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Infrastructures
Special Issues
Resilience of Infrastructures to Natural Hazards
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Resilience of Infrastructures to Natural Hazards

A special issue of Infrastructures (ISSN 2412-3811).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2023) | Viewed by 36074

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Davide Forcellini

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Dipartimento Economia e Tecnologia, Università di San Marino, Via Consiglio dei 60, n.99, 47899 Dogana, San Marino
Interests: earthquake engineering; resilience; numerical simulations; soil structure interaction; infrastructures
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Resilience has become a relevant concept for decision-making procedures such as post-hazard event mitigations and recovery investments, providing readable findings for a wide range of stakeholders, such as infrastructure owners, transportation authorities and public administrators. The holistic dimension of the concept allows to integrate multidisciplinary perspectives and develop strategies to enhance the functionality of strategic systems and preserve community economies and human lives. In particular, infrastructures are fundamental systems on which our societies are built up and particularly exposed to natural hazards. Therefore, the assessment of their resilience is a significant issue for stakeholders from multiple disciplines that may be interested in discussing the state of the art on scientific applications, sharing present and future perspectives.

Prof. Dr. Davide Forcellini
Guest Editor

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.

Keywords

  • resilience
  • infrastructures
  • natural hazards

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review

23 pages, 5297 KiB  
Article
Improved Alkali–Silica Reaction Forecast in Concrete Infrastructures through Stochastic Climate Change Impact Analysis
by Md Asif Rahman and Yang Lu
Infrastructures 2023, 8(8), 120; https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures8080120 - 31 Jul 2023
Viewed by 1920
Abstract
The assessment of concrete infrastructures’ functionality during natural hazards is fundamental in evaluating their performance and emergency response. In this work, the alkali–silica reaction (ASR) in concrete is evaluated under the climate change impact. The ASR is greatly influenced by the weather parameters, [...] Read more.
The assessment of concrete infrastructures’ functionality during natural hazards is fundamental in evaluating their performance and emergency response. In this work, the alkali–silica reaction (ASR) in concrete is evaluated under the climate change impact. The ASR is greatly influenced by the weather parameters, such as temperature and humidity. Climate change has led the quickening of global warming and has caused extreme weather events in recent years. These events can create anomalies in weather and thus convey potential threats to the concrete infrastructures affected by the ASR. Capturing these extreme events is the key prerequisite for the precise quantification of the ASR chemophysics. This work develops a novel stochastic approach to understand the influence of stochastic temperature and humidity on ASR expansion. To assess the stochastic weather impacts on concrete, a physics-informed domain is developed by capturing the variably saturated porous medium of concrete. This is an effort to analyze ASR kinetics that integrates chemo-physical damage under extreme weather events. Results elucidate that the ASR-affected concrete would experience 83.33% more damage in 10 years than from seasonal change due to the stochastic weather impacts from climate change. This improved predictive model will guide the durable infrastructure materials design practices and enhance the resiliency of concrete infrastructures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resilience of Infrastructures to Natural Hazards)
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20 pages, 20958 KiB  
Article
Failure Investigation of under Construction Prestressed Concrete Bridge in Chitwan, Nepal
by Rabindra Adhikari, Pratyush Jha, Lalit Bhatt, Dipesh Thapa, Davide Forcellini and Dipendra Gautam
Infrastructures 2022, 7(2), 14; https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures7020014 - 24 Jan 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 9506
Abstract
On 6 April 2021, a 200 m-long under-construction prestressed concrete bridge failed in the Chitwan District in central Nepal. Two of the four bridge spans collapsed without any notable evidence of dynamic force application. Under-construction bridge failures are sometimes reported and can have [...] Read more.
On 6 April 2021, a 200 m-long under-construction prestressed concrete bridge failed in the Chitwan District in central Nepal. Two of the four bridge spans collapsed without any notable evidence of dynamic force application. Under-construction bridge failures are sometimes reported and can have a significant impact on the future construction adjustments. Thus, a detailed study of failure mechanisms will be insightful for the structural engineering community. Aiming to document the failure modes and exemplify lessons for improvement, this paper reports the detailed component level failure mechanisms of the bridge using visual inspection, site measurements, finite element modeling, and some forms of non-destructive testing. The chronological failure mechanisms are presented based on the field evidence and juxtaposed with the results of analytical modeling. The sum of findings highlights that the dead load failure, triggered by the settlement of falseworks, is the most critically governing factor that initiated and aggravated the damage scenario. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resilience of Infrastructures to Natural Hazards)
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16 pages, 1991 KiB  
Article
Resilience of Railway Transport to Four Types of Natural Hazards: An Analysis of Daily Train Volumes
by Vigile Marie Fabella and Sonja Szymczak
Infrastructures 2021, 6(12), 174; https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures6120174 - 8 Dec 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 4025
Abstract
A crucial step in measuring the resilience of railway infrastructure is to quantify the extent of its vulnerability to natural hazards. In this paper, we analyze the vulnerability of the German railway network to four types of natural hazards that regularly cause disruptions [...] Read more.
A crucial step in measuring the resilience of railway infrastructure is to quantify the extent of its vulnerability to natural hazards. In this paper, we analyze the vulnerability of the German railway network to four types of natural hazards that regularly cause disruptions in German rail operations: floods, mass movements, slope fires, and tree falls. Using daily train traffic data matched with various data on disruptive events, we quantify the extent to which these four types of natural hazard reduce daily train traffic volumes. With a negative binomial count data regression, we find evidence that the track segments of the German railway network are most vulnerable to floods, followed by mass movements and tree-fall events. On average, floods reduce traffic on track segments by 19% of the average daily train traffic, mass movements by 16%, and tree fall by 4%. Moreover, when more than one type of natural hazard affects the track segment on the same day, train traffic on that segment falls by 34% of the average train traffic. Slope fires have an ambiguous and nonrobust effect on train traffic due to the reverse causality due to its triggering factors. This is the first study that attempts to rank different natural hazards according to their impact on railway traffic. The results have implications for the selection of resilience strategy and can help prioritize policy measures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resilience of Infrastructures to Natural Hazards)
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14 pages, 34479 KiB  
Article
The Role of Climate Change in the Assessment of the Seismic Resilience of Infrastructures
by Davide Forcellini
Infrastructures 2021, 6(5), 76; https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures6050076 - 18 May 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2769
Abstract
Climate change is modifying scientific attitudes toward pre- and post-event assessments of natural hazards. Unprecedented levels of destruction need renewed focus on addressing and protecting communities forcing the decision makers to change their attention to vulnerability and risk assessment. In particular, society and [...] Read more.
Climate change is modifying scientific attitudes toward pre- and post-event assessments of natural hazards. Unprecedented levels of destruction need renewed focus on addressing and protecting communities forcing the decision makers to change their attention to vulnerability and risk assessment. In particular, society and economy rely heavily on infrastructures, as fundamental links for movement of goods and people, and are extremely vulnerable to multiple hazards (such as droughts, floods, storms, and coastal hazards). In this regard, resilience quantifies the recovery time and procedures to facilitate and enhance pre-hazard and post-hazard event mitigation and emergency response strategies of systems and entire communities. Resilience calculation depends on two important contributions: loss and recovery models that need to consider the effects of climate change. This paper aims to propose a methodology that implements the most recent approaches to assess climate change inside the traditional framework of resilience. The proposed framework is then applied to a case study of a bridge. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resilience of Infrastructures to Natural Hazards)
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Review

