Editorial. The crux in bridge and transport network resilience - advancements and future-proof solutions

Bridges and critical transport infrastructure (CTI) are primary infrastructure assets and systems that underpin human mobility and activities. Loss of the functionality of bridges has consequences on the entire transport network, which is also interconnected with other networks, therefore cascading events are expected in the entire system of systems, leading to significant economic losses, business, and societal disruption. Recent natural disasters revealed the vulnerabilities of bridges and CTI to diverse hazards (e.g. floods, blasts, earthquakes), some of which are exacerbated due to climate change. Therefore, the assessment of bridge and network vulnerabilities by quantifying their capacity and functionality loss and adaptation to new requirements and stressors is of paramount importance. In this paper, we try to understand what are the main compound hazards, stressors and threats that influence bridges with short- and long-term impacts on their structural capacity and functionality and the impact of bridge closures on the network operability. We also prioritise the main drivers of bridge restoration and reinstatement, e.g. its importance, structural, resources, organisational factors. The loss of performance, driven by the redundancy and robustness of the bridge, is the first step to be considered in the overall process of resilience quantification. Resourcefulness is the other main component of resilience here analysed

Rapid post-disaster infrastructure damage characterisation enabled by remote sensing and deep learning technologies -- a tiered approach

Critical infrastructure, such as transport networks and bridges, are systematically targeted during wars and suffer damage during extensive natural disasters because it is vital for enabling connectivity and transportation of people and goods, and hence, underpins national and international economic growth. Mass destruction of transport assets, in conjunction with minimal or no accessibility in the wake of natural and anthropogenic disasters, prevents us from delivering rapid recovery and adaptation. As a result, systemic operability is drastically reduced, leading to low levels of resilience. Thus, there is a need for rapid assessment of its condition to allow for informed decision-making for restoration prioritisation. A solution to this challenge is to use technology that enables stand-off observations. Nevertheless, no methods exist for automated characterisation of damage at multiple scales, i.e. regional (e.g., network), asset (e.g., bridges), and structural (e.g., road pavement) scales. We propose a methodology based on an integrated, multi-scale tiered approach to fill this capability gap. In doing so, we demonstrate how automated damage characterisation can be enabled by fit-for-purpose digital technologies. Next, the methodology is applied and validated to a case study in Ukraine that includes 17 bridges, damaged by human targeted interventions. From regional to component scale, we deploy technology to integrate assessments using Sentinel-1 SAR images, crowdsourced information, and high-resolution images for deep learning to facilitate automatic damage detection and characterisation. For the first time, the interferometric coherence difference and semantic segmentation of images were deployed in a tiered multi-scale approach to improve the reliability of damage characterisations at different scales

Invited perspectives : challenges and future directions in improving bridge flood resilience

Bridges are critical infrastructure components of road and rail transport networks. A large number of these critical assets cross or are adjacent to waterways and floodplains and are therefore exposed to flood actions such as scour, hydrodynamic loading and inundation, all of which are exacerbated by debris accumulations. These stressors are widely recognised as responsible for the vast majority of bridge failures around the world. While efforts have been made to increase the robustness of bridges to the flood hazard, many scientific and technical gaps remain. These gaps were explored during an expert workshop that took place in April 2021 with the participation of academics, consultants and decision makers operating in the United Kingdom and specialised in the fields of bridge risk assessment and management and floods. In particular, the following issues, established at different levels and scales of bridge flood resilience, were analysed: (i) characterization of the effects of floods on different bridge typologies, (ii) inaccuracy of formulae for scour depth assessment, (iii) evaluation of consequences of damage, (iv) recovery process after flood damage, (v) decision-making under uncertainty, and (vi) use of event forecasting and monitoring data for increasing the reliability of bridge flood risk estimations. These issues are discussed in this paper to inform other researchers and stakeholders worldwide, guide the directions of future research in the field, and influence policies for risk mitigation and rapid response to flood warnings, ultimately increasing bridge resilience

Flood damage inspection and risk indexing data for an inventory of bridges in Central Greece

This dataset is related to the research paper entitled “Bridge-specific flood risk assessment of transport networks using GIS and remotely sensed data” published in the Science of the Total Environment. It provides the information necessary for the reproduction of the case study that was used for the demonstration and validation of the proposed risk assessment framework. The latter integrates indicators for the assessment of hydraulic hazards and bridge vulnerability with a simple and operationally flexible protocol for the interpretation of bridge damage consequences on the serviceability of the transport network and on the affected socio-economic environment. The dataset encompasses (i) inventory data for the 117 bridges of the Karditsa Prefecture, in Central Greece, which were affected by a historic flood that followed the Mediterranean Hurricane (Medicane) Ianos, in September 2020; (ii) results of the risk assessment analysis, including the geospatial distribution of hazard, vulnerability, bridge damage, and associated consequences for the area's transport network; (iii) an extensive damage inspection record, compiled shortly after the Medicane, involving a sample of 16 (out of the 117) bridges of varying characteristics and damage levels, ranging from minimal damage to complete failure, which was used as a reference for validation of the proposed framework. The dataset is complemented by photos of the inspected bridges which facilitate the understanding of the observed bridge damage patterns. This information is intended to provide insights into the response of riverine bridges to severe floods and a thorough base for comparison and validation of flood hazard and risk mapping tools, potentially useful for engineers, asset managers, network operators and stakeholders involved in decision-making for climate adaptation of the road sector

