Remote Sensing for Sustainability and Durability of Transportation Infrastructures

Dear Colleagues,

Transport infrastructures are becoming increasingly susceptible to deterioration due to aging and climate-related hazards. In addition, the increased urbanization, population density, and traffic congestion in urban metropolitan areas worldwide have led to a greater demand for sustainable transportation corridors on both surface and underground. Improving sustainability and durability is more important than ever for tunnels, bridges, highways, roads, railways, airfields, and transit. Geohazards (e.g., landslides, debris flows, and rockfalls) for surface transportation infrastructure are significant concerns in mountainous terrains. Against the background of climate change, geohazard assessment along transportation corridors is more concerning than ever. On the other hand, underground transportation systems offer many positive aspects, such as reducing traffic congestion and travel times, reducing urban sprawl and traffic noise, preserving the landscape and biodiversity, and increasing the resilience of communities from geohazards. However, tunneling-induced ground subsidence is a crucial concern in designing and constructing underground transportation systems.

Many researchers have utilized remote sensing techniques, including optical, microwave, and LiDAR, for geohazards assessments and tunneling-induced ground deformation monitoring over the decades. The retrospective nature of satellite-based remote sensing can provide a time series of ground deformation due to either geohazards or underground excavations. In recent years, intensive research activities include using remote sensing and other techniques, e.g., 3D geological modeling, GIS, and machine learning, which offer a synoptic view and acquire information at different perspectives and time intervals. Assessing geohazards and mapping ground deformations using remote sensing can provide a better understanding of these events’ mechanisms.

This Special Issue aims to publish high-quality articles on all aspects of remote sensing applications for improving the sustainability and durability of surface and underground transportation infrastructures, such as tunnels, bridges, highways, roads, railways, airfields, and transit. RS techniques include, but are not limited to, SAR, InSAR, LiDAR, photogrammetry, and SfM. Sensor platforms include but are not limited to satellite-, airborne-, UAV-, and terrestrial-based sensors.

Topics of interest include:

• Characterization of tunneling-induced ground displacements using remote sensing techniques;
• Ground displacement pattern recognition though combining remote sensing and machine learning;
• Landslides assessments along transportation corridors;
• Rockfalls assessment along roadcuts using LiDAR or photogrammetry;
• Measurement of ground displacement from optical satellite images, i.e., pixel-tracking or differential DEMs from stereo-optical images;
• Bridge monitoring using remote sensing techniques;
• InSAR for airfield ground subsidence monitoring;
• Integration of remote sensing and geodetic measurements;
• Time series ground displacement monitoring, i.e., pre-, during-, and after-events;
• Rock mass and fault zone characterization from photogrammetry or point clouds for transportation alignment selection;
• Transportation infrastructure monitoring integrating InSAR and GPR. 

Dr. Wendy Zhou
Dr. Thomas Oommen
Dr. Linan Liu
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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.