Subject Overview – Infrastructure Systems

Use AccessScience to find  information on various subject areas related to Infrastructure Engineering.

• AccessScience
  Full access to 7100+ articles, 115,000 dictionary terms, and hundreds of Research Updates in all areas of science and technology updated daily. AccessScience is the electronic version of the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology.  Use ‘Infrastrucure Systems’ or related keywords to locate articles on those topics.

See also:

Sustainable critical infrastructure systems [electronic resource] :

Click on the links below to see what books are available in the library in some key areas related to Infrastructure Engineering.

• Infrastructure Engineering
• ArcGIS
• Asset Management
• Life-Cycle Analysis
• Critical Infrastructure
• GIS and Management
• Wastewater
• Highway Engineering
• Green Engineering
• Intelligent Buildings
• Sewage System*
• Transportation and Infrastructure

To find additional books, search in our online catalog using Advanced Keyword Searching and using appropriate research keywords related to Infrastructure Engineering concepts.

Using Summon:

Try Summon to find books, articles and more. See: About Summon for more detailed information on how to use it more efficiently.

• Click on Articles & More Tab in the Library Home page
• For example, type ‘Infrastructure Engineering’ and click on Search Library link.
• Refine your search results by selecting an option from the left column. For example, select ‘ebook’ option. You will see a listing with links to  electronic books.
• Try Summon for quick search. For more in depth search, explore the resources below.

Electronic Books

Click on the links below to access electronic books (Access only to Drexel faculty and students)

You can access full book chapters using electronic book collections such as ebrary, ENGnetBASE,  Knovel, MATERIALSnetBASE, and MECHANICALnetBASE.

• AccessScience
• CivilENGINEERINGnetBASE
• ebrary
• ENGnetBASE
• ENVIROnetBASE
• Knovel: Engineering and Scientific Online References
• MATERIALSnetBASE
• MechanicalENGINEERINGnetBASE
• POLYMERSnetBASE

Electronic books

• Wetland And Water Resource Modeling And Assessment A Watershed Perspective Boca Raton : CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, c2008.
• GIS Applications For Water, Wastewater, And Stormwater Systems Shamsi, U. M. (Uzair M.) Boca Raton, FL : Taylor & Francis,
• The grid [electronic resource] : a journey through the heart of our electrified world
  Schewe, Phillip F.
  Washington, D.C. : J. Henry Press, c2007.

Engineering Databases

Use databases below to find scholarly journal articles on the topic of your research project.

• Annual Reviews
• ASCE Digital Library
• BuildingGreen – (BuildingGreen Suite integrates online versions of GreenSpec, Environmental Building News, and a database of more than 160 high-performance building case studies.)
• Earthquake Engineering Abstracts
• Ei Compendex and INSPEC
• Environmental Engineering Abstracts
• Google Scholar
• Home Depot Smart Home
• IEEE Xplore
• MAD CAD – (NOTE: access to cross-referenced collections of building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, fire, and maintenance codes from BOCA, SBCCI, ICBO, ICC, and NFPA.)
• ScienceDirect

Business Databases

Use databases below to find scholarly journal articles on Business related subject areas of your research project.

• Academic Universe(Lexis/Nexis)
• Business & Industry

• Business Source Premier
• Expanded Academic

• Factiva Global news and business information service, international business, company/industry research
• Faulkner’s Advisory for IT Studies
• IBISWorld Industry Reports
• Mintel Reports – Market Research

• Proquest
• Tablebase - Statistical Data on Companies, Industries, Countries and Markets

News and Magazine Articles

• Academic Universe(Lexis/Nexis)
• Expanded Academic
• Factiva
• Proquest

Selected Web Resources

• Restore and improve urban infrastructure
• Engineers Use GIS to Improve Transportation Infrastructure Throughout Louisiana
• Federal Highway Administration – Office of Infrastructure
• NOAA Economics – Engineering/Infrastructure
• The City of Peoria,  Arizona,  Infrastructure Design Guidelines

Organizing References

• ASCE Citation Style
• Refworks (RefWorks is a web-based software application that helps you manage citations. It helps you keep track of the sources you are using for your research and your own notes about the sources)
• Refworks Tutorials

The Dynamic Maps, Geographic Information System (GIS) Data and Analysis Tools Web site provides maps, data and tools for renewable energy resources that determine which energy technologies are viable solutions in domestic and international regions.

See:
The Dynamic Maps, Geographic Information System (GIS) Data and Analysis Tools

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s GIS team analyzes wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, and other energy resources and inputs the data into the GIS.

