Tarek Zayed

• PhD, PEng, PE, F.ASCE, F.CSCE
• Professor (Full) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Watermain failures universally challenge urban infrastructure, causing water loss, service disruptions, and maintenance challenges. There is a lack of research attention towards semi-tropical regions, which have unique environmental conditions affecting the deterioration of watermains differently. This paper develops a big datadriven prediction mod...

Failures within water distribution networks (WDNs) lead to significant environmental and economic impacts. While existing research has established various predictive models for pipe failures, there remains a lack of studies focusing on the probability of leaks and bursts. Addressing this gap, the present study introduces a new approach that harness...

Water pipe failure significantly undermines the sustainability and resilience of water distribution networks (WDNs), leading to substantial environmental, economic, and social impacts. While previous studies have examined isolated failure factors, a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between multiple factors and their relationship with...

Modular integrated construction (MiC) offers improved sustainability and automation. Nevertheless, its performance is impeded by extensive logistics operations, including multimode transportation, recurring loading-unloading, stacking, and assembly. Such rigorous operations may cause inadvertent underlying damage to module structure, leading to sup...

Accurate prediction of the failure time of individual pipelines of a water distribution network can assist in preventing sudden bursts and leaks. Failure prediction over time can help eliminate managerial uncertainty in pipe rehabilitation and replacement decision-making. Since time-based deterioration modeling has less focus in past research, the...

Water distribution networks (WDNs) face increasing challenges from aging infrastructure, population growth, and climate change, necessitating innovative technological solutions. This study examines the integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in WDNs, including both conventional and reclaimed water systems. Through a comprehensive...

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a prominent non-destructive testing (NDT) method for corrosivity evaluation in concrete structures. Most GPR interpretation methods rely solely on the absolute values of rebar reflection intensity, making them vulnerable to misinterpretation of the effects of complex factors. This study introduces a more comprehens...

Module alignment in modular construction faces significant challenges due to reliance on manual labor and dimensional complexities, leading to project delays. While other industries have successfully implemented automated alignment technologies, the construction industry has lagged behind, particularly in modular construction. Despite extensive res...

Landslides rank among the most devastating hazards, leading to loss of life and destruction of infrastructure, with rainfall being a primary triggering factor. Global climate change has increased landslide occurrence; accordingly, accurate landslide prediction is crucial to reduce damage and losses. Since landslides account for 17 % of all natural...

Although the adoption of Internet of Things (IoTs) for green buildings (GBs) has attracted significant attention from researchers and practitioners in the construction sector, few studies have investigated the barriers to its implementation. To bridge this gap, this study aimed to identify and analyze the barriers to the adoption of IoTs in GBs thr...

Concrete bridges are the most prevalent bridge type worldwide, forming critical components of transportation infrastructure. These bridges are subjected to continuous deterioration due to environmental exposure and operational stresses, necessitating ongoing condition monitoring. Despite extensive research on condition rating and deterioration mode...

The construction industry plays a crucial role in the global economy, contributing approximately $10 trillion and employing over 220 million workers worldwide, but encounters numerous productivity challenges with only 1 % annual growth compared to 2.8 % for the global economy. These challenges span various processes, including design, planning, pro...

Modular integrated construction (MiC) is an innovative construction technology that boosts automation in the construction industry by shifting most of the on-site activities to controlled production facilities. However, transporting heavy, bulky, and tailor-made MiC modules to the construction site poses economic, environmental, and social challeng...

Quantifying the impact of rutting on traffic safety contributes to the development of objective models for evaluating pavement performance. However, the existing literature shows significant discrepancies in the impact of rutting on traffic safety. To this end, this study analyzed about 40 studies to comprehensively understand the impact of rutting...

Concrete bridges are vital infrastructures and maintaining their functionality is of utmost importance. Infrared thermography (IRT) has emerged as a promising nondestructive evaluation for examining concrete bridges. However, a comprehensive review of its application in concrete bridge inspections is lacking. This study addresses this gap by employ...

Acoustic sensing technology is a familiar approach to detect leakage in urban water networks. Critical issues like false alarms, difficult leak locations, missed leaks, unknown site conditions, and high repair costs are still prevalent. The situation warrants developing a more sophisticated and efficient leak detection approach in real water networ...

