Road Detection, Monitoring and Maintenance Using Remotely Sensed Data

Dear Colleagues,

Several aspects of the daily lives of most people and communities are connected with roads; they offer a critical contribution to economic development and constitute the social fabric of a developed country. If roads are inadequately managed, maintained and controlled, they constrain mobility and cause increased transportation operating costs, accident rates, and related human and property costs, in addition to aggravating segregation, poverty, and poor health. Unfortunately, in many countries, road authorities are supported by limited funds for road monitoring and inspection, especially for minor and local road networks. Therefore, the hazard prevention, planning, monitoring, inspection, and maintenance of roads network is critical.

Non-destructive and high-performance techniques are essential tools for managing extended and complex road networks. Using these techniques, road authorities can efficiently obtain reliable information concerning the causes of distress (exogenous and endogenous factors) and the consequences (infrastructure damages and deficiencies) for the assets they manage. However, these techniques, if performed individually, do not allow the obtainment of a comprehensive understanding of the functional and structural properties of an infrastructure. Indeed, each NDT is appointed to investigate a single aspect of the infrastructure; integrating the outcomes of multiple NDTs is of fundamental importance for a global vision.

Therefore, the present Special Issue, “Road Detection, Monitoring and Maintenance Using Remotely Sensed Data”, aims to gather studies covering the latest developments in the use and integration of non-destructive techniques for road detection, monitoring and maintenance. The leading goal of this Special Issue is to provide a compendium of innovative operational strategies and relevant case studies for road authorities, identifying the most appropriate remote surveys as a function of the investigated infrastructure typology, the methodologies for integrating road surveys with ancillary data, and providing insights for optimizing decision-making processes regarding road monitoring and maintenance.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Road monitoring of road networks by remote techniques (satellite-, aerial-, ground-, and subsoil-based non-destructive techniques);
• Relevant remote non-destructive techniques applications in transport infrastructures;
• Integration of remotely sensed data in pavement maintenance;
• Analysis, quantification, and integration of environmental impacts within pavement management systems;
• Integration of remote non-destructive technique outcomes and ancillary data sources (topography, geology, hydrology, geomorphology);
• Machine/deep learning algorithms for the fusion of remote non-destructive techniques data in road detection, road monitoring, and road maintenance.

Review papers in the outlined above research topics will also be considered.

Prof. Massimo Losa
Dr. Nicholas Fiorentini
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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