The current state of America’s infrastructure indicates is it not capable of providing the vital services the public needs, because of the deterioration over past decades. ASCE’s 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure gives the U.S. a C- grade; with 11 of the 17 tracked categories scoring in the ‘D’ range. To improve the overall infrastructure grade, the country needs a strategy to improve infrastructure investment.
Emerging technologies, such as smart materials, advanced construction methods, and sensing technology, are being introduced to improve infrastructure performance and resilience. Developing and implementing these novel approaches will have a lasting impact on civil infrastructure moving forward.
A new paper, “Emerging Technologies for Resilient Infrastructure: Conspectus and Roadmap”, by Mahmoud Reda Taha, F.ASCE; Bilal M. Ayyub, Dist.M.ASCE; Kenichi Soga, M.ASCE; Sherif Daghash, A.M.ASCE, in the ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part A: Civil Engineering, provides an in-depth summary of the state of the art of ETs in civil engineering. Read about their ET roadmap and how we can include them in future infrastructure in the abstract below, or by reading the full paper in the ASCE Library.
Abstract
Emerging technologies (ETs) are increasingly becoming more accessible, and as they make their way into the field will be an integral part of the engineering community’s work that impacts future civil infrastructure. In the meantime, infrastructure resilience has become a recurring theme in government and industry discussions. ETs are expected to contribute to improving infrastructure resilience capacities, namely, absorptive, adaptive, and restorative. Through an extensive literature review, an in-depth conspectus of the state of the art of ETs in civil engineering is provided, leading to a vision for how these technologies impact infrastructure resilience. Three distinct disruptive technologies that can impact infrastructure resilience are demonstrated—specifically, smart materials, advanced construction technology, and advanced sensing technology. Such ETs will remarkably affect the well-known four characteristic elements of infrastructure resilience: redundancy, robustness, rapidity, and resourcefulness. These innovative technologies will warrant infrastructure to withstand or efficiently recover from multihazard disruptive events, leading to improved resilience. A roadmap to field implementation is presented considering the financial cycles necessary for ETs to make an impact on infrastructure resilience.
Read the full paper in the ASCE Library: https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/AJRUA6.0001134
