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This review paper presents the current state-of-the-art pertains to water pipe failure prediction and risk assessment, published in the last ten years (2009–2019). This paper has been motivated by the lack of comprehensive review articles that integrates water network failure and risk modeling. Some of the current practices reviewed the pipe condition and its failure. Others focused on the statistical prediction models, whereas the rest outlined failure prediction models of large diameter mains only. The mainstream of the current practice, highlighted in this paper characterizes the structural deterioration and failure rates using various statistical techniques, whereas the remainder of research covers a proliferation of machine learning and soft computing applications to forecast and model the pipeline risk of failure. The review offers descriptions of the models together with their proposed methodologies, algorithms and equations, contributions and drawbacks, comparisons and critiques, and types of data used to develop the models using the bibliographic review method. Finally, future work and research challenges are recommended to assist the civil engineering research community in setting a clear agenda for the upcoming research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a study focusing on performance evaluation of road weather information system (RWIS) surface temperature forecasts. To identify the factors influencing the accuracy of forecasts, five research hypotheses regarding climate patterns, geographical attributes, seasonal variations, time of day, and forecast horizon are proposed. Observation and forecast data were provided by four North American provinces, and were processed and stratified by station, hour, and month to quantify their effects. The findings based on two statistical measures; namely, mean absolute error and percent of acceptable forecasts suggested that the maritime climate group had the highest correspondence while the mixed climate group had the lowest. The geographical attributes showed that the forecasting performance of coastal maritime regions was found to have a negative correlation to the distance from nearby large bodies of water. Forecasts for the daytime were found to be less accurate than for the nighttime and deteriorate quickly as the forecasting horizon increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vehicle–bridge collisions (VBCs) can compromise the safety of road users and cause major economic losses. This paper proposes and applies a methodology to investigate such events in Quebec. Relevant data have been collected from various sources and merged to provide a comprehensive database of VBCs that occurred in Quebec between 2000 and 2016. The developed database was used to carry out statistical analyses highlighting the main factors characterizing VBCs, such as vehicle's body type, bridge dimensions, prescribed speed limit, road configuration, road surface condition and lighting. The compiled database was georeferenced in an upgradable map that can be used efficiently to visualize the distribution and evolution of VBCs over a given region of Quebec. A VBC regression model was also developed based on k-fold cross-validation. The proposed model can be updated regularly as new VBCs are reported and then used to identify bridges most likely to be affected by VBCs or prioritize actions to reduce the potential consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predictive water main break models can assist municipalities in prioritizing the replacement and rehabilitation of water mains. The aim of the paper is to develop an artificial neural network (ANN) model to forecast water main breaks in the water distribution network of the City of Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The ANN model includes variables of diameter, age, length, and soil type to forecast breaks. Historical break data from the 1998 to 2011 period is used to develop the ANN model and forecast pipe breaks over a 5 year planning period. The mean square error, receiver operating characteristics curves, and a confusion matrix are used to evaluate the ANN model training and testing. The trained neural network correctly classified 85% of the data set at the training, validation, and testing stages. Model forecasts showed lower pipe break rates in Kingston West, Kingston Central, and Kingston East. The reduction in break rate in the Kingston system was attributed to the removal of old pipes, and the favourable performance of pipes that are in the usage phase of their life cycle. The ANN model provided Utilities Kingston with a tool to assist them in the planning and management of their water main rehabilitation program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]