Urban Engineering for Sustainability

by Sybil Derrible

A textbook that introduces integrated, sustainable design of urban infrastructures, drawing on civil engineering, environmental engineering, urban planning, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and computer science. This textbook introduces urban infrastructure from an engineering perspective, with an emphasis on sustainability. Bringing together both fundamental principles and practical knowledge from civil engineering, environmental engineering, urban planning, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and computer science, the book transcends disciplinary boundaries by viewing urban infrastructures as integrated networks. The text devotes a chapter to each of five engineering systems—electricity, water, transportation, buildings, and solid waste—covering such topics as fundamentals, demand, management, technology, and analytical models. Other chapters present a formal definition of sustainability; discuss population forecasting techniques; offer a history of urban planning, from the Neolithic era to Kevin Lynch and Jane Jacobs; define and discuss urban metabolism and infrastructure integration, reviewing system interdependencies; and describe approaches to urban design that draw on complexity theory, algorithmic models, and machine learning. Throughout, a hypothetical city state, Civitas, is used to explain and illustrate the concepts covered. Each chapter includes working examples and problem sets. An appendix offers tables, diagrams, and conversion factors. The book can be used in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in civil engineering and as a reference for practitioners. It can also be helpful in preparation for the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) and Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exams.

656 pages, Hardcover

Published November 19, 2019

About the author

Sybil Derrible is Professor of Urban Engineering and Director of the Complex and Sustainable Urban Networks (CSUN) Laboratory at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). He is a world-renowned scholar on infrastructure and Lead Author of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) Seventh Global Environment Outlook (GEO-7) report.

He is the recipient of a US National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award and a Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He was also an invited participant to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grainger Foundations Frontiers of Engineering Symposium in 2023. Since 2019, he has been recognized in the top 2% researchers in his field for career and single-year impact by Elsevier.

He has published over one hundred publications, and he is the author of the popular science book "The Infrastructure Book: How Cities Work and Power Our Lives" (Prometheus Books, 2025) and the textbook "Urban Engineering for Sustainability" (MIT Press, 2019).

He lives in Chicago (Illinois).

Reviews

[Logan Sorensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book tackling current urban infrastructure and exploring methodologies for integrating systems in a more sustainable way.

Love the author’s take that engineers should strive to be cross-disciplinary “urban engineers” who integrate elements from traditional disciplines (civil, mechanical, environmental, etc…). This book will help round you out as an engineer and give you additional tools to help solve today’s problems.

Additional star as I had some questions while reading the book and was able to get in contact with the author. Not many books you find these days where you can do that!!!

[Sybil Derrible · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone teaching an upper-level undergraduate or graduate class that involves multiple infrastructure systems (electricity, water, transport, building, solid waste) should consider this textbook. I use it in my class and regularly share my quizzes, assignments, exams, and other material with instructors around the world. Feel free to contact me if you are considering adopting the book in your class.