From an Atomized to a Holistic Perspective for Safety Assessment of Structures and Infrastructures: Exploring Ecosystems

Dear Colleagues,

Safety assessments of both structures and infrastructures are usually approached in engineering terms without any considerations related to other disciplines. Opposite to this atomized perspective, there is increasing interest in research studies about more holistic approaches aimed at focusing on the interplay between different disciplines (i.e., technical, organizational, social, and political issues) to better understand “ecosystems”. In this context, the purpose is to verify how a system really works through a crucial topic like safety, discussing the synergy among regulation, structures, and environment in a territorial context. For this reason, this Special Issue comprises a selection of studies on techniques and experiences (i.e., case studies) aimed at emphasizing technical, environmental, social, economic, and institutional aspects related to the theme of safety in a geographic context, both as single and combined issues. Research topics to advance a multidisciplinary idea of safety are identified in four key areas: (1) modeling and design of structures, (2) economic and political efficiency, (3) social and cultural development, and (4) organizational actors and their synergies. The topics include but are not limited to:

1. Safety, reliability, and resilience assessments of both new/existing structures and infrastructures with respect to natural or anthropogenic events;
2. Efficiency and quality of regulatory systems aimed at ensuring structural safety;
3. Holistic approaches that measure quality as the correlative metric between efficient regulation and engineering assessments;
4. Efficient utilization of safe infrastructures to improve economic and political efficiency that enable social, cultural, and urban development;
5. Determinants of social resilience combined with structural resilience; and
6. Citizen awareness as a culture of responsibility and commitment.

Dr. Paolo Castaldo
Prof. Roberta Troisi
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. Sustainability 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 2400 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.