Special Issue on Civil Infrastructure: From Failure to Sustainability

The special collection on Civil Infrastructure: From Failure to Sustainability is available in the ASCE Library at: http://ascelibrary.org/page/jpcfev/civil_infrastructure_failure_sustainability.

With growing natural and artificial disasters, the next few decades promise to be among the most challenging ever for civil infrastructure. When civil infrastructure is damaged, complex engineering issues must be addressed to evaluate structural safety. Failures of civil infrastructure can result in traffic disruption, loss of human life, and significant economic losses. Any information that assists in identifying the cause of a disaster must be carefully and completely preserved and documented. With natural resources fading away and civil infrastructure in dreadful need of maintenance and repair, sustainable designs and construction technologies have become one of the top priorities for civil engineers. Sustainable approaches are essential to existing and future civil infrastructure because they save energy and minimize damage to the environment.

This special collection of the Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities is dedicated to evaluating civil infrastructure and to determining the underlying causes of failures of that infrastructure. To ensure a sustainable future, civil engineers should have the capacity and opportunity to maintain and improve the quality of life indefinitely, without degrading the quality, quantity, or availability of natural, social, and economic resources. This special collection provides a platform for sharing the latest results from profound research on sustainable infrastructure. Papers in this special collection will be invaluable to practicing engineers and researchers in the field of civil engineering.

We would like to thank Professor Kenneth L. Carper for encouraging and supporting us with the compilation of this special issue. Finally, we would like to thank all authors, reviewers, and ASCE support staff for helping to make the publication of this special issue a reality.