Publisher's Synopsis
Urban engineering can more properly be described as the branch of engineering that covers all the civil and environmental engineering services related to the range of complex problems associated with infrastructure, services, buildings, environmental and land-use issues generally encountered in urban areas. In the case of underground utility networks, it may also include the civil portion (conduits and access chambers) of the local distribution networks of electrical and telecommunications services. It can also include the optimizing of garbage collection and bus service networks. Some of these disciplines overlap with other civil engineering specialties, however municipal engineering focuses on the coordination of these infrastructure networks and services, as they are often built simultaneously, and managed by the same municipal authority. The purpose of Methodologies and Tools for Urban Engineering is to explain the concepts of urban engineering and to highlight some of the challenges faced by this discipline. The overall idea is to describe how urban engineering relates to other areas of engineering expertise, particularly within the context of civil engineering. A great deal of research is devoted to application of instruments, methodologies and tools for monitoring and acquisition of data, based on the factual experience and computational modeling. The content covers related to urban automation, geographic information systems (GIS), analysis, monitoring and management of urban noise, floods and transports, information technology applied to the cities, tools for urban simulation, etc., demonstrating methods and techniques applied in Urban Engineering. Computational tools for monitoring and management are very important for the urban development. Several urban systems, such as: transports, water and sewerage system, telecommunications and electric system, make use of these tools, controlling the processes related to each activity, as well as urban problems, as the pollution. Therefore, in this book we will present details about these technologies, its programs and applications, what it will serve as introduction for the other works to take part in this book, many of which use such computational tools for study and solution of urban problems. There is increasing concern across the world about increasing traffic congestion and the costs it imposes, particularly on accessibility, the environment, other social factors, such as accidents, and the economy in general. Growing personal car-mileage is engendering the well-known effects on the environment and transport systems, especially roads, which are not able to cope with the increasing amounts of traffic. Further development of innovative, integrated and well-balanced policies is strongly needed. To simulate operations and reactions of these real world processes, models of urban environment and the involved actors, are used to assist in exploration of the hypotheses, analyzing the ambient processes and giving some answers about urban changes. To deal with these changes it is necessary to know the processes that caused them and identify the conditions. It is important to know how the changes of a city can occur. Urban engineering can more properly be described as the branch of engineering that covers all the civil and environmental engineering services related to the range of complex problems associated with infrastructure, services, buildings, environmental and land-use issues generally encountered in urban areas. In the case of underground utility networks, it may also include the civil portion (conduits and access chambers) of the local distribution networks of electrical and telecommunications services. It can also include the optimizing of garbage collection and bus service networks. Some of these disciplines overlap with other civil engineering specialties, however municipal engineering focuses on the coordination of these infrastructure networks and services, as they are often built simultaneously, and managed by the same municipal authority. The purpose of Methodologies and Tools for Urban Engineering is to explain the concepts of urban engineering and to highlight some of the challenges faced by this discipline. The overall idea is to describe how urban engineering relates to other areas of engineering expertise, particularly within the context of civil engineering. A great deal of research is devoted to application of instruments, methodologies and tools for monitoring and acquisition of data, based on the factual experience and computational modeling. The content covers related to urban automation, geographic information systems (GIS), analysis, monitoring and management of urban noise, floods and transports, information technology applied to the cities, tools for urban simulation, etc., demonstrating methods and techniques applied in Urban Engineering. Computational tools for monitoring and management are very important for the urban development. Several urban systems, such as: transports, water and sewerage system, telecommunications and electric system, make use of these tools, controlling the processes related to each activity, as well as urban problems, as the pollution. Therefore, in this book we will present details about these technologies, its programs and applications, what it will serve as introduction for the other works to take part in this book, many of which use such computational tools for study and solution of urban problems. There is increasing concern across the world about increasing traffic congestion and the costs it imposes, particularly on accessibility, the environment, other social factors, such as accidents, and the economy in general. Growing personal car-mileage is engendering the well-known effects on the environment and transport systems, especially roads, which are not able to cope with the increasing amounts of traffic. Further development of innovative, integrated and well-balanced policies is strongly needed. To simulate operations and reactions of these real world processes, models of urban environment and the involved actors, are used to assist in exploration of the hypotheses, analyzing the ambient processes and giving some answers about urban changes. To deal with these changes it is necessary to know the processes that caused them and identify the conditions. It is important to know how the changes of a city can occur. Urban engineering can more properly be described as the branch of engineering that covers all the civil and environmental engineering services related to the range of complex problems associated with infrastructure, services, buildings, environmental and land-use issues generally encountered in urban areas. In the case of underground utility networks, it may also include the civil portion (conduits and access chambers) of the local distribution networks of electrical and telecommunications services. It can also include the optimizing of garbage collection and bus service networks. Some of these disciplines overlap with other civil engineering specialties, however municipal engineering focuses on the coordination of these infrastructure networks and services, as they are often built simultaneously, and managed by the same municipal authority. The purpose of Methodologies and Tools for Urban Engineering is to explain the concepts of urban engineering and to highlight some of the challenges faced by this discipline. The overall idea is to describe how urban engineering relates to other areas of engineering expertise, particularly within the context of civil engineering. A great deal of research is devoted to application of instruments, methodologies and tools for monitoring and acquisition of data, based on the factual experience and computational modeling. The content covers related to urban automation, geographic information systems (GIS), analysis, monitoring and management of urban noise, floods and transports, information technology applied to the cities, tools for urban simulation, etc., demonstrating methods and techniques applied in Urban Engineering. Computational tools for monitoring and management are very important for the urban development. Several urban systems, such as: transports, water and sewerage system, telecommunications and electric system, make use of these tools, controlling the processes related to each activity, as well as urban problems, as the pollution. Therefore, in this book we will present details about these technologies, its programs and applications, what it will serve as introduction for the other works to take part in this book, many of which use such computational tools for study and solution of urban problems. There is increasing concern across the world about increasing traffic congestion and the costs it imposes, particularly on accessibility, the environment, other social factors, such as accidents, and the economy in general. Growing personal car-mileage is engendering the well-known effects on the environment and transport systems, especially roads, which are not able to cope with the increasing amounts of traffic. Further development of innovative, integrated and well-balanced policies is strongly needed. To simulate operations and reactions of these real world processes, models of urban environment and the involved actors, are used to assist in exploration of the hypotheses, analyzing the ambient processes and giving some answers about urban changes. To deal with these changes it is necessary to know the processes that caused them and identify the conditions. It is important to know how the changes of a city can occur.
