Monitoring deformations of infrastructure networks: A fully automated GIS integration and analysis of InSAR time-series

Ageing stock and extreme weather events pose a threat to the safety of infrastructure networks. In most countries, funding allocated to infrastructure management is insufficient to perform systematic inspections over large transport networks. As a result, early signs of distress can develop unnoticed, potentially leading to catastrophic structural failures. Over the past 20 years, a wealth of literature has demonstrated the capability of satellite-based Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) to accurately detect surface deformations of different types of assets. Thanks to the high accuracy and spatial density of measurements, and a short revisit time, space-borne remote-sensing techniques have the potential to provide a cost-effective and near real-time monitoring tool. Whilst InSAR techniques offer an effective approach for structural health monitoring, they also provide a large amount of data. For civil engineering procedures, these need to be analysed in combination with large infrastructure inventories. Over a regional scale, the manual extraction of InSAR-derived displacements from individual assets is extremely time-consuming and an automated integration of the two datasets is essential to effectively assess infrastructure systems. This paper presents a new methodology based on the fully automated integration of InSAR-based measurements and Geographic Information System-infrastructure inventories to detect potential warnings over extensive transport networks. A Sentinel dataset from 2016 to 2019 is used to analyse the Los Angeles highway and freeway network, while the Italian motorway network is evaluated by using open access ERS/Envisat datasets between 1992 and 2010, COSMO-SkyMed datasets between 2008 and 2014 and Sentinel datasets between 2014 and 2020. To demonstrate the flexibility of the proposed methodology to different SAR sensors and infrastructure classes, the analysis of bridges and viaducts in the two test areas is also performed. The outcomes highlight the potential of the proposed methodology to be integrated into structural health monitoring systems and improve current procedures for transport network management.

Computing Effective Mixed Strategies for Protecting Targets in Large-Scale Critical Infrastructure Networks

Most critical infrastructure networks often suffer malicious attacks, which may result in network failures. Therefore, how to design more robust defense measures to minimize the loss is a great challenge. In recent years, defense strategies for enhancing the robustness of the networks are developed based on the game theory. However, the aforementioned method cannot effectively solve the defending problem on large-scale networks with a full strategy space. In this study, we achieve the purpose of protecting the infrastructure networks by allocating limited resources to monitor the targets. Based on the existing two-person zero-sum game model and the Double Oracle framework, we propose the EMSL algorithm which is an approximation algorithm based on a greedy search to compute effective mixed strategies for protecting large-scale networks. The improvement of our approximation algorithm to other algorithms is discussed. Experimental results show that our approximation algorithm can efficiently compute the mixed strategies on actual large-scale networks with a full strategy space, and the mixed defense strategies bring the highest utility to a defender on different networks when dealing with different attacks.

Planning Cemeteries: Their Potential Contribution to Green Infrastructure and Ecosystem Services

Cemeteries are often included in typologies of green infrastructure features, but there has been little exploration of their role within a multifunctional network of green infrastructure. This paper uses national greenspace data to map the contribution that cemetery space makes to accessible greenspace England. In doing so we provide a more comprehensive and detailed analysis of the scale of cemetery space in contemporary settlements, finding that cemeteries provide around 4% of accessible greenspace and are particularly important in high-density urban environments. Focusing then on an in-depth analysis of an urban case study, we survey 11 cemeteries that provide accessible greenspace for neighbourhoods in Bristol, UK. This suggests that cemeteries are delivering, or have the potential, to deliver ecosystem services and therefore form an important component of green infrastructure networks, but at the same time also need to provide culturally sensitive space for burial and remembrance. Despite the rhetoric, planning policy for cemeteries is not consistent in articulating their role as green infrastructure. We highlight the opportunities for greater cultural, regulation and maintenance services to be delivered, but also the need for greater dialogue between the different players involved in the maintenance and delivery of cemeteries.

Thresholds in road network functioning on US Atlantic and Gulf barrier islands

Barrier islands predominate the Atlantic and Gulf coastlines of the USA, where development exceeds national trends. Forward-looking models of barrier island dynamics often include feedbacks with management practices – particularly those aimed at mitigating damage to buildings from natural hazards – and how real estate markets may be linked to barrier island dynamics. However, models thus far do not account for networks of infrastructure, such as roads, and how the functioning of infrastructure networks might influence management strategies. Understanding infrastructure networks on barrier islands is an essential step toward improved insight and foresight into the future dynamics of human-altered barriers. Here, we examine thresholds in the functioning of 72 US Atlantic and Gulf Coast barrier islands. We use digital elevation models to assign an elevation to each intersection in each road network. From each road network we sequentially remove intersections, starting from the lowest elevation. In each network we identify a critical intersection – and corresponding elevation – at which the functioning of the network fails, and we match the elevation of each critical intersection to local annual exceedance probabilities for extreme high-water levels. We find a range of failure thresholds for barrier island road network functioning, and also find that no single metric – absolute elevation, annual exceedance probability, or a quantitative metric of robustness – sufficiently ranks the susceptibility of barrier road networks to failure. Future work can incorporate thresholds for road network into forward-looking models of barrier island dynamics that include hazard-mitigation practices for protecting infrastructure.

Modeling the Impact of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure on Regional Energy Systems: Fields of Action for an Improved e-Mobility Integration

Since e-Mobility is on the rise worldwide, large charging infrastructure networks are required to satisfy the upcoming charging demand. Planning these networks not only involves different objectives from grid operators, drivers and Charging Station (CS) operators alike but it also underlies spatial and temporal uncertainties of the upcoming charging demand. Here, we aim at showing these uncertainties and assess different levers to enable the integration of e-Mobility. Therefore, we introduce an Agent-based model assessing regional charging demand and infrastructure networks with the interactions between charging infrastructure and electric vehicles. A global sensitivity analysis is applied to derive general guidelines for integrating e-Mobility effectively within a region by considering the grid impact, the economic viability and the Service Quality of the deployed Charging Infrastructure (SQCI). We show that an improved macro-economic framework should enable infrastructure investments across different types of locations such as public, highway and work to utilize cross-locational charging peak reduction effects. Since the height of the residential charging peak depends up to 18% on public charger availability, supporting public charging infrastructure investments especially in highly utilized power grid regions is recommended.

Strategic planning of transportation infrastructure networks with case studies

This paper discusses necessary qualitative and quantitative improvements in transport infrastructure networks and analyzes travel behavior and origin-destination situations. This paper studies idea about the re-planning of transportation infrastructures theoretically and implements a case study strategy that applies the gravity model and graph technique. Additionally, it has a mathematical model that assists in designing traffic flow in new streets, sidewalks, plazas, and spaces, while suggesting new urban land-use policies and transportation infrastructure-locating techniques. This work considers the planning of ground, railroad, maritime, and air transportation to build a comprehensive system in the urban master planning process. It prioritizes public transportation and suggests necessary geometrical adjustments to upgrade the situation of the infrastructure and prepare Chabahar city for its strategic and oceanic role. The outcome in geometric corrections in sight distance and transverse and longitudinal curves in streets, sidewalks, and squares will assist cities in the Silk Road project environmentally and make the region attractive to tourists and investors' eyes.