"The N.Y.U. researchers see an opportunity to take a quantitative, comprehensive look at a community, run experiments, and make discoveries. Dr. Kontokosta observed that the concept of “sustainability” has been narrowly defined, mostly focused on water and energy consumption so far. “Sustainability has really been a measurement problem,”he said.
But with a broader array of measurements in a community, he said, a far wider range of observations becomes possible. An example, Dr. Kontokosta said, might be measuring noise, air quality or social interactions, and seeing how those correlate with educational achievement.
Combining measurements of the environment, physical systems and human behavior, said Steven E. Koonin, director of the N.Y.U. center, will open the door to understanding and modeling communities in new ways. “The real gold will be in combining the data science and the social sciences,” Dr. Koonin said.
One result, he said, will be to change traditional disciplines. Civil engineering, he said, has traditionally centered on physical systems rather than human behavior. In the future, Dr. Koonin said, there may be careers in “human-centered civil engineering” or “civic engineering.” Architects and interior designers, he said, study how people interact with buildings and rooms, but without much quantitative information. “Quantitative design,” he said, may be a career of the future."
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