Water pipes face signifcant aging and degradation problems due to several pipe-related, soil-related, operational, and environmental factors. Hence, the paramount objective of this research paper is to prioritize the criticality of the factors afecting the deterioration of water pipes in Hong Kong. The framework of the developed model is envisioned...

Leakage in water pipelines causes the loss of valuable amounts of water and can result in considerable environmental damage. This study presents a real-time leak localization method using signal processing and machine learning (ML) techniques, addressing challenges in accuracy, cost, and real-world applicability. Firstly, a novel two-stage localiza...

Concrete is widely utilized in construction; however, accurately predicting its compressive strength is difficult due to the complex relationships within its mixture. Although previous studies have predicted the compressive strength of high-performance concrete (HPC), the literature lacks an optimized end-to-end framework for this purpose. To addre...

Purpose This study underscores the critical importance of well-functioning sewer systems in achieving smart and sustainable urban drainage within cities. It specifically targets the pressing issue of sewer overflows (SO), widely recognized for their detrimental impact on the environment and public health. The primary purpose of this research is to...

Bridges are generally acknowledged as one of the vital structures of transportation systems. Meanwhile, they are prone to time-variant damage and deterioration mechanisms over their life span. With that in mind, this research study aims to explore state-of-the-art work in relation to deterioration models and related critical factors of reinforced c...

Purpose This study aims to explore the tower crane safety factors (TCSFs) that influence tower crane safe operations (TCSOs) in modular integrated construction (MiC). It evaluates how the adoption of these factors contributes to achieving TCSOs and promoting sustainable practices (SPs) within MiC. Design/methodology/approach To achieve this aim, t...

Landslides are a significant downhill movement of soil that can have disastrous effects. Numerous research studies have been conducted to enhance the prediction of landslides where the empirical statistical approaches are widely utilized. These methods, however, have high false positive rates and limited accuracy. To address the above-described lim...

Pipelines are ubiquitous engineering structures used to transport fluid substances. To increase the durability and lifespan of pipes, engineers often coat chemically inactive materials onto the inner and/or outer surfaces of pipes, resulting in coated pipes. This article offers a review of research on coated pipes with a focus on their material sel...

Introduction Landslides pose significant geological hazards, necessitating advanced prediction techniques to protect vulnerable populations. Research Gap Reviewing landslide time series analysis predictions is found to be missing despite the availability of numerous reviews. Methodology Therefore, this paper systematically reviews time series ana...

Accurate leak detection for water distribution networks (WDNs) is a critical task to minimize water loss and ensure efficient infrastructure management. Machine learning (ML) algorithms have demonstrated significant potential in establishing effective acoustic leak detection systems. However, the utilization of time-series models, specifically desi...

The failure of water pipes in Water Distribution Networks (WDNs) is associated with environmental, economic, and social consequences. It is essential to mitigate these failures by analyzing the historical data of WDNs. The extant literature regarding water pipe failure analysis is limited by the absence of a systematic selection of significant fact...

Visiting construction sites is essential for civil engineering students' university education. This study aims to assess the experiences of various civil engineering students during their conducted visits to construction sites. This study also aims to build a suitable and effective instrument for an effective site visit and evaluate the impact of a...

Modular integrated construction (MiC) is now widely adopted by industry and governments. However, its fragile and delicate logistics are still a concern for impeding project performance. MiC logistic operations involve rigorous multimode transportation, loading-unloading, and stacking during storage. Such processes may induce latent and intrinsic d...

Reinforcement corrosion is a leading cause of damage in concrete bridge decks, resulting in cracking and spalling in the concrete cover. Recently, ground penetrating radar (GPR) emerged as a prominent non-destructive testing (NDT) for evaluating the corrosiveness of concrete structures. Although GPR provides real-time testing for concrete elements,...

Effective functioning of water systems is critical to ensure the quality of human life. Therefore, failure prediction of water mains under climatic variations is necessary to avoid socio-economic and environmental losses. This paper aims to propose a hybrid model named STL-GC-LSTM for an accurate failure prediction of water mains under the impact o...

