AI and Digital Technologies for Smart Monitoring of Urban Civil Infrastructure

Urban civil infrastructure is facing increasing pressure due to aging assets, climate change, rapid urbanization, and growing demands for safety, efficiency, and sustainability. At the same time, artificial intelligence and digital technologies are transforming how infrastructure is inspected, monitored, and managed. Tools such as sensor networks, the Internet of Things (IoT), Building Information Modeling (BIM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), computer vision, remote sensing, UAV-based inspection, big data analytics, and Digital Twins are enabling more accurate condition assessment, predictive maintenance, and data-driven decision-making. These advances are particularly relevant for interconnected urban systems, including transport networks, water infrastructure, energy and communication systems, waste management, and public spaces. However, significant challenges remain in data integration, interoperability, scalability, and the practical implementation of these technologies in real urban environments.This Research Topic seeks to address a key challenge in contemporary cities: how to improve the monitoring, management, and long-term performance of urban civil infrastructure through the effective use of artificial intelligence and digital technologies. Although major advances have been made in sensing systems, IoT, BIM, GIS, computer vision, remote sensing, UAV-based inspection, predictive analytics, and Digital Twins, their application in real urban infrastructure systems remains fragmented and uneven. Many cities still face difficulties in integrating data from multiple sources, ensuring interoperability, scaling digital solutions, and translating technological innovation into reliable decision-support tools for operation, maintenance, and resilience planning.To address this problem, this Research Topic aims to bring together recent advances, methodological developments, and practical case studies that demonstrate how AI and digital technologies can support smarter, more proactive, and more resilient infrastructure management across transport, water, energy, communication, waste, and public-space systems.This Research Topic welcomes contributions addressing the application of AI and digital technologies to the smart monitoring, assessment, and management of urban civil infrastructure. The scope includes transport systems (roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, metro systems, and railways), water infrastructure (water supply, sewerage, sanitation, drainage, and stormwater systems), energy and communication networks, waste management systems, and public spaces and green infrastructure. Relevant themes include structural health monitoring, AI-based damage detection, predictive maintenance, Digital Twins, BIM and GIS integration, IoT and smart sensing, computer vision, UAV-based inspection, data interoperability, lifecycle assessment, resilience analysis, and decision-support systems. We are particularly interested in original research articles, review papers, methodological contributions, and case studies that demonstrate technological innovation, experimental validation, or practical implementation in real urban environments. Topic editors: Alberto Villarino, Ximena Cubillos, Natividad Antón Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79748/ai-and-digital-technologies-for-smart-monitoring-of-urban-civil-infrastructure