Towards a Sustainable and Resilient Charlotte

Refreshments will be served. Abstract: This talk will describe a visual analytics approach based on a system of systems model that is being applied to issues of sustainability and resiliency in Charlotte. The sustainability effort involves coupled models for energy usage, transportation including automobile gas consumption, vehicle emissions, and eventually models for water usage and electric energy plant emissions. This effort focuses on Uptown Charlotte and is in collaboration with Envision Charlotte, a partnership of city and county governments, Duke Energy, downtown building owners, the Environmental Defense Fund, and others. The resiliency effort has to do with major disruptions of critical infrastructure in Charlotte and the region caused, for example, by a large hurricane that sweeps in from the coast. It is in collaboration with other universities and the Department of Homeland Security. Both efforts are derived from the same basic system of models and give the capability of predictive analysis that supports planning and policy making.