Civil infrastructure, including roads, bridges, water and sewer networks, railways, airports and several other assets, provide essential services to the public and support economic growth. The existing infrastructure assets and systems are deteriorating rapidly, and some are even approaching critical stage of their life cycle. Demand for infrastructure services is continually increasing due to increase in population and expansion of economies. At the same time, scarcity of resources and funds has placed significant challenges for governments and infrastructure owners while delivering new assets and while managing the existing ones. Emerging and state-of-the-art technologies and methods can play significant role in improving planning, construction and management of civil infrastructure assets and systems.
Construction industry, government entities and other stakeholders involved in civil infrastructure design and management are making a major shift towards automation, digitalization, and data analysis to enhance delivery and management of infrastructure assets. Emerging technologies including 3D printing, laser and radar scanning, unmanned air vehicles, and emerging methods and techniques such as artificial intelligence, classification techniques, data analytics, and digital twin technologies are being integrated within current and ongoing research efforts and government practices to enhance planning, design, and management the civil infrastructure assets. The special issue aims at developing a collection of state-of-the-art research findings and industry practices to reflect on current advances in integrating technologies and methods in civil infrastructure engineering, construction, operation, and management.
The scope covers both specialized and multidisciplinary research subjects related to theme of the special issue and encompasses all stages of the life cycle of assets from inception and feasibility, through design, construction, then operation and maintenance, to the end of life demolishing and processing. The following are the main topics of interest and can be expanded to other related areas:
1. Computer-aided engineering and design, and process simulation models of civil infrastructure assets.
2. Condition assessment, rating and monitoring, and deterioration modeling of the built environment.
3. Facilities management and virtual reality methods and applications.
4. Decision support systems for infrastructure and asset management.
5. Automation in data processing and interpretation, and management of information systems.
6. Machine learning, classification and standardization, and deep learning applications in civil engineering and management.
7. Robotics, 3D printing, logistics, automated inspection, and demolition in construction and infrastructure industry.
8. Image processing, LiDAR, 3D Point Cloud, UAVs, and Could Computing applications in infrastructure maintenance.
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The Topic Editors and Frontiers' Editorial Office would like to thank Dr. Mohammad Alsharqawi for the advisory and supporting role in this Research Topic.