72763 - Infrastructure Systems

Academic Year 2015/2016

  • Moduli: Joerg Schweizer (Modulo 1) Andrea Simone (Modulo 2)
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures (Modulo 1) Traditional lectures (Modulo 2)
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Civil Engineering (cod. 8895)

    Also valid for Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Civil Engineering (cod. 0930)

Learning outcomes

This course is composed of the modules Sustainable Transportation Engineering (STE)
and Uncertainty and Risk in Transportation Systems (URTS)

The main goals of the Sustainable Transportation Engineering module are:
1.) To give a holistic understanding of the transport problem and its environmental, social and economic impacts
in real world situations.
2.) To provide the analytical skills to quantify theses impacts.
3.) To enable to find and evaluate alternative, more sustainable solutions that are acceptable by all stakeholders.

The sustainable transport solutions include:
- the introduction of technological innovations such as new propulsion systems (electric, hydrogen, biofuels)
- Intelligent transport systems (Bus priority signalling, Real-time routing systems, etc.)
- New generations of public transport systems such as Group Rapid Transit and Personal Rapid Transit
- Application of sustainable transport planning principles, including soft modes like walking and cycling
- Transport demand management


Learning outcomes of Uncertainty and Risk in Transportation Systems (URTS) module:
The student knows how to study the problems related with the vulnerability of road infrastructures, the risk analysis of in-ground constructions, the verification of existing roads and the design of new roads. He is also able to prepare maintenance plans and safety plans for roads and tunnels.
This course includes 10 meetings of three hours each: two hours for lectures and in-class discussion and the third hour for the project sessions. The objectives of the course are:
- to develop familiarity and critical understanding of core concepts and support tools to facilitate decision making in the face of uncertainty/risk in transportation systems;
- to learn fundamentals and skills to model real-world road safety problems in a structured way that supports rational decision making in road infrastructure and tunnel management.

Course contents

The programme of the Sustainable Transportation Engineering (STE) module:
includes the following themes:
* Overview
* Vehicles
* Transport network
* Transport demand
* Environmental, social and economical impact of transport
* Sustainable transport planning
* Innovation in Automobile technologies
* Innovation in Public transport technologies
* Case studies

Uncertainty and Risk in Transportation Systems (URTS) module:
I. Overview of Multimodal Transportation Events of Interest (Natural Disaster Events, Unintentional Events, Attacks on Multimodal Transportation Infrastructure).
II. Review of basic principles, Uncertainty, Probability and Risk.
III. Road Safety Management Concepts – Directive 2008/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on Road Infrastructure Safety Management.
IV. Road Safety Impact Assessment for Infrastructure Projects, Road Safety Audit.
V. Safety ranking and management of the road network in operation, Safety Inspections.
VI. Risks in Tunnels - Directive 2004/54/EC f the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on minimum safety requirements for tunnels in the Trans-European Road Network.
VII. Quantitative Risk Analysis Model
VIII. F/N Curves for the Societal Risk
IX. Pavement Management System - Road maintenance planning.
X. Life-Cycle Benefit/Cost Analysis under Certainty, Risk, and Uncertainty.

Readings/Bibliography

Sustainable Transportation Engineering (STE) module:

E. Cascetta. Transportation systems engineering: theory and methods. Kluwer
Academic Publisher, Boston/Dordrecht/London, 2001. (Italian version available).

WHO.Particulate matter, ozone and nitrogen dioxide.
Technical report, World Health Organization, Bonn, Germany,2003.
www.euro.who.int/document/e79097.pdf.

L.C. Den Boer and A. Schroten. Traffic noise reduction in europe: Health
effects, social costs and technical and policy options to reduce road and
rail traffic noise. Technical report, CE Delft, the Netherlands, 2007.
http://www.thepep.org/ClearingHouse/docfiles/Traffic.Noise.Reduction.in.Europe.pdf.


Uncertainty and Risk in Transportation Systems (URTS) module:

Class notes
Directive 2008/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on Road Infrastructure Safety Management
Directive 2004/54/EC f the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on minimum safety requirements for tunnels in the Trans-European Road Network

Teaching methods

Uncertainty and Risk in Transportation Systems (URTS) module:

Class notes
Directive 2008/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on Road Infrastructure Safety Management
Directive 2004/54/EC f the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on minimum safety requirements for tunnels in the Trans-European Road Network

The Sustainable Transportation Engineering module relies on the following teaching methods:
1.) Lecture, 3h per week.
2.) Exercises, 1h per week.
3.) Extensive lecture notes which are made available on-line.
4.) One planning exercise as group work to put the acquired theory into practice.

Assessment methods

Assessment methods of the Sustainable Transportation Engineering (STE) module:

It is required to perform the planning exercise.

At the end of the course there is a written exam:

* There will be 3 problems to be answered by written in 2 hours.

* The first problem is a collection of multiple choice questions/answers,
covering the material of the entire course .
Each question has one or more correct answers.
Correctly ticked answers will result in one point, incorrectly ticked answer
will result in minus half a point. The minimum of the multiple choice problem is zero points the maximum is 8 points.


* The remaining two problems will be calculations, covering the subjects of the exercises.
The maximum points can only be obtained if all results are correct.
Usually problems are divided into sub-problems where the
number of points for each sub-problem is indicated.

* Allowed is a non-programmable pocket calculator and one sheet with hand-written notes
(front and rear side can both be used).

Assessment methods of the Uncertainty and Risk in Transportation Systems (URTS) module:

Written test.


The total points of the integrated course Infrastructure systems is composed of 2/3 from the STE exam and 1/3 from the URTS exam.

Teaching tools

A notebook is recommended for downloading and viewing lecture notes. Some exercises require Matlab(R). 

Office hours

See the website of Joerg Schweizer

See the website of Andrea Simone