Advanced Materials in Sustainable Infrastructure

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to introduce this Special Issue on Advanced Materials in Sustainable Infrastructure. Sustainable infrastructure ensures long-term economic, social, environmental sustainability together with climate resilience over the entire infrastructure life cycle, from planning and design, to construction and operation, to decommissioning. Significant investment in infrastructure is required to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050, towards low-carbon solutions and climate resilience. A large number of natural resources, primarily minerals, are consumed globally, and the largest share of these diminishing natural resources is taken up for construction and infrastructure. Construction materials have a key role in sustainable and resilient infrastructure while infrastructure projects also play a key role in circularity in construction. Sustainable construction relies on climate-positive materials. Engineering innovation promotes new and sustainable materials, green infrastructure and nature-based solutions, which in turn support society’s resilience to climate change. Advanced materials, therefore, play a key role in supporting sustainable and resilient infrastructure.

Important solutions lie in reducing the carbon footprint of materials and structures through innovative solutions for traditional and new materials, primarily cement-based, polymer-based, bio-inspired and high-performance materials with reduced environmental impacts and enhanced durability, in aggressive environments. Innovative solutions can rely on new approaches in traditional materials while also supporting the development of new materials and technologies. The cement and concrete sector is responsible for a significant amount of emissions that contribute to climate change, and solutions for emission control at the scale of cement, concrete and reinforced concrete structures are necessary. Low-carbon cement plays an important role, supported through more efficient use of cement in concrete and improved durability performance of concrete structures in aggressive environments. Engineering innovation from the nano to the macro scale leads to high-performance materials solutions for resilient structures and infrastructures. Self-healing and nano-scale additives in cement-composite materials support ultra-high performance concrete solutions that further promote the durability performance of structures in aggressive environments and climate resilience. Structural health monitoring, material durability monitoring and smart intelligent structures further support sustainable and resilient infrastructure.

This Special Issue will review key innovation in the development, application and monitoring of advanced materials and cement–composite materials and structures for sustainable and climate resilient infrastructure. For this Special Issue, you are invited to propose solutions through advanced material engineering for sustainability and resilience in infrastructures, promoting low-environmental-impact, circular solutions and high performance.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Ruben P. Borg
Guest Editor

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. Sustainability 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 2400 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.

• advanced materials
• cement-based composite materials
• supplementary cementitious materials
• high-performance concrete
• sustainable infrastructure indicators
• standards
• circular economy and construction materials
• bio-inspired solutions
• climate resilience
• sustainable infrastructure