Urbanization and climate change are exacerbating stress on aging urban critical infrastructure systems, including water, energy, mobility, and telecommunication networks. Simulation tools and scenario analyses able to capture the interdependencies among these different infrastructure systems are crucial to support decision making and realize sustainable and resilient development. Yet, existing simulation tools are mostly developed within the boundaries of individual application sectors and information often remains siloed, despite the increasing data and computational opportunities offered by the digital transformation of many infrastructure sectors. In this work, we present how the ide3a project (international alliance for digital e-learning, e-mobility and e-research in academia – https://ide3a.net) addresses this research gap. ide3a is building a digital campus to support digital learning, research, and mobility in collaboration within a network of six European partner universities. Several senior and early career researchers with multidisciplinary backgrounds in water management, IT systems, mobility, energy, urban planning, sustainability, and psychology, work together to integrate state-of-the-art research on critical infrastructure and digitalization into traditional higher education curricula. As part of the ide3a portfolio of digital tools for learning and research, we present a prototype of “ConnectiCity”, an open-source simulation-based serious game that integrates multi-sectoral models to perform simulations of interconnected critical infrastructure systems and quantify cascading effects under various climate, social, and technical scenarios. Along with other ide3a activities, it is used to train early career researchers and students alike to enrich their transdisciplinary knowledge, foster critical system thinking, drive research on urban critical infrastructure dynamics, and ultimately working across disciplines to tackle contemporary urban challenges.

Transport of sediment particles from the source of their origin to a deposition area is of utmost importance, especially in catchments very prone to erosion. Especially, since future climate changes are predicted to enhance severity of the sediment transport issues, particularly in catchments with dammed reservoirs, which capacity and water quality can be extremely altered. In the current study we tracked, with a monthly step, two mineral and one mineral/organic sediment fraction delivered from the Carpathian Mts. catchment (Raba River) to the drinking water reservoir (Dobczyce). This was possible by combining SWAT and AdH/PTM models on the digital platform - Macromodel DNS. Moreover, we have applied a variant scenario analysis including RCP 4.5 and 8.5, and land use change forecasts. The results highlighted the differences between the two analyzed hydrological units and showed large variability of the sediment load between months. The predicted climate changes will cause a significant increase of mineral fraction loads (silt and clay) during months with high flows. Due to the location and natural arrangement of the reservoir, silt particles will mainly affect faster loss of the first two reservoir zones capacities, which is consistent with their intended use as traps for larger fractions. The increased mobility of the finer particles (clay) in the reservoir may be more problematic in the future. Mainly due to their binding pollutant properties, and the possible negative impact on drinking water abstraction from the last reservoir zone.