Department / Institute: Institute of Construction and Infrastructure Management (IBI)
Call for Papers: Sustainable Built Environment Conference (SBE25)
We are thrilled to announce the Sustainable Built Environment Conference (SBE25), which will be held from June 25 to 27, 2025 in Zürich. The conference topic is “Shaping Tomorrow: Systems Thinking in the Built Environment”. Releasing over 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions and consuming over 40% of More
Overcoming challenges in cost-benefit analysis of urban cycling infrastructure
This paper explores the challenges in conducting Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) for urban cycling infrastructure. The authors discuss two key difficulties: determining the objective safety benefits and estimating the costs associated with implementing the infrastructure. To overcome these challenges, the authors conducted a study in Zürich, aiming to convert More
Cost Benefit Analysis of Cycling Infrastructure
Cost-benefit analysis is a tool frequently used in project appraisal to justify the implementation of infrastructures. Due to insufficient recorded data, the construction costs and safety benefits of urban bicycling infrastructure are difficult to estimate, weakening the appraisal and implementation of such projects. In this research, we conducted More
PhD in Decision support methods to foster regenerative construction solutions and increase resilience of vulnerable and underserved communities
100%, Zurich, fixed-term. Join the research team at the Chair of Sustainable Construction, D-BAUG, ETH Zurich in a project designed to enhance the resilience of vulnerable communities worldwide against climate change. This PhD position is an opportunity to contribute to a global initiative that involves multiple international institutions. More
Adaptive Planning for Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure
Although a transition to electric vehicles (EVs) has potential to greatly reduce transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions, it faces significant challenges, including range anxiety and limitations in battery capacity. Effective long-term planning for EV charging infrastructure can overcome these barriers and increase the chances of widespread adoption.
News from Regenerative Materials at ETH
Stress Testing Transport Systems
Transportation systems are vital for economic and social development, yet are susceptible to disruptions caused by natural hazards, especially considering the adverse impacts of climate change on increasing the intensity of frequency of climatic hazards. To manage these risks effectively, stress testing, as a diagnostic tool, has shown More
MAS ETH in Regenerative Systems
CAS ETH in Regenerative Materials – Essentials: Public Lectures
Adaptive Urban Planning for an Uncertain Future: Infrastructure Interventions for the Technological Shift in Transportation
Planning cities to adapt to the future is challenging due to complex interactions between mobility, infrastructure, and land use. This challenge is exacerbated by the need to study future uncertainties such as ever-shifting demographics and industrial landscape, increased environmental and climatic changes, disruptive and unpredictable technological development, and More
CAS ETH in Regenerative Materials: Essentials
Registration until 15 October 2023. The CAS essentials (January 2024 to June 2024) offers knowledge and skills to question our conventional construction techniques and promote regenerative materials from resource extraction to end of life of the building materials, through a territorial approach grounded in Switzerland and neighbouring countries.
«Unser Ziel ist es, Lösungsansätze für die rasante globale und schweizweite Urbanisierung zu finden.»
David Kaufmann ist für die nächsten zwei Jahre neuer Direktor des Netzwerks Stadt und Landschaft (NSL). Seine Prioritäten sind die Stärkung der ETH Zürich im Bereich der nationalen und internationalen Stadtforschung sowie die Förderung von Synergien zwischen den Stadtforschungsgruppen der ETH in Forschung, Lehre und Engagement für die More
E-Bike City: Nur noch die Hälfte der Strassen für die Autos
Prof. Dr. Guillaume Habert promoted to Full Professor of Sustainable Construction
Professor Guillaume Habert (*1977), currently Associate Professor at ETH Zurich, as Full Professor of Sustainable Construction in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering. Guillaume Habert’s research focuses on the sustainability of buildings and infrastructures. His aim is to implement sustainable construction practices using innovative building techniques More
E-Bike City
E-Bike City is a lighthouse project of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering (D-BAUG) at ETH Zurich. Over the next three years, seven chairs will join forces to explore the effects of an urban future giving absolute priority to cycling, micromobility and public transport. Main Idea More
Hands-on Material testing (photo credit: Natalia Kobylinska)
earth. bio-based. reused.
Think regenerative!
It is time to go beyond sustainability. Alternative solutions out of local resources such as earth, bio-based, and reused materials are emerging all over the world and are triggering regenerative output, thanks to their capacity to contribute to the restoration and improvement of the surrounding natural and social environment. However, they are not widespread in the construction sector due to a lack of information on the side of decision-makers and a lack of competence on the side of practitioners.
