Reliability, Risk and Resilience Assessment of Infrastructures

Academic unit or major

Graduate major in Civil Engineering

Instructor(s)

Hiroshi Matsuzaki

Class Format

Lecture

Media-enhanced courses

-

Day of week/Period
(Classrooms)

Class

-

Course Code

CVE.A434

Number of credits

200

Course offered

2025

Offered quarter

3-4Q

Syllabus updated

Mar 19, 2025

Language

English

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

Infrastructures are subjected to various natural hazards such as ground motions, tsunami, torrential rains, floods, typhoons over their life-cycles. It is necessary to plan, design and maintain the structures so that they can continue their functions even under such hazards. From the viewpoint of ensuring the safety and reliability of structures, it is sufficient to control the possibility of occurrence of the limit states. On the other hand, infrastructures do not function as stand-alone structures, but as a structural system or network consisting of a group of individual structures, such as road networks, railway network and water supply networks. Furthermore, in today's highly networked society, including its dependence on electric power, the impact on users and economic activities when structures and structural systems are damaged is becoming more complex and significant. Therefore, there is an increasing needs to quantify the effects of damage state and functional degradation of structures corresponding to limit states, using the concepts of risk and resilience, and to apply them to the management of structures.
In this course, items related to the assessment of reliability, risk, and resilience of structures and structural systems will be covered. The aim of this course is to develop the basic ability to apply such concepts and related knowledge to structures and structural systems, and to have a discussion from a comprehensive perspective through presentations toward building and maintaining a more resilient society.

Course description and aims

Students are expected to obtain the following abilities:
1. the ability to explain the relationship between natural hazards and the limit states, degree of damage, and functional loss that can occur to structures and infrastructures.
2. the ability to use the concepts of risk and resilience to have a discussion for building and maintaining a more resilient society.

Keywords

natural hazards, limit states, functional loss, social consequences, life-cycle, safety and reliability, risk, resilience

Competencies

• Specialist skills
• Intercultural skills
• Communication skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

In addition to the lectures, small assignment during the lectures and reports, there will be presentations and discussion related to reliability, risk, and resilience assessment of infrastructures.

Course schedule/Objectives

Study advice (preparation and review)

To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.

Textbook(s)

Handouts will be provided by the instructor.

Reference books, course materials, etc.

Ganguly, A. R., Bhatia, U., Flynn, S. E.: Critical Infrastructures Resilience -Policy and Engineering Principles, Routledge, 2018.
American Society of Civil Engineers: Hazard-resilient infrastructure -Analysis and design-, ASCE Manuals and Reports on Engineering Practice, No. 144, 2021.

Evaluation methods and criteria

Small assignments during the lectures as well as reports (50%), and presentations and discussion (50%).

Related courses

• CVE.M431 ： Probabilistic Concepts in Engineering Design
• CVE.E431 ： Integrated modeling of reinforced concrete structure
• CVE.F431 ： Maintenance of Infrastructure
• CVE.G402 ： Environmental Statistics

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of structural engineering is required.