes the development of a Decision Support System to aid decision makers alongside a sustainable assessment framework by streetworks to assess different options.
- Sustainability Costing Model of Utility Streetworks in Urban Environments (pdf)

Detection of Archaeological Residues using Remote Sensors (DART): Understanding the underlying science for archaeological prospection – why are some archaeological residues harder to find in some soils?
Smart Pipes: Attaching discrete sensors to water pipes to measure their condition, and in particular to detect water leaks
Gravity Gradient Technology and Opportunity Programme (GG-TOP): Development of a gravity gradiometer for the detection of buried pipes, sinkholes and archaeology
Quantum Technology (QT) Hub for Sensors and Metrology: Application of a quantum technology gravity sensor to civil engineering as part of a multi-university project
SIGMA - Study of Industrial Gravity Measurement Applications: Working closely with industry to determine the requirements for a QT gravity sensors and assessment of its suitability for a range of engineering targets including buried pipes, capped mine shafts and sinkholes.

PhD opportunities and research studentships

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Postgraduate Open Day

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