Emerging Technologies for Resilient Infrastructure: Conspectus and Roadmap: Fid-Bau Portal

Emerging Technologies for Resilient Infrastructure: Conspectus and Roadmap

Reda Taha, Mahmoud / Ayyub, Bilal M. / Soga, Kenichi / Daghash, Sherif / Heras Murcia, Daniel / Moreu, Fernando / Soliman, Eslam

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.