Surface cracks are alluded to as one of the early signs of potential damage to infrastructures. In the same vein, their detection is an imperative task to preserve the structural health and safety of bridges. Human-based visual inspection is acknowledged as the most prevalent means of assessing infrastructures’ performance conditions. Nonetheless,...

The construction industry faces significant challenges in measuring and assessing performance effectively. Conventional methods of measuring construction performance have become less effective, prompting a need to adopt non-financial performance measurements. This shift acknowledges the shortcomings of relying solely on financial performance measur...

Purpose Previous research has demonstrated that Digital Twins (DT) are extensively employed to improve sustainable construction methods. Nonetheless, their uptake in numerous nations is still constrained. This study seeks to identify and examine the digital twin’s implementation barriers in construction building projects to augment operational perf...

This comprehensive review explores IoT innovations in water, wastewater management, and water quality monitoring, emphasizing the transformative potential of these technologies. Combining sociometric and systematic review (SR) techniques, the study analyzes scientometric trends and co-occurrence networks linked to review topics. Research primarily...

Encouraging sustainable mobility through sidewalk condition improvement is a critical concern for urban transportation. Sidewalk condition affects pedestrian safety, satisfaction, and mobility inclusiveness. Early sidewalk defect detection and repair ensure transport justice by addressing pedestrian inequality caused by walkability issues. This stu...

The proposed system utilizes low-power level sensors and 4G telemetry to improve blockage detection and prevent overflows. The system helps reduce the economic and environmental repercussions on our community caused by sewer overflows.

Maintaining infrastructure assets at the best possible performance while the available budget is limited has promoted innovative contracting approaches. Transportation agencies have increased private sector involvement through long-term performance-based maintenance contracts or what is called performance-based contracting (PBC). Making budget allo...

This study aims to propose Micro-electromechanical System (MEMS) accelerometers for leak localization in the water distribution network and assess the performance of machine learning models in accurately estimating leak locations. Intensive field experimentation was conducted to collect data for model development. Machine learning algorithms were e...

Purpose Water pipes degrade over time for a variety of pipe-related, soil-related, operational, and environmental factors. Hence, municipalities are necessitated to implement effective maintenance and rehabilitation strategies for water pipes based on reliable deterioration models and cost-effective inspection programs. In the light of foregoing, t...

The applicability of using ground penetrating radar (GPR) as a non-destructive technology for estimating the thickness and dielectric constant of pavement layers has been extensively documented in the literature. Time delay methods (TDMs) have been the most commonly used by researchers. However, various studies have reported different results with...

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a widely adopted non-intrusive technology for evaluating the dielectric constant and thickness of pavement layers. The Surface Reflection Method (SRM) is commonly employed to estimate the dielectric constant of pavement materials, especially for thin layers. While Air-Coupled GPR (AC system) is extensively used, th...

The water distribution network is one of the most pivotal services for communities, and that’s why its effective and secure operation is crucial to the growth of national and global economies. To this end, the paramount objective of this study is to devise an automated self-adaptive model for deterioration predic-tion of saltwater pipes. The develo...

Effective management of aging sewer pipelines requires accurate analysis of sewer pipeline exfiltration. Previous research studies have not paid attention to proposing an index to represent the exfiltration severity. To this end, this study introduces a novel Exfiltration Severity Index (ESI) by considering the frequency and severity of defects cap...

Road networks are the backbone of transportation infrastructure systems around the world. Thus, it is crucial to maintain the integrity of road networks to facilitate economic and social prosperity. Proper assessment of road pavement conditions is essential to effectively preserve road networks in good condition. The development of adequate conditi...

Landslides are frequent hillslope events that may present significant risks to humans and infrastructure. Researchers have made ongoing efforts to assess the potential danger associated with landslides, intending to ascertain the location, frequency, and magnitude of these events in a given area. This study is meant to supplement the previous study...

Water Distribution Networks (WDNs) are susceptible to pipe failures with significant consequences. Predicting wall-thickness loss in pipes is vital for proactive maintenance and asset management. This study develops optimized, explainable machine learning models for this purpose. Data from four WDNs located in Canada and the USA are collected and p...