The MAS/CAS ETH in Regenerative Materials, international ETH training programmes launched by the Chair of Sustainable Construction of the ETH Zurich, aim to tackle this problem. These teachings offer knowledge and skills to question our conventional construction techniques and to promote regenerative materials from resource extraction to construction site, operation, and end-of-life of the building materials, starting from the preliminary phase of the construction programme.
Website CAS ETH in Regenerative Materials
CAS ETH Regenerative Materials
Sustainable Construction | Hygrothermal Specialisation starts in September 2023, application until 31 July 2023. It is time to go beyond sustainability. Alternative solutions out of local resources such as earth, bio-based, and reused materials are emerging all over the world and are triggering regenerative output.
E-Bike City Kolloquium
8. Juni 2023, 9:00 – 18:30 | ETH Zürich, Zentrum, Audimax. An diesem Kolloquium werden die sieben Forschungsgruppen des D-BAUG Leuchtturmprojekts «E-Bike City» nicht nur ihre vorläufigen Ergebnisse präsentieren, sondern auch die Teilnehmenden aktiv in die Gestaltung der Forschungsfragen einbeziehen.
Will E-Bikes Bring Amsterdam and Copenhagen to Switzerland?
disP 58/1, March 2022
CAS/DAS ETH in Regenerative Materials
earth. bio-based. reused. Think regenerative ! It is time to go beyond sustainability. Alternative solutions out of local resources such as earth, bio-based and reused materials are emerging all over the world and are triggering regenerative output, thanks to their capacity to contribute to the restoration and improvement More
Investing in Water Supply Resilience Considering Future Uncertainty and Management Flexibility
The infrastructure required to provide sufficient high quality drinking water to urban areas over long time horizons is highly uncertain. The use of the real options method, which accounts for future uncertainty and considers management flexibility over time, can significantly improve the evaluation of water supply resilience enhancing More
Future-proof urban development. Evaluating the impact of flexible assets in coping with the uncertain future conditions
The project was funded by the Network City and Landscape (NSL) to investigate the impact of flexible designs in coping with the uncertain future offices demand. The potential growth in the home-office working mode poses a large uncertainty on the future offices demand. Flexible offices can help limiting More
Multi-Stakeholder Decision support framework to identify and evaluate resilience improvement interventions for interdependent infrastructure systems
Infrastructure systems are susceptible to hazard events, which disrupts their functionality leading to direct and indirect consequences for their stakeholders as well as the public. Therefore, infrastructure managers need to execute interventions to improve the resilience of their system of interest. Due to the complexity and interdependency of More
Maintaining train schedule STABILITY and managing time table reserves via digitalized railway intervention planning
The future of rail transport will be one where trains carrying passengers and goods flow seamlessly from their origins to their destinations. Potential disruptions due to train incidents will be foreseen with the extensive use of surveillance technologies, and either prevented through the implementation of detailed action plans More
Exploiting Digitalisation to Plan Interventions on Large Water Distribution Networks
Cities rely heavily on the services provided by water distribution networks. These networks are large and complex, consisting of thousands of kilometres of buried pipes and dozens of facilities where water is treated, pumped and stored. Infrastructure managers are entrusted with the planning and execution of interventions on More
Future-proofing strategies FOr RESilient transport networks against Extreme Events (FORESEE)
System-wide transportation risks are not well understood across modes, regions, and critical interdependent sectors, creating uncertainty about risks resulting from a major system disruption. There is a lack of resilience schemes, especially for the long term, integrated into transport infrastructure due to an inability to monetize resilience for More
Evaluating Initial Building Designs Considering Possible Future Changes and Decision Flexibility: The Example of The New PET Centre of the University Hospital of Zurich
The uncertainty on the future treatments demand, recently evidenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, makes it challenging for hospitals managers to determine the optimal design of new clinics. Flexibility can help in optimally minimizing the service risks when the benefits of the investments justify the costs, considering the dynamism of treatment More
Quantitative Evaluation of Highway Designs Considering Uncertainties in Future Mobility Patterns and Flexibility Using Real Options
Road owners are increasingly being confronted with the need to optimize highway design for an uncertain future. A recent research project at the Infrastructure Management Chair investigated the use of a real options-based method to evaluate alternative highway designs for a fictive case study based on the A15 More
Identifying Changes in Bicycle Accident Trends Using GIS and Time Series Information in the City of Zürich
This paper presents a case study based on accident reports from the Zurich City Police. Using a joint GIS and time series analysis based on negative binomial regression, the data is analyzed to identify trends in accident development for several accident subgroups (e.g., bicycle accidents, senior citizen accidents, More
Considering Automated Vehicle Deployment Uncertainty in the Design of Optimal Parking Garages Using Real Options
Parking garages are often currently designed assuming that parking demand will be stable over their lifetime. The looming mobility shift towards automated vehicles (AVs), however, makes parking demand highly uncertain, with some scenarios leading to its complete disappearance at some time in the near future. The design of More
Sustainable Funding Strategies for Stormwater Infrastructure Management: A System Dynamics Model
Most cities in Canada do not charge a stormwater fee; consequently, stormwater programs may need to compete with other funding priorities in public works. This often leads to a lack of dedicated and predictable cash flow, which can limit municipalities’ capacity to sustain stormwater services.
