Technologies and Methodologies for the Assessment of Structures and Infrastructures in the Presence of Natural Hazards

Dear Colleagues,

Reliable assessment of structures and infrastructures in the presence of natural hazards is critical to ensure the social and economic activities of a country. In fact, modern society strongly depends on infrastructure to perform critical functions, such as food, water and energy supply, transportation, healthcare and life safety. Failure or breakdown of structures and infrastructures might have, therefore, severe consequences, as shown by a number of extreme events, such as earthquakes, floods, and landslides, which have occurred worldwide in recent years.

Financial and workforce resources to protect infrastructures from damage caused by extreme events are limited, so an efficient use of the available resources is critical and it can be achieved only through reliable methodologies to predict the consequences of natural hazards and set priorities. A number of methodologies for risk assessment, as well as technologies for structural health assessment have been developed over the years in order to support technicians involved in management and maintenance of civil structures and infrastructure.

The goal of the Special Issue is to publish original research papers focused on technologies and methodologies for risk assessment of structures and infrastructures in the presence of natural hazards, and for the rapid evaluation of their performance and health state in the case of an event. Theoretical studies and numerical simulations, as well as experimental techniques are welcome.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Probabilistic methods for risk assessment
• Development of post-event scenarios
• Development of fragility curves
• Non-destructive testing and structural health monitoring
• Smart structures and infrastructures
• Numerical or experimental analysis of structures exposed to natural hazards (e.g., earthquakes, floods, landslides, and so on)
• Optimization of procedures to support decision-making
• Cost–benefit analyses of mitigation measures.

Dr. Carlo Rainieri
Prof. Dr. Giovanni Fabbrocino
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Infrastructures is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Natural hazards
• risk assessment
• smart structures and infrastructures
• structural health monitoring
• probabilistic methods