The devastating effects of recent natural hazards and disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc., on one hand, and the fragile status of infrastructures systems, on the other hand, have underscored that a great deal remains to be done. This workshop is intended to raise the awareness about this important topic and to suggest strategies that can foster new paradigms in the interface of critical infrastructures and the economic and social impact of resilience.
To address the fundamental themes associated with resilience, both senior researchers, who have a broad view of the field, and some of the most promising young researchers, who will lead the activities in the decades to come, have been invited to participate as keynote speakers as well as the organizers of the Working Sessions. We will first examine the state of knowledge in light of the lessons learned from recent major disasters, as well as discuss the importance of resilience assessment of infrastructure. Attendees will represent researchers from Japan, China, Korea and other Asian Countries, as well as Europe, South and North America. The keynote talks would address important and critical themes and of current and future research in resilience. In the Working Sessions, the session chairs and several speakers from each region will present their vision of where the resilience of infrastructure and built environment needs to be to enable this interdisciplinary research area to better steward the built environment and make the global society more resilient to natural disasters, and what needs to be done to get there. Subsequently, small-group discussions on: design and improvement of new and existing structures and infrastructure, implementation in engineering practice to immediately affect the resilience of our communities, and emerging disciplines such as artificial intelligence and other fields to develop and adopt new civil/structural technologies and modeling tools. Different approaches in the world and their eventual synergetic effects on future development will be examined and discussed, as well as ideas how to coordinate efforts among the world-leading engineering communities will be discussed. Finally, the contributions from various working sessions and discussion, together with the conclusions and resolutions, will be published in a special issue in the International Journal on Smart Materials and Structural Systems. The first two days of the workshop will take place in Nanjing at Southeast University, while the third day will be hosted in Shanghai by Tongj University.
AimsIn addition to keynote and invitational presentations, the program will include several Working and Brainstorming Sessions aimed at developing recommendations and suggested action plans that will identify the challenges, motivations, applications, and impacts. These recommendations will be collected and published as a set of conclusions, resolutions and recommendations.