It is a privilege to write this issue’s editorial. I have been an editorial board member of the Infrastructure Asset Management journal since 2013. During the eleven years that I have been an editorial board member, I have been impressed with the journal’s diversity of topics, perspectives, and editorial board members. The editorial board of the Infrastructure Asset Management journal is comprised of highly qualified and experienced representatives, including from academia, industry, and policymaking.
Infrastructure Asset Management is an industry-facing multi-disciplinary journal that publishes articles on emerging aspects of asset management. It publishes peer-reviewed papers, including those related to types of civil infrastructure assets that are both in the public and private domains. It engages academics, researchers, and industry practitioners to contribute knowledge about practical solutions to current and future asset management challenges.
The five papers in this issue of Infrastructure Asset Management explore aspects related to responsive gateway, viability rubric, economic, automation, and climate adaptation attributes of infrastructure assets. These papers are important to academics, researchers, industry practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders. They cover topics, such as: (1) Evaluating responsive gateways amid future uncertainty at the London Bridge station (UK); (2) Viability rubric of fibre-reinforced polymer composites for civil infrastructure applications; (3) Economic life-cycle model for the cost of a power grid line engineering project; (4) Automation and digitalisation of transport forwarding services or logistics; and (5) A longitudinal perspective of climate adaptation from the UK water sector, 2013–2023.
The Infrastructure Asset Management journal places great emphasis on the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For example, this is evident in how papers in this issue highlight UN SDGs 6, 9, and 11, which relate to ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’, ‘Industry Innovation and Infrastructure’, and ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’.
In this issue’s first paper, Lai et al. (2024) explores evaluating responsive gateways amid future uncertainty at the London Bridge station (UK). It highlights that a significant risk to passenger comfort and safety is posed by the high concentration of people in train stations during rush hour. However, it also highlights that it is feasible to create responsive gateways for managing passenger flow to prevent overcrowding situations. The paper suggests that this is because of recent technological advancements in real-time crowd counting and pedestrian microsimulations. The paper proposes a simulation-based cost-benefit analysis, which uses the real options methodology that is commonly employed to assess flexible infrastructure. This proposal is to estimate the costs and benefits that are associated with implementing responsive gateways at the London Bridge station, UK. This proposal takes into consideration the uncertainties in passenger flow and the interests of various stakeholders.
In the second paper, McIntosh et al. (2024) explores a viability rubric of fibre-reinforced polymer composites for civil infrastructure applications. This paper highlights its investigation of the most important factors influencing the increased demand for composite materials such as fibre-reinforced polymers in civil infrastructure applications. However, it discovered that application-ability, constructability, design-ability, and performance-ability are some of the biggest trends currently influencing composite use in infrastructure. It also discovered that composites have a higher manufacturing cost, but its overall life-cycle cost can be made more economical than those of traditional materials. The paper proposes that its findings can further promote the use of composite materials for civil infrastructure applications.
In the third paper, Qi et al. (2024) explores an economic life-cycle model for the cost of a power grid line engineering project. This paper highlights that a reasonable grid line engineering asset management is an important means for power companies to improve economic efficiency under the new electricity reform situation. This paper suggests that its results can be used to reduce the economic cost of operation and maintenance of power grid enterprises. This paper also suggests that its results can be used for optimising the management of line engineering and other power assets of power grid companies.
In the fourth paper, Gizetdinov (2024) explores the automation and digitalisation of transport forwarding services or logistics. This paper highlights that the transition of various states to common standards is relevant, including in international freight transportation because of the spread of globalisation. However, this paper identified the most promising international transport and logistics projects. This is based on the application of statistical analysis and forecasting, and graphs of the logistics efficiency index of the countries studied. This paper suggests that logistics performance indices were obtained in the context of indicators from 2007 to 2023. This paper also suggests that the average Commonwealth indicator was determined and compared with a similar indicator of the USA. This paper determined the prospects of Commonwealth countries in the leading Eurasian transport corridors, and the advantages of such integration in comparison with intra-union projects.
In the fifth paper, Crossfield and Ferranti (2024) explore a longitudinal perspective of climate adaptation from the UK water sector, 2013–2023. This paper highlights that weather and climate determine water supply. However, this paper also highlights that extreme weather, particularly flooding, can severely alter the operations and ability to process wastewater. This paper describes Yorkshire Water’s leadership in the early days of adaptation within the UK. This paper also discusses aspects it suggests have led to a more holistic and sustainable water resource management, such as the changing policy frameworks, business needs, climate knowledge, and societal context.
I hope that you enjoy the variety and quality of papers in this issue that explore aspects related to responsive gateway, viability rubric, economic, automation, and climate adaptation attributes of infrastructure assets. If you are interested in contributing a paper to this journal, then this can be done via the Infrastructure Asset Management journal website. You can author and submit papers for general or themed issues.