Hong Kong, among the world’s most densely populated cities, has witnessed rapid growth in traffic volume, resulting in increased traffic density and vehicle loads. Regular bridge inspections are imperative to ensure human safety and safeguard property. However, conventional visual inspection methods are highly criticized for their critical limitati...

Landslides are a common and challenging geohazard that may be caused by earthquakes, rainfall, or manmade activity. Various monitoring strategies are used in order to safeguard populations at risk from landslides. This task frequently depends on the utilization of remote sensing methods, which include the observation of Earth from space, laser scan...

Sustainable management of water distribution networks (WDNs) is essential to ensure the continuous supply of water. However, the water pipes in WDNs often experience unprecedented failure, which causes disruption in services, flooding, increased maintenance costs, and reduced water quality. Although researchers have developed models to predict the...

Sustainability in the building sector has evolved into a pivotal aspect, of constructing and maintaining buildings in the modern era. As awareness of environmental issues and resource depletion grows, the demand for sustainable building practices has surged. Several vital factors highlight the importance of sustainability in contemporary buildings:...

Reinforcement corrosion is a common cause of damage in concrete structures, resulting in cracking and spalling of the surrounding concrete. Recently, ground penetrating radar (GPR) has become the primary non-destructive testing (NDT) for examining the corrosiveness of concrete structures. However, the analysis of GPR data can be intricate and time-...

The rise in percentage of deteriorated bridges coupled with the escalation of maintenance costs call for systematic bridge management systems. Therefore, this research paper introduces an exponential chaotic differential evolution (ECDE) model for optimizing bridge maintenance plans at both project and network levels. The developed optimization mod...

Bridges all over the world are vulnerable to severe deterioration agents meanwhile their maintenance budgets are being tightened. This state of affairs necessitates the establishment of an autonomous deterioration model to predict the performance condition of bridges. This research paper explores the implementation of a set of intelligent data driv...

Wall thickness loss in water pipes has been found to be positively correlated with water pipe failure. The reliability of water pipes reduces as their wall thickness loss increases. Although previous studies have investigated pipe failure modeling using historical failure data, however, indirect failure modeling via wall thickness loss is yet to be...

Corrosion is still the most common contributor to failures in Water Distribution Networks (WDNs), causing detrimental techno-socio-economic impacts. Although the corrosion process has been the subject of several studies, factors influencing this process remain a source of contention due to the complexity of the process and its influence by the surr...

Sewerage and stormwater networks are subjected to several deterioration factors, including aging, environmental conditions, and traffic. Maintaining these critical assets in good condition is essential to avoid harmful consequences, such as environmental contamination and negative implications on other infrastructure systems (e.g., water and road n...

Public–private partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects have attracted attention over the past few years. In this regard, the selection of private partners is an integral decision to ensure its success. The selection process needs to identify, scrutinize, and pre-qualify potential private partners that sustain the greatest potential in delivering...

A growing population and urbanization place increased demands on water supply and distribution networks. Pipelines are one of the most critical components of water supply systems. It is, therefore, necessary to identify the relevant factors that affect the deterioration of water distribution pipelines. This will help decision makers in future plann...

Effective monitoring and prediction systems for sewer overflow are essential for safeguarding public health and the environment. Flow sensors have emerged as valuable tools for understanding and measuring the hydraulic performance of sewer networks, enabling the detection of blockages and overflow events. However, previous research has predominantl...

Systematic reviews (SR) are crucial in synthesizing and analyzing existing scientific literature to inform evidence-based decision-making. However, traditional SR methods often have limitations, including a lack of automation and decision support, resulting in time-consuming and error-prone reviews. To address these limitations and drive the field...

Buried water pipelines are vulnerable to fail or break due to excessive loading or ground displacements. Accurate evaluation of pipe performance and serviceability relies on the proper understanding of pipe-soil interactions (PSI). Analytical methods are important approaches to studying PSI. However, a systematic and thorough literature review to a...

Roughness is widely used as a primary measure of pavement condition. It is also the key indicator of the riding quality and serviceability of roads. The high demand for roughness data has bolstered the evolution of roughness measurement techniques. This study systematically investigated the various trