Here you will find news relevant to the activities of the initiative including webinars, talks, consulting projects, publications, participation in conferences and meetings mostly relevant to resilience of critical infrastructure with emphasis on transport and energy assets and their intra/interdependencies, views on the UNs Sustainable Development Goals and use of digital and emerging technologies in infrastructure risk-based management
26
Mar 24
BBC interview on the collapse of the Baltimore Francis Scott Key Bridge
Stergios was featured in a BBC interview discussing the tragic collapse of the steel truss Baltimore Francis Scott Key Bridge, which plunged into the Patapsco River following a collision with a 289-meter-long cargo ship.
You can find more thoughts on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0hlzmj8
where Stergios is discussing the condition of bridges in the USA and the need for investment on resilient infrastructure for sustainable development.
14
Feb 24
Three new successful MSCA fellowship applications
The metaInfrastructure group is delighted to share the achievement of three successful Horizon-Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship applications :
Jelena Ninic (University of Birmingham) had two successful applications:
(Hoang-)Giang Bui will be joining us to work on TwinSSI – Digital Twin Modelling for Soil-Structure-Interaction based on CutFEM and BIM technologies.
Hassan Liravi will be joining us with his project META-NOVIB – Digital twin for ground-borne railway-induced NOise and VIBration control with METAmaterials in underground tunnels.
Sotirios Argyroudis (Brunel University London) secured another one:
Stavros Sakellariou will be joining our group with his project FIREWISE on proactive wildfire resilience assessment and management, including the development of vulnerability models based on wildfire’s simulations, multi-objective spatial optimisation modelling for firefighting resources and agent-based tools for evacuation planning.
8
Oct 23
Our contribution to the UNDP-CDRI biennial Report
The UNDP and the Coalition of Disaster Resilient Infrastructure published their Biennial Report on global infrastructure resilience https://cdri.world/gir.
metaInfrastructure contributed with one paper, authored by Dr Stergios Aristoteles Mitoulis and Dr Sotirios Argyroudis, on “Financing for disaster and climate resilient infrastructure for a net-zero economic transition”, available here
This position paper identified the enablers of and barriers to climate resilient and sustainable infrastructure aiming to quantify the trade-offs and synergies between climate resilience and sustainability in the infrastructure development and adaptation. The paper focuses on transport infrastructure adaptation considering climate projections and sets a benchmark case study for the bridge stock in Ukraine, including highway and railway assets.
4
Oct 23
Top 2% researchers in 2022
Three members of the metaInfrastructure group: Dr Stergios Aristoteles Mitoulis, Dr Sotirios Argyroudis, and Dr Ivan Izonin, are listed at the top 2% cited researchers for the year 2022 according to the Stanford/Elsevier ranking list (c-score based)
See the list here: https://elsevier.digitalcommonsdata.com/datasets/btchxktzyw/6
2
Aug 23
Dr Sotirios Argyroudis starts a new role as Associate Professor (Reader) at Brunel University London
Sotirios has been recently promoted to Senior Lecturer, while he recently started a new position as a Reader in Infrastructure Engineering at Brunel University London! This double promotion milestone was achieved through cutting-edge projects, publications with top academics, researchers and consultants, and positive impact in the field of infrastructure resilience.
Sotirios is committed to furthering his research endeavours and contributing to the advancement of future infrastructure, together with the infrastructureResilience group.
1
Aug 23
Development of a Massive Open Online Course
Development of a Massive Open Online Course (aka MOOC) on “Sustainability, resilience and digitalisation for critical infrastructure” in the framework of our MSCA ReCharged project.
The MOOC highlights the value of emerging technologies and how digital data can enhance climate resilience and sustainability of infrastructure. Videos will follow soon to explain what is a digital twin, how to develop digital models and digital twins, and why we need them in infrastructure management.
More about our project here: https://msca-recharged.eu
ReCharged MSCA Staff Exchanges
28
Jul 23
New funded research project by HORIZON Europe
5 million EUR funding, 6 years, 17 partners
HORIZON-CL5-2023-D4-01-01: ZEBAI – Innovative methodologies to design Zero-Emission and cost-effective Buildings based on Artificial Intelligence.
Our research project Net-zero buildings leveraged by Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been funded by the European Union’s HORIZON-CL5-2023-D4-01-01. This research funding will be invested over the next 6 years to optimise building designs to make them net-zero and sustainable.
The Department of Civil Engineering, of the University of Birmingham, leads two major demonstrators of the project, i.e. the National Centre for Decarbonisation of Heat (NCDH) and the Energy Accelerator Building (EAB) to advance digital twinning of our campus. Our share is 700k EUR.
Partners
COO: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
University of Birmingham, UK
Lurtis Rules SL, SP
University of Oxford, UK
Egis Group Ukraine
Lviv Polytechnic National University, Ukraine
Smart Sustainable Social Innovations Single Member P.C., Greece
Deerns, NL
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, SP
Europäisches Institut für Innovation-Technologie, DE
Neo-Eco, FR
Agencia de Vivienda y Rehabilitación de Andalucía, SP
Technische Universiteit Delft, NL
FI-Group, BE
Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions, NL
Morph Architecture Estudio, SP
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, UK
15
Jun 23
a new paper that optimises resilience and sustainability
Our new paper published in Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment
Title: Sustainability and climate resilience metrics and trade-offs in transport infrastructure asset recovery
Authors: Dr Stergios Aristoteles Mitoulis, Dr Dan Bompa, Dr Sotirios Argyroudis, Open access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2023.103800
In this paper we delve with critical aspects of sustainability, greenhouse gas emissions, climate resilience and costs, including an application for a bridge, where normalised metrics are integrated into one unique index, considering climate projections and sustainable solutions for recovery after floods.
The paper presents and applies a framework for quantifying the trade-offs between #sustainability and #resilience in the recovery of bridges after floods.
21
Mar 23
lightning presentation for GLOC2023
a 4-minute lightning presentation on “Climate adaptation for resilient critical infrastructure in low medium income countries facilitated by space technology” is available here:
This paper will be presented at GLOC-2023 Global Space Conference on climate change, 23-25 May, Oslo, Norway
15
Mar 23
interview by the Greek national TV ERT
Stergios Mitoulis of infrastructuResilience was interviewed by the Greek national TV ERT anchor Stavroula Christofilea about the Polyfytos Bridge. The bridge is the main pilot of our two recent research projects ReCharged and RISKADAPT funded by HORIZON EUROPE-total value 4.2m Euros. These two projects are examining more resilient, sustainable, and cost-effective interventions for this landmark bridge. In this framework, we are also applying a participatory decision-making approach to optimise the reconstruction of the second longest bridge of Greece in collaboration with the local authorities.
The interview video is available here
