Giant Leaps in Infrastructure: Roshanak Nateghi

Modeling Sustainability and Resilience of Critical Infrastructure Systems

Purdue IE Assistant Professor Roshanak Nateghi’s research is focused on modeling sustainability and resilience of critical infrastructure such as water and power systems. Her research projects include developing rigorously validated predictive models for electric power and water consumption levels at various spatio-temporal scales in the U.S., to identify the main drivers of demand for water and power resources. The results of her research can inform policy to promote sustainable consumption patterns in the U.S.

Her research group is currently studying the main factors contributing to ground water stress across 140 countries in the world. The map above shows the positive (blue) and negative (red) trends in ground water storage levels. 

Dr. Nateghi has also developed reliability models for critical infrastructure systems impacted by extreme events such as natural disasters and climate change both in the short term and long term. She is currently focused on developing frameworks to model the impact of climate extremes on the resilience of infrastructure under deep uncertainty.