The Dynamic Maps, Geographic Information System (GIS) Data and Analysis Tools Publications

NREL’s GIS Team develops technology-specific GIS data maps for a variety of areas, as well as targeted analysis tools that can help determine availability of renewable energy resources.

For a list of available datasets and information on how these data were developed, access the Geographic Information System Data Background page.

Users can download data and tools from the GIS server by filling out a simple form with contact information, and accepting a disclaimer statement.

Use our MapSearch to easily search our collection of maps created by the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) team. Please use the search box and the filters on the left and right of the screen to limit results.

In September 1995, a system of three continuously operating GPS receivers was deployed to monitor the displacements of Pacoima Dam relative to a stable station nearby at Fire Camp 9 (2.5 km away). The dam has been monitored in near real-time for over two years through a joint effort of the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the County of Los Angeles, making use of the network infrastructure of the Southern California Integrated GPS Network (SCIGN). This study demonstrates the feasibility of effective and timely monitoring of engineered structures using the Global Positioning System (GPS).

Read the full article at:
Continuous GPS monitoring of Structural Deformation at Pacoima Dam, California

Transportation Asset Management:

Transportation Asset Management relies heavily on highly organized and integrated data to support informed and comprehensive decision-making. Data integration is vital to Asset Management because it weaves together information needed to make strategic decisions across asset types, provides quick and convenient access to data, improves quality and comprehensiveness of data, promotes consistency and reduces cost of data collection, storage and processing, and improves existing stovepipe and legacy infrastructure management systems to better serve agency needs.

See: Publications and Data Integration Documents

See also: Transportation Asset Management Case Studies – Data Integration: The Pennsylvania Experience

Relationships Between Asset Management and Travel Demand: Findings and Recommendations from Four State DOT Site Visits

For more than 80 years, growth in highway travel in the United States has exceeded the growth of the public roadway network. Over time, this divergence has resulted in increasing traffic congestion, travel time delays, and infrastructure deterioration, which have in turn generated a range of responses by both providers and users of the nation’s highways. Despite these efforts, the nation’s motorists and the trucking industry continue to experience ongoing reductions in roadway performance, increasing travel times, and lost productivity. In response, state highway departments (departments of transportation), county governments, and local agencies continually seek new ways to address ongoing growth in highway travel demand.

(Source: U. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Asset Management Publications)

Highway Statistics, 2008

The data collected and published in the annual Highway Statistics is used by all levels of government and the public to assess the performance of the Nation’s highway transportation system as well as identify future highway system options. The data are extensively used by various agencies of the Federal, State, and local governments, institutions of higher learning, industry, consultants, professional organizations, and the public for a host of purposes. Data are used for assessing highway system performance under FHWA’s strategic planning and performance reporting process developed in accordance with requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) and for apportioning Federal-aid highway funds under Federal legislation.

See: Highway Statistics 2008

GIS in Transportation

For several decades, FHWA has recognized GIS as a tool that can integrate information from different sources and enable better and more efficient decisionmaking. In the early 1990s, GIS was used in the development of the National Highway Planning Network (NHPN), a network database of the nation’s major highway system, which is currently being used to maintain the National Highway System (NHS) and the Strategic Highway Network (STRAHNET). Around the same time, existing FHWA databases, such as the Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) and the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) , were modified so that they could be “joined” (or linked) to the spatial data in the NHPN. This functionality enables visual display of these data. In simple terms, this means that instead of viewing the data in tabular form (e.g., in a spreadsheet), users can instead make maps to display the data spatially and observe geographic patterns. In addition, users can view particular data items within databases to customize visual display for particular uses. Examples of uses for the NHPN system include viewing traffic volumes or pavement condition on a particular highway or mapping bridges with low clearances in a given state or county.

See: GIS in Transportation

See also: GIS in Transportation webcasts

The purpose of the Quarterly GIS Webcast is to promote the use of GIS for improved decision-making in transportation planning by cultivating a community of GIS practitioners who can share their knowledge, experiences, and advice.

GIS-Based Model for Highway Noise Analysis

In this paper, a GIS-based model for identifying highway segments for noise barrier installation is developed that uses TNM for noise level prediction. The method can automatically detect highway segments where installation of noise barriers may be warranted. In addition, the method also calculates effective length of noise barriers to be installed. An example is performed using Maryland’s GIS database to demonstrate the capability of the proposed model. The proposed model can also work with highway alignment optimization models by identifying segments with unacceptable noise levels.

Read the full paper: GIS-Based Model for Highway Noise Analysis