Coupled simulation of urban water networks and interconnected critical urban infrastructure systems: A systematic review and multi-sector research agenda

Abstract

Adaptive planning of water infrastructure systems is crucial to bolster urban resilience in the face of climate change while meeting the needs of rapidly changing urban metabolisms. Urban water systems maintain intricate interconnections with other critical infrastructure domains (CIDs). Multi-sector dependencies and joint management of different CIDs have gained interest in recent research to mitigate undesired cascading effects across domains. Yet, combined modeling and joint simulation of multiple CIDs needs to overcome the limitations of tools and software often siloed to individual infrastructure domains. In this paper, we contribute a systematic review of 24 recent peer-reviewed publications on coupled simulation of urban water systems (water supply and drainage networks) and other CIDs, including energy grids, mobility networks, and IT infrastructure systems, extracted from a larger set of 222 publications. First, we identify trends, modeling frameworks, and simulation software enabling the combined simulation of interlinked CIDs. Then, we define an agenda of priorities for future research. Acknowledging the opportunities provided by open-source tools, data, and standardized evaluation schemes, future research fostering coupled simulation across CIDs should prioritize knowledge transfer, address differences in spatial and temporal dependencies, scale up simulations to a network level, and explore multi-sector interconnections beyond bilateral dependencies.