Civil Infrastructure Asset Management

Catalog description

This course provides students with comprehensive knowledge of civil infrastructure asset management at the systems level - from state-of-the-practice to research frontiers. Particular emphasis is placed on transportation and networked infrastructure across multiple modes, including pavements, bridges, geotechnical structures, roadside appurtenance and signs, waterways, airfields, railways, and pipelines. Applications to other civil infrastructure assets (e.g., dams) are also considered. The life-cycle management of public infrastructure has become increasingly critical in the 21st century. For most countries, the infrastructure to support various modes of transportation - railways, roadways, bikeways, pedestrian facilities, pipelines, waterways, and airfields - is the most valuable publicly owned infrastructure. Transportation infrastructure asset management, or civil infrastructure asset management, is the systematic process of making decisions regarding the construction, maintenance, repair, and replacement of infrastructure components to maximize the functional performance of the system within economic constraints of both agencies and users. In this course, the key components of an effective infrastructure asset management system are examined in the context of contemporary and future challenges--including sustainability, resilience, climate change, autonomous vehicles and smart infrastructure, and equity.