Flexible Office Space for the Age of Distributed Work
The potential large-scale transition from working in the office to working at home, is a massive uncertainty related to the future needs of office space in our cities. It is in the face of this uncertainty, that real estate developers must manage their portfolios. The use of the More
Are Integrated Infrastructure Networks Governable in Contemporary City Regions?
Guest: Prof. Dr. Michael Neuman, Professor of Sustainable Urbanism, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, University of Westminster. The very possibility of governance that is critical — in terms of providing robust human rights, meaningful participative democracy, equitable distribution of wealth, goods and services, and strong environmental More
Future-proofed Urban Areas: Real Options in Urban Planning
The societal needs for infrastructure change drastically over time depending on a large variety of factors, which are very difficult to predict. It is in the face of this massive uncertainty, that urban planners are expected to make infrastructure decisions. To minimize the service risks over time, the More
Bryan Adey appointed as Full Professor of Infrastructure Management
To Exploit Big Data for the Management of Infrastructure
The management of infrastructure involves estimating how infrastructure is likely to deteriorate and how demands infrastructure change over time. Increasing amounts of data and increasing modelling capabilities are providing infrastructure managers with improved abilities with which to determine the optimal maintenance and development interventions on infrastructure. Their exploitation More
Impact of autonomous vehicles on the accessibility in Switzerland
Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung, 1177. Zürich: IVT, ETH Zürich. PDF More Autonomous vehicles are expected to offer higher comfort of traveling at lower prices whilst increasing road capacity. Using the Swiss national transport model, this research simulates the impact of autonomous vehicles on accessibility. The results show substantial impacts favoring urban sprawl More
Investigation of a static and a dynamic neighbourhood methodology to develop work programs for multiple close municipal infrastructure networks
In: Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, 13(3). S.361–389. PDF Interventions on urban infrastructures cause disruptions to the services provided but also to other networks that have to be (partially) shut down for the interventions. A dynamic grouping methodology is presented that results in work programs with a better consideration More
The Interdisciplinary Nature of Planning Interventions on Network Infrastructure in Urban Areas
Interventions must be executed on infrastructure networks in urban areas to ensure that they provide adequate levels of services. The optimal planning of these interventions requires consideration of the work of many experts to appropriately consider the spatial and temporal aspects of the networks, how the networks might More
Bryan T. Adey, the Professor for Infrastructure Management at the ETH Zürich, Joins the NSL
His research mission is to improve the construction and management of infrastructure with special attention focused on the improvement of decision making from general planning for entire networks to detailed planning for specific projects. This mission is being achieved through teaching the fundamentals of infrastructure management, and pushing More
Eröffnungsanlass des Swiss Spatial Sciences Framework (S3F)
«Swiss planning is considered to be at the forefront of European spatial planning in both its sophistication and its effectiveness.» Mit diesen positiven Worten eröffnete Prof. Max van den Berg, einer der 13 geladenen internationalen Expertinnen und Experten, den Anlass am 19. November. Der von ETH Zürich, EPFL More
An Optimal Sustainment Measures Programme for Urban Infrastructure Networks
Urban infrastructure networks are the lifelines of modern urban society. They provide water, electricity, gas, telecommunications and mobility. In order to continue to provide these services, the networks must be maintained, repaired, renewed and adjusted at certain intervals. Nevertheless, in spite of careful maintenance, failures and breakdowns can More
Prof. Dr. Bryan T. Adey | Infrastructure Management
In 2010, Prof. Dr. Bryan T. Adey assumed the Chair of the Infrastructure Management Group (IMG) of the Institute of Construction and Infrastructure Management (IBI) at ETH Zurich. IMG’s vision is to become a world leader by establishing a cutting edge framework for the development of methodologies, models and tools to ensure efficient infrastructure management, thereby creating a smooth functioning instrument for our modern society.