In an urban environment, the infrastructure includes everything that the city needs to sustain the community every day. The buildings, roads, sidewalks, transportation, electricity, and sewer systems all fall under the umbrella labeled as infrastructure. Urban infrastructure is built to last for decades to centuries. This means that many cities were built a very long time ago and are now facing the repercussions. When constructing in urban environments, people tend to build with longevity and space in mind. They want to buildings to last for a long time and in order to be spatially efficient they are normally very tall. The majority of buildings in cities were built a long time ago, as a result they are now outdated. Most buildings in cities were built over a century ago and are now not performing to the best of their ability. “It is no secret that America’s infrastructure, along with that of many other countries, is aging and failing, and that funding has been insufficient to repair and replace it.”
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The United States as well as many other countries across the globe face similar challenges with their urban infrastructure and have looked to environmental engineers to create sustainable solutions to these challenges. The biggest challenge of all is that the amount of people who live in cities is expected to double within the next thirty years. The largest population growth occurs within cities which puts a large strain on the infrastructure. Currently cities do not have the capacity to support this type of population growth. Engineers are looking for ways in which they can improve urban infrastructure in order to support this expected population increase.