Civil infrastructure systems are at risk of aging and deterioration and are exposed over time to multiple hazards. It is hence a strategic priority to establish guiding policies for maintenance, repair, or replacement of existing structural and infrastructural facilities. To this purpose, public authorities and administrative bodies need specific criteria, methodologies, and tools to inform the decision-making process for a rational prioritization of the interventions at infrastructure scale. Risk-based methodologies are instrumental to support managing bodies to rationally allocate available resources. The beneficial impact of innovation and new technologies for infrastructure monitoring, data digitalization, and information processing, should be also incorporated into this process.

This course presents fundamental concepts and implementation examples of risk assessment, maintenance prioritization, and monitoring of civil infrastructure systems. The goal is to provide students with basic understanding, interdisciplinary vision, and specific aptitude to innovation in this field. An interdisciplinary project for risk-based maintenance prioritization and monitoring of road networks at regional scale is considered to address relevant applications and support specific project works.

The course is based on an interdisciplinary and integrated teaching approach involving multiple professors from diverse departments:

FABIO BIONDINI, FRANCESCO BALLIO, MARCO DI PRISCO
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

CARMELO GENTILE, MARIA PINA LIMONGELLI
Department of Architecture, Built Environment, and Construction Engineering

MARCO BELLOLI, ALFREDO CIGADA
Department of Mechanical Engineering

MARIKA ARENA
Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering

The expected learning outcomes include (a) knowledge and understanding of risk-based methodologies and monitoring techniques and (b) ability to apply knowledge and understanding to maintenance prioritization and management of civil infrastructure systems.

PART I: RISK-BASED INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT
Introduction to infrastructure maintenance and management. Inventories and data management. Aging and deterioration processes. Performance indicators under uncertainty. Risk factors (vulnerability, hazard, exposure). Structural vulnerability. Hydraulic vulnerability. Infrastructure threats and hazards. Infrastructure exposure and impact network analysis. Risk assessment methodologies. Prioritization criteria and intervention strategies.

PART II: INFRASTRUCTURE HEALTH MONITORING
Introduction to system health monitoring. Monitoring techniques and sensors. Data management (acquisition, storage, and analysis). Influence of environmental and operational conditions. Damage detection techniques. Design of monitoring systems. Structural monitoring. Hydraulic monitoring. Monitoring and early warning systems. Monitoring for infrastructure maintenance and management.

PART III: APPLICATIONS
Benchmarks and application examples on risk-based maintenance prioritization and monitoring of existing bridges and road infrastructure networks at regional scale.

• SDG9 - INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
• SDG11 - SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES

No prerequisites.

The course includes frontal lectures and tutoring activities. Grading is based on a project assignment and final oral exam. The oral exam consists of open questions on the course topics and discussion of the project report.