Joan R. Casas

Professor of Bridge Engineering & Structural Management
School of Civil Engineering
Technical University of Catalonia
UPC-Barcelona-Tech, Barcelona, Spain

Sustainability and Digitalization in Bridge Engineering
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Friday, September 13, 2024 - 4:30 pm EDT

Joan R. Casas is a professor of bridge engineering and structural management at the School of Civil Engineering of the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC-Barcelona-Tech) in Barcelona. Master’s (1984) and Ph.D. (1988) degrees from Technical University of Catalonia. Main expertise related to bridge design and management, specially focusing on safety assessment and structural health monitoring and management of existing bridges. Author or co-author of 39 books and chapters of books, 180 papers in refereed technical journals, and over 350 conference proceedings. Among other editorial boards, he is the Managing Editor of the journal Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, Associate Editor of the ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering, and Specialty Chief Editor of Frontiers in the Built Environment, Bridge Section. He has received several awards, including the Bill Curtin Medal from the Institution of Civil Engineers from UK for the best paper describing innovative design in civil engineering, the IABMAS-Senior Prize in recognition of outstanding contributions to the application of advanced bridge inspection, assessment and monitoring techniques, and the T.Y. Lin Medal in recognition of outstanding contributions to bridge engineering. Founding member and Secretary General of IABMAS since 1999 and Chair of IABMAS conferences in Barcelona in 2002 and 2022.

Sustainability and Digitalization in Bridge Engineering. Sustainability and digitalization are two main topics in many research programs and professional activities related to bridges worldwide. It seems that the bridge community (including designers, contractors, managers and stakeholders) can largely benefit from the current digital transformation where processes using digital technologies are able to create new or to enhance existing bridge engineering practices. Since the budgets for bridge construction and maintenance are scarce, sustainability has to be implemented in all areas of activity for a proper use of the limited resources. Apart from being both of paramount importance nowadays and in the future, the concepts of sustainability and digitalization are very different. Therefore, the tools needed for their full adoption in the bridge engineering field must also be different in their basis and formulation. The aim of this lecture is to analyze the actual bridge engineering practices related to sustainability and digitalization, trying to evaluate their actual level, and seeking to their level of accomplishments in relation to an optimal situation. The focus of the presentation is mainly on the bridge management area, being the area where the new IoT paradigm and digital tools are being profusely introduced, mainly under the task of bridge health monitoring. It shows how digitalization allows for a much better geometrical and structural definition as well as health monitoring of existing bridges. However, relevant challenges also appear when introducing the new digitalization technologies in the specific world of bridges. These challenges are not only technical, but also related to the personal, educational and social aspects of the human force (bridge inspectors, evaluators and managers) that have to implement the new tools in the daily activities of bridge management. The last part of the lecture is devoted to this human factor.