On the 10th November, the webinar co-organised by H2020 funded FORESEE, RESIST, PANOPSIS and SAFEWAY displayed a full picture of the current status of the research in resilient infrastructure at EU level including not only technical developments but also describing the policy background.
In words of the European Commission, resilience stands as the horizontal element able to secure an efficient, safe, secure and environment-friendly mobility in Europe. A strong and resilient network will reinforce future EU goals promoting the social and economic recovery in the block especially considering the approximate €66 billion generated by the sector that currently employs around €11.5 million and concentrate more than €1 million enterprises.
Allocating EU R&I funding on the topic has confirmed to be meaningful not only in terms of facing the challenges caused from natural events due to climate change but also man-made originated as terrorist attacks or strikes that prevent an efficient performance of the infrastructure.
During the project presentations, panellists talked about identification of risk factors, use of digital and remote technologies (drones, satellites) to face disruptive events, management of climate risk hotspots, development of new materials, construction and maintenance techniques, structure health monitoring or improvement of links between different modes amongst others. Outcomes of the four projects will be achieved soon.
During the last 2 years, research has integrated elements and carried lab tests. Final step will be the real demonstration pilots in the TEN-T corridors (in the case of FORESEE in motorways and rail lines in Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain) that will give the visibility needed to convince public authorities (public procurement) and industry for the market deployment.
The last part of the webinar was dedicated to a discussion deepening into specific structural engineering elements included in the project that, while addressing the same H2020 topic, are perfectly compatible bringing the research to work as a coordinated system.
Presentations and full recording can be found here.
