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.

Demand-side management strategies based on customized feedback have proved their worth in supporting water conservation efforts and behavior change programs. Several studies in both the water and energy sectors report of observed short-term savings deriving from feedback-based programs and awareness campaigns, often based on smart metered data and high levels of customization in presenting information on resource usage to users in the form of past consumption, real-time information, peer comparison, analogies, and resource saving tips. Yet, feedback-based programs are often run as part of experimental trials with a limited duration, and their effectiveness is therefore only evaluated for a short time span, potentially overlooking rebound effects. Assessing the long-term effect of feedback information on behavior change is still an open research question. In this work, we analyze the long-term impacts of a smart-meter fed gamified ICT platform providing customized feedback to water users, which was deployed starting in 2014 in a long experiment trial with over 200 users of the Global Omnium utility in Valencia (Spain). The platform core is a data-driven demand management pipeline that enables water utilities to foster consumer engagement and promote water conservation via customized feedbacks. It includes customized water saving tips, peer-comparison of water usage, and a reward program based on gamification tools and mechanisms. After three years of development and testing from 2014 to 2017, the platform has proven to be very effective in the short-term, when a user is engaged. A 5.7% volumetric water use reduction among Global Omnium users was achieved after the first year of full implementation, along with a 20% approximate water consumption difference with respect to non-platform users. Here, we analyze the smart meter data of the platform users, respectively after one and two years from the end of the funded platform trial period, to assess long-term behavior changes and rebound effects on different groups of platform adopters.