Sustainable Design and Upgrading of Bridges: From Life-Cycle Thinking Principles to Life-Cycle Analysis
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Engineering and Science".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 18
Special Issue Editors
Interests: bridges; collapse analysis; risk assessment; modelling; retrofitting
Interests: risk assessment; loss assessment; seimsic risk
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: life-cycle assessment, intelligent maintenance; risk and resilience; structural engineering; lifecycle engineering; climate change; sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The world is increasingly facing the consequences of climate change, resource depletion, and ageing infrastructure. In this context, the sustainable upgrading of existing bridges is becoming a strategic priority. Many bridges around the world require retrofitting or functional enhancement to meet safety, durability, and serviceability requirements. To achieve long-term sustainability, such interventions must go beyond immediate technical solutions and embrace life-cycle thinking—from their design and assessment to operation and end-of-life.
We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue, Sustainable Design and Upgrading of Bridges: From Life-cycle Thinking Principles to Life-cycle Analysis, which aims to collect high-quality contributions that promote a shift toward integrated and forward-looking strategies for bridge retrofitting/replacement.
We welcome original research articles and comprehensive reviews, including (but not limited to) the following topics, applied to bridge structures:
- Life-cycle assessment and cost analysis for retrofitting/replacement.
- Performance-based and sustainability-oriented design methods.
- Probabilistic modelling of deterioration and reliability over time.
- Climate-adaptive strategies and multi-hazard design approaches.
- Digital tools for life-cycle management.
- Case studies on (sustainable) bridge design or retrofitting.
We look forward to your contributions that will help shaping the future of sustainable bridge engineering through the lens of life-cycle thinking.
Dr. Nicola Scattarreggia
Dr. Ricardo Monteiro
Dr. You Dong
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.
Keywords
- bridges
- sustainability
- life cycle thinking
- life cycle analysis
- retrofitting
- conceptual design
- advanced modelling
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