Skip to main content
Log in

Innovative Infrastructure Solutions - Topical Collection on

Smart Infrastructure Solutions: Data-Driven and Sustainable Applications


Theme 

This special issue will include a collection of invited high-quality papers selected from the upcoming 6th GeoChina International Conference in 2021 and other sources. The 2021 GeoChina conference theme is “Civil & Transportation Infrastructures: From Engineering to Smart & Green Life Cycle Solutions”. Each paper submitted for this special issue will undergo the same rigorous peer review process as those of unsolicited manuscripts submitted to Innovative Infrastructure Solutions. 

The theme of this special issue is “Smart Infrastructure Solutions: Data-Driven and Sustainable Applications.” The increasing penetration of sensors, edge computing devices, and Internet of Things (IoT) in infrastructure applications allows real-time data acquisition and analytics, and even enables infrastructures to respond in real time to users’ needs, which makes them “smart”. It has also generated a large amount of digital data available in various formats. This rich and high-resolution data source provides an unprecedented opportunity for smart and data-driven solutions to many infrastructure challenges. For example, real-time monitoring and predictive performance modeling of critical civil infrastructure systems (e.g., roads, bridges, tunnels, dams, pipelines, etc.) have become commonplace in many countries. On the other hand, infrastructure expansion and maintenance in the traditional fashion continue to deplete our scarce natural resources, impact our living environment, and pose a heightened sustainability concern associated with the lifecycle of infrastructure systems.

This special issue welcomes latest research in smart technologies and data-driven applications that provide promising and practical solutions to various challenges faced by the engineering communities in a broader context of infrastructures, with an emphasis on smart infrastructure systems and sustainable infrastructure expansion and preservation. Research along this important line includes, but not limited to, recyclable materials for infrastructure facility construction and rehabilitation, high-performance materials, non-destructive testing, anomaly detection, automated infrastructure condition assessment (e.g., automated survey vehicle and/or drone applications), in-situ sensor deployment and system integration for network-level infrastructure management.

Particularly due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, work from home or telecommuting has become a true reality. This dramatic change in people’s lifestyle across the globe could have complex and intriguing implications to the existing infrastructure systems. These implications need to be understood in a timely manner and carefully considered in near future engineering practices.

In addition, recent developments in machine learning, especially deep learning, offer valuable and versatile tools to help understand increasingly available high-dimensional data in super large quantities (Big Data).  As such, the development and novel applications of modern machine learning methods in different infrastructure domains are of interest of this special issue.

The goal of this special issue is to provide a repository of the state-of-the-art research outcomes and state-of-the-practice case studies on data-driven and smart solutions to today’s infrastructure challenges.

Based on the prevailing Journal policy, the following rules will apply on papers containing material previously published in conference proceedings:

  1. The submitted paper contains significantly different technical materials, text and figures — at least 50% new material.
  2. The journal article must not have the same title as any published or in-review papers.
  3. Text that overlaps should be rewritten where possible to avoid duplication of word-for-word and chunks of text.
  4. The conference papers must be cited.
  5. If the conference papers were published by any publisher other than Springer, and copyright was transferred, the author must obtain permission to reuse tables, figures, and verbatim block quotes.
  6. Authors must disclose that the submitted manuscript is an expanded version of the conference paper or papers in the submission questions.

Potential Authors 

Authors of the selected papers will be invited to submit technical papers or technical notes for possible consideration of publication in the proposed special collection of Innovative Infrastructure Solutions. The special collection will follow the review process as set forth by the Journal’s Editorial Board. 

Timeline for Submission, Review and Acceptance 

  • Invitation of journal manuscripts, based on GeoChina 2021 conference papers and other sources.
  • Solicitation of papers: August 1, 2020
  • Review completed: May 31, 2021
  • Notification of acceptance: August 15, 2021 
  • Submit manuscripts to: https://www.editorialmanager.com/iiss/default.aspx 

Guest-Editors 

J. James Yang, Ph.D., P.E., Associate Professor, Civil Engineering, University of Georgia. USA. Email: Jidong.Yang@uga.edu 

Qing Lu, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Civil Engineering, University of South Florida. USA. Email: qlu@usf.edu 

Danny Xiao, Ph.D., P.E., Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Platteville. USA. Email: xiaoxi@uwplatt.edu
 
Dar Hao Chen, Ph.D., P.E., Editor in Chief, Journal of Innovative Infrastructure Solutions; Texas A&M Transportation Institute. USA. Email: d-chen@tti.tamu.edu 



Navigation