This volume contains the proceedings of the Fourth Symposium on Strait Crossings, and deals with technology for bridges, sub-sea tunnels, submerged floating tunnels, floating bridges and ferries. It covers planning, construction and maintenance, as well as technical solutions.

In The Estonian Straits, Alexander Lott establishes the interrelations between the main legal categories of straits. Through this detailed and exceptional account, he provides legal classifications for the Viro Strait in the Gulf of Finland as well as the Irbe Strait and the Sea of Straits in the Gulf of Riga. Consequently, the passage rights of foreign ships and aircrafts in the northeastern part of the Baltic Sea are determined. The author demonstrates that the legal regime of the Estonian Straits has been and continues to be determined by such factors as the outer limits of maritime zones, treaties, islands, maritime boundary delimitation, domestic law on internal waters and baselines as well as geopolitical implications (particularly the concept of State continuity).

Maintenance, Safety, Risk, Management and Life-Cycle Performance of Bridges contains lectures and papers presented at the Ninth International Conference on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management (IABMAS 2018), held in Melbourne, Australia, 9-13 July 2018. This volume consists of a book of extended abstracts and a USB card containing the full papers of 393 contributions presented at IABMAS 2018, including the T.Y. Lin Lecture, 10 Keynote Lectures, and 382 technical papers from 40 countries. The contributions presented at IABMAS 2018 deal with the state of the art as well as emerging concepts and innovative applications related to the main aspects of bridge maintenance, safety, risk, management and life-cycle performance. Major topics include: new design methods, bridge codes, heavy vehicle and load models, bridge management systems, prediction of future traffic models, service life prediction, residual service life, sustainability and life-cycle assessments, maintenance strategies, bridge diagnostics, health monitoring, non-destructive testing, field testing, safety and serviceability, assessment and evaluation, damage identification, deterioration modelling, repair and retrofitting strategies, bridge reliability, fatigue and corrosion, extreme loads, advanced experimental simulations, and advanced computer simulations, among others. This volume provides both an up-to-date overview of the field of bridge engineering and significant contributions to the process of more rational decision-making on bridge maintenance, safety, risk, management and life-cycle performance of bridges for the purpose of enhancing the welfare of society. The Editors hope that these Proceedings will serve as a valuable reference to all concerned with bridge structure and infrastructure systems, including students, researchers and engineers from all areas of bridge engineering.

According to the ancient Greeks, nature was composed of four elements: air, fire, water and earth. Engineers are continuously faced with the challenges imposed by those elements, when designing bridges and tall buildings to withstand high winds; constructing fire resistant structures, controlling flood and wave forces; minimizing earthquake damage; prevention and control of landslides and a whole range of other natural forces. Natural disasters occurring in the last few years have highlighted the need to achieve more effective and safer designs against extreme natural forces. At the same time, structural projects have become more challenging. Featuring contributions from the First International Conference on Engineering Nature, this book addresses the problems associated in this field and aims to provide solutions on how to resist extreme natural forces. Topics include: Hurricane, Tornadoes and High Winds; Aerodynamic Forces; Fire Induced Forces; Wave Forces and Tsunamis; Landslides and Avalanches; Earthquakes; Volcanic Activities; Bridges and Tall Buildings; Large Roofs and Communication Structures; Underground Structures; Dams and Embankments; Offshore Structures; Industrial Constructions; Coastal and Maritime Structures; Risk Evaluation; Surveying and Monitoring; Risk Prevention; Remediation and Retrofitting and Safety Based Design.

This book is dedicated to the study of an aeroelastic phenomenon of cable supported long span bridges known as flutter, and proposes very innovative design methodologies, such as sensitivity analysis and optimization techniques, already utilized successfully in automobile and aerospace industries. The topic of long-span suspension and cable-stayed bridges is currently of great importance. These types of bridge pose great technical difficulties due to their slenderness and often great dimension. Therefore, these bridges tend to have problems caused by natural forces such as wind loads, some of which we have witnessed in our history, and we are currently seeing a very high incidence of bridge construction to overcome geographical obstacles such as bays, straits, or great estuaries. Therefore, it seems very appropriate to write a book showing the current capability of analysis and design, when up until now, the information could only be found partially in technical articles. This book will be useful for bridge design engineers as well as researchers working in the field. This book only requires previous knowledge of structural finite element models and dynamics, and it is advisable to have some previous knowledge in bridge engineering. Nevertheless, this book is very self-contained in such a way that all the information necessary to understand the theoretical developments is presented without the need of additional bibliography.

Objective of conference is to define knowledge and technologies needed to design and develop project processes and to produce high-quality, competitive, environment- and consumer-friendly structures and constructed facilities. This goal is clearly related to the development and (re)-use of quality materials, to excellence in construction management and to reliable measurement and testing methods.

This book surveys key projects that have seen the construction of large floating structures or have attained detailed conceptual designs. This compilation of key floating structures in a single volume captures the innovative features that mark the technological advances made in this field of engineering and will provide a useful reference for ideas, analysis, design and construction of these unique and emerging urban projects to offshore and marine engineers, urban planners, architects and students.

Drought, floods, hurricanes, forest fires, ice storms, blackouts, dwindling fish stocks...what Canadian has not experienced one of these or more, or heard about the “greenhouse” effect, and not wondered what is happening to our climate? Yet most of us have a poor understanding of this extremely important issue, and need better, reliable scientific information. Hard Choices: Climate Change in Canada delivers some hard facts to help us make some of those hard choices. This new collection of essays by leading Canadian scientists, engineers, social scientists, and humanists offers an overview and assessment of climate change and its impacts on Canada from physical, social, technological, economic, political, and ethical / religious perspectives. Interpreting and summarizing the large and complex literatures from each of these disciplines, the book offers a multidisciplinary approach to the challenges we face in Canada. Special attention is given to Canada’s response to the Kyoto Protocol, as well as an assessment of the overall adequacy of Kyoto as a response to the global challenge of climate change. Hard Choices fills a gap in available books which provide readers with reliable information on climate change and its impacts that are specific to Canada. While written for the general reader, it is also well suited for use as an undergraduate text in environmental studies courses.