From bridges and tunnels to railways, Switzerland has always invested heavily in the upkeep of its infrastructure. But how does it keep everything operating safely and smoothly while also instilling confidence that nothing will go wrong? Read the full article at ETH News
Der ETH Master-Studiengang Raumentwicklung und Infrastruktursysteme bietet eine fundierte, interdisziplinäre Ausbildung in Stadtplanung, Mobilität und Infrastrukturmanagement. Durch die Verbindung von Theorie und Praxis entwickeln Studierende nachhaltige Lösungen für aktuelle Herausforderungen. In Kooperation mit Professorinnen, Professoren und Studierenden ist ein kurzes Video entstanden, um Studieninteressierte für diesen Fachbereich und More
On November 24, the Federal Expansion Step 2023 for Road was put up for a public vote. The Expansion Step 2023 is a project programme for national roads consisting of six major projects, including the widening of the A1 highway between Bern and Nyon, as well as three More
Responsiveness of planning processes is the ability to meet changing societal transport needs quickly in ways that are acceptable to all stakeholders. In Switzerland, considerable traffic jams and overfilled trains indicate that planning processes could be made more responsive. As delays for travelers persist, their needs are not More
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 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
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.