Next Generation Infrastructure

Dear Colleagues,

The growing infrastructure crisis highlights the need to accelerate the incorporation of recent technological advancements to enhance the current out-of-date management regimes to fit the changing climatic conditions. The main factors that amplify infrastructure deterioration and impact can be attributed to (a) aging infrastructure that has exceeded its design lifespan and currently faces major deterioration issues, (b) increases in the frequency and intensity of natural and climatic hazards, which amplify the risk for the critical assets due to their outdated design, and (c) cascading effects and systemic risks that even minor incidents can trigger, causing significant disruption to the infrastructure system.

Reliable methods and systems to evaluate these factors are therefore important for the efficient and proactive management of critical infrastructure assets. Despite the recent advances in the development and application of technological solutions, infrastructure is still managed traditionally in most cases.

This Special Issue focuses on recent advances that contribute to the next generation of physical and digital infrastructure. Contributions may include the development of theoretical models and laboratory and field applications to enhance the ability of infrastructure assets (e.g., transportation, water, energy) and societies to withstand and adapt to the era of extreme events. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• State-of-the-art techniques to assess risk derived from natural and climatic hazards at various types of infrastructure.
• Sensing solutions using in situ, remote sensing, and terrestrial instruments.
• Structural health monitoring applications to assess the impact of water and geo-related hazards at critical structures.
• Monitoring of ecosystems to assess risk for expected and unexpected events.
• Early warning and decision support systems applied to critical structures and considering the dynamics derived from the infrastructure system perspective.
• Advanced prediction capabilities of infrastructure deterioration.
• Interoperability aspects to optimize infrastructure system operations.
• Immersive technologies and crowdsourcing applications to enhance the management and maintenance of infrastructure and provide risk information (e.g., digital twins, mixed, virtual, and augmented reality).

The Special Issue is supported by the IAHR-EMI LT (Experimental Methods and Instrumentation leadership team).

Dr. Panagiotis Michalis  
Dr. Manousos Valyrakis
Dr. Gordon Gilja  
Prof. Dr. Zied Driss
Guest Editors

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