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26 pages, 4862 KiB  
Review
Resilience of Critical Infrastructure Systems: A Systematic Literature Review of Measurement Frameworks
by Mathavanayakam Sathurshan, Aslam Saja, Julian Thamboo, Masahiko Haraguchi and Satheeskumar Navaratnam
Infrastructures 2022, 7(5), 67; https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures7050067 - 2 May 2022
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 10947
Abstract
Critical infrastructures such as transportation, power, telecommunication, water supply, and hospitals play a vital role in effectively managing post-disaster responses. The resilience of critical infrastructures should be incorporated in the planning and designing phase based on the risk assessment in a particular geographic [...] Read more.
Critical infrastructures such as transportation, power, telecommunication, water supply, and hospitals play a vital role in effectively managing post-disaster responses. The resilience of critical infrastructures should be incorporated in the planning and designing phase based on the risk assessment in a particular geographic area. However, the framework to assess critical infrastructure resilience (CIR) is variably conceptualised. Therefore, the objective of this study was to critically appraise the existing CIR assessment frameworks developed since the adoption of the Sendai Framework in 2015 with the hazard focus on earthquakes. The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) method was used for the selection of the 24 most relevant studies, and these were analysed to delineate existing frameworks, models, and concepts. The study found that there are wide-ranging disparities among the existing frameworks to assess the infrastructure resilience, and it has become a key challenge to prioritise resilience-based investment in the infrastructure sector. Furthermore, key attributes such as performance indicators, emergency aspects, and damage assessment need to be considered for different disaster phases—ex-ante, during, and ex-post—to improve the long-term resilience of critical infrastructure. Subsequently, an integrated and adaptable infrastructure resilience assessment framework is proposed for proper critical infrastructure planning and resilience-based investment decision making. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resilience of Infrastructures to Natural Hazards)
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17 pages, 1998 KiB  
Review
Resilience Indicator of Urban Transport Infrastructure: A Review on Current Approaches
by Zhuyu Yang, Bruno Barroca, Aurélia Bony-Dandrieux and Hélène Dolidon
Infrastructures 2022, 7(3), 33; https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures7030033 - 3 Mar 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5355
Abstract
Urban transport infrastructures (TIs) play a central role in an urban society that faces more and more disasters. TIs, part of critical infrastructures (CIs), are highly correlated with urban disaster management in terms of their resilience when cities are facing a crisis or [...] Read more.
Urban transport infrastructures (TIs) play a central role in an urban society that faces more and more disasters. TIs, part of critical infrastructures (CIs), are highly correlated with urban disaster management in terms of their resilience when cities are facing a crisis or disaster. According to many studies, indicator assessment has been frequently used for the resilience management of CIs in recent decades. Defining and characterizing indicators can be useful for disaster managers as it could help monitor and improve the capacities and performance of TIs. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is (1) to identify and summarize the existing indicators of TIs resilience from the currently available literature, and (2) to discuss the possible future studies of the resilience indicator of TIs. The first results indicated that there are some barriers to identify indicators following the common search method through keywords. Additionally, the indicators found are mainly related to technical information, the disruption stage, and internal TIs. Finally, due to the complexity of indicator assessment, sub-indicators and indicator spatialization are widely used in the resilience assessment of urban TIs studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resilience of Infrastructures to Natural Hazards)
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