Intelligent Infrastructures

Society heavily depends on infrastructure systems, such as road-traffic networks, water networks, electricity networks, etc. Infrastructure systems are hereby considered to be large-scale, networked systems, that almost everybody uses on a daily basis, and that are so vital that their incapacity or destruction would have a debilitating impact on the defense or economic security and functioning of society. The operation and control of existing infrastructures such as road-traffic networks, water networks, electricity networks, etc. are failing: too often we are confronted with capacity problems, unsafety, unreliability and inefficiency. This book concentrates on a wide range of problems concerning the way infrastructures are functioning today and discuss novel advanced, intelligent, methods and tools for the operation and control of existing and future infrastructures.

Modern societies heavily depend on infrastructure systems such as road-traffic networks, water networks, and electricity networks. Nowadays infrastructure systems are large-scale, complex networked, socio-technical systems, that almost everybody uses on a daily basis, and that have enabled us to live closely together in large cities. Infrastructure systems are so vital that their incapacity or destruction would have a fatal effect on the functioning of our society. The complexity of these systems is defined by their multi-agent and multi-actor character, their multi-level structure, their multi-objective optimization challenges, and by the adaptivity of their agents and actors to changes in their environment. The operation and control of existing infrastructures is fallible: too often people are confronted with capacity problems, dangerous situations, unreliability, and inefficiency.

More intelligent infrastructures gain an advantage in terms of more efficient capacity management, improved reliability of service, increased sustainability, and enhanced infrastructure security. Infrastructure operation should be able to more autonomously determine how to operate the infrastructure, taking into account the most up-to-date state of the infrastructure, and taking into account the existence of several decision makers, such that ultimately the infrastructure is operated in a pro-active way and issues are resolved quickly.

This book concentrates on a wide range of problems in the way infrastructures are functioning today and discusses novel advanced, and intelligent methods and tools for the operation and control of existing and future infrastructures.