Maintenance Management of Infrastructure Systems: Organizational Factors in Territorial Planning

Abstract

The issue of the maintenance of the infrastructure systems (e.g., viaducts, roads, bridges and highways), built some decades ago, is increasingly becoming a central argument. Within this topic, the safety assessment represents a fundamental as well as basic analysis that underpins a sustainable territorial management of the infrastructure systems. In fact, many structures are often affected by functionality, aging or safety problems and need specific interventions to avoid undesirable impacts in terms of social implications. In addition, the reference stakeholders, in terms of institutions and public actors, play an important role in relation to both the administrative and economic planning procedures. The present study has the preliminary aim to illustrate some possible contributions and improvements to achieve a more sustainable territorial planning, especially for the maintenance of the infrastructure systems. In detail, the present preliminary investigation highlights the possible advantages deriving from the use of the technology (i.e., remote sensing technique by means of satellite data - Differential Interferometry Synthetic Aperture Radar “DInSAR”) within an analysis at territorial scale. Indeed, the activity of monitoring all the overall infrastructure system can represent a useful approach to have a territorial vision of the safety of the infrastructures and can lead to a more sustainable planning. In fact, the involvement of all the reference stakeholders, in relation to this specific territorial issue, can lead to a more organised administrative and economic process. Some preliminary results, shown through thematic maps using the Geographic Information System (GIS), are described for a case study in a sample area in Italy.