New Zealand's networked infrastructure project: creating an open demonstration site for smart infrastructure

Infrastructure around the world is forecast to be a trillion-dollar market over the coming decades. The concept of Structural Health Monitoring, while well demonstrated in principle on a case-by-case basis, lacks the compelling systems demonstration of value required to spur the joint development of cheap sensors, data algorithms and industry best-practice. In this paper, we discuss the aspirations of the recently funded New Zealand lNetworked Infrastructurer project. The project is investigating the feasibility of designating the Christchurch rebuild (a 30-year, NZ$40B central city construction project) as the worldrs demonstration site for sensors in the built environment. We believe that this is a unique opportunity for the world to field test the expectations of a massively networked built environment n an environment that is likely to be the default scenario in 2050. In this paper we describe the project and two other related, but parallel research streams: the design in advance of a legal framework that positions Christchurch as a unit of lknowledge infrastructurer and secondly complex systems research to highlight areas of technical capability that New Zealand can credibly and profitably commercialise.