An approach toward improvement of ensemble method’s accuracy for biomedical data classification

Amidst rapid technological and healthcare advancements, biomedical data classification using machine learning (ML) is pivotal for revolutionizing medical diagnosis, treatment, and research by organizing vast healthcare-related data. Despite efforts to apply single ML models on clean datasets, satisfactory classification accuracy can still be elusive. In such cases, ML-based ensembles offer a promising solution. This paper explores cascaded ensembles as highly accurate methods. Existing cascade classifiers often partition large datasets into equal unique parts, limiting accuracy due to insufficient amount of useful information processed by weak classifiers of all levels of the cascade ensemble. To address this, we propose an improved cascaded ensemble scheme using a different data sampling approach. Our method forms larger subsamples at each cascade level, enhancing accuracy, and generalization properties during biomedical data analysis. Experimental comparisons demonstrate substantial increases in classification accuracy and generalization properties of the improved cascade ensemble

Hygrothermomechanical loading-induced vibration study of multilayer piezoelectric nanoplates with functionally graded porous cores resting on a variable viscoelastic substrate

Harnessing vibrations in multifunctional nanostructured plates is pivotal to next-gen microsystems but necessitates understanding scale effects under multifield loading. Investigated in this work are the forced and unforced vibrations of multilayered piezoelectric nanoplates supported on a variable viscoelastic medium and loaded hygrothermo-electromechanically with functionally graded porous (FGP) cores. The viscoelastic foundation is supposed to demonstrate non-linear changes in both stiffness and damping characteristics in the x-coordinate direction. The goal is to improve the accuracy of the results by using the nonlocal strain gradient theory (NSGT) and the third-order shear deformation assumption (TSDA), which include the effects of hardening and softening materials. The FGP core layer considers four states of porosity distribution patterns. These porosity distributions are expected to change in both the in-plane and thickness directions. The governing partial differential equations resulting from Hamilton's principle can be reduced to a system of algebraic equations by applying the Galerkin method. The parametric studies evaluate the effects of several factors, such as the initial electric voltage, viscoelastic medium parameters, moisture rise, temperature changes, porosity distributions, FG index, nonlocal and strain gradient features, and boundary conditions, on the vibration response. The novelty lies in the incorporation of advanced theories, such as the NSGT and TSDT, which capture size-dependent effects and material hardening/softening phenomena. Additionally, the consideration of four distinct porosity distribution patterns in the FGP core layer provides insights into the influence of porosity gradients on the dynamic response. The proposed model can guide the design and optimization of multifunctional nanostructured plates for applications in next-generation microsystems, energy harvesting devices, and smart structures

Hygrothermomechanical loading-induced vibration study of multilayer piezoelectric nanoplates with functionally graded porous cores resting on a variable viscoelastic substrate

Harnessing vibrations in multifunctional nanostructured plates is pivotal to next-gen microsystems but necessitates understanding scale effects under multifield loading. Investigated in this work are the forced and unforced vibrations of multilayered piezoelectric nanoplates supported on a variable viscoelastic medium and loaded hygrothermo-electromechanically with functionally graded porous (FGP) cores. The viscoelastic foundation is supposed to demonstrate non-linear changes in both stiffness and damping characteristics in the x-coordinate direction. The goal is to improve the accuracy of the results by using the nonlocal strain gradient theory (NSGT) and the third-order shear deformation assumption (TSDA), which include the effects of hardening and softening materials. The FGP core layer considers four states of porosity distribution patterns. These porosity distributions are expected to change in both the in-plane and thickness directions. The governing partial differential equations resulting from Hamilton's principle can be reduced to a system of algebraic equations by applying the Galerkin method. The parametric studies evaluate the effects of several factors, such as the initial electric voltage, viscoelastic medium parameters, moisture rise, temperature changes, porosity distributions, FG index, nonlocal and strain gradient features, and boundary conditions, on the vibration response. The novelty lies in the incorporation of advanced theories, such as the NSGT and TSDT, which capture size-dependent effects and material hardening/softening phenomena. Additionally, the consideration of four distinct porosity distribution patterns in the FGP core layer provides insights into the influence of porosity gradients on the dynamic response. The proposed model can guide the design and optimization of multifunctional nanostructured plates for applications in next-generation microsystems, energy harvesting devices, and smart structures

Field tests and numerical analysis of the effects of scour on a full-scale soil-foundation-structural system

Scour is the prevailing cause of bridge failure worldwide, leading not only to traffic disruption, but also to social and economic losses and even to casualties. Many vibration-based monitoring techniques have been proposed for identifying the scour location and extent, based on the evaluation of the changes of the bridge modal properties due to scour. This study describes the experimental and numerical research carried out to investigate the effects of scour on the dynamic properties of structures with shallow foundations. Although these are the most vulnerable ones, they have received less attention compared to structures founded on pile foundations. In order to fill some existing knowledge gaps, field experiments were carried out on EuroProteas, a structural prototype with shallow foundation that was subjected to increasing levels of scour. The changes of the dynamic properties of the system are evaluated by postprocessing the ambient vibration recordings and by developing various models of the soil-foundation-structural system with different descriptions of the soil-structure interaction problem. The study results shed light on the effects of scour on systems with shallow foundations and on the accuracy of alternative modelling approaches. They are presented here to inform the development and validation of vibration-based techniques and modelling strategies for bridge scour identification