Road Detection, Monitoring and Maintenance Using Remotely Sensed Data (2nd Edition)

Dear Colleagues,

Several aspects of the daily lives of most people and communities are connected by roads; they offer a critical contribution to economic development and help constitute the social fabric of a developed country. If roads are inadequately managed, maintained and controlled, they constrain mobility and cause increased transportation operating costs, accident rates and related human and property costs, in addition to aggravating segregation, poverty and poor health. Addressing these challenges is particularly difficult for road authorities with limited resources, especially for managing local and minor road networks. This highlights the urgent need for innovative and effective road detection, monitoring and maintenance strategies.

Building on the success of our first Special Issue (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/special_issues/Road_Detection), “Road Detection, Monitoring and Maintenance Using Remotely Sensed Data (2nd Edition)” continues to explore cutting-edge advancements in this field. This follow-up Issue seeks to further develop and disseminate innovative solutions that leverage remotely sensed data, non-destructive testing (NDT) methods and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the planning, monitoring and maintenance of road infrastructures.

Indeed, the integration of NDT surveys, when combined with AI-based algorithms, have emerged as indispensable tools for managing road networks. These approaches enable road authorities to accurately identify the causes and consequences of infrastructure distress, such as structural deficiencies or damage caused by environmental and operational factors. The integration of multiple NDT techniques provides a comprehensive perspective on the functional and structural conditions of roads, paving the way for optimized decision-making and resource allocation.

This Special Issue invites submissions addressing the latest developments in these areas, including innovative methodologies, applications and case studies. The aim here is to further support road authorities and researchers in identifying the most suitable remote surveys for various types of infrastructure, integrating these surveys with ancillary data, and optimizing maintenance strategies using AI.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Monitoring of road networks by remote techniques (satellite-, aerial-, ground-, and subsoil-based non-destructive techniques);
• Integration of remotely sensed data in pavement monitoring and maintenance activities;
• Analysis, quantification and integration of environmental impacts within pavement management systems;
• Integration of remote non-destructive technique outcomes and ancillary data sources (topography, geology, hydrology, geomorphology);
• Machine/deep learning algorithms for the fusion of remote non-destructive technique data in road detection, road monitoring, and road maintenance;
• Digital twins for pavement management systems.

Review papers in the above research topics will also be considered.

Dr. Nicholas Fiorentini
Prof. Massimo Losa
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• road monitoring and maintenance
• remote sensing of infrastructures
• non-destructive techniques (NDTs)
• synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR)
• falling weight deflectometer (FWD)
• ground-penetrating radar (GPR)
• unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery
• pavement management systems (PMSs)
• artificial intelligence (AI)
• decision support systems (DSS)
• data integration and data fusion

• Road Detection, Monitoring and Maintenance Using Remotely Sensed Data in Remote Sensing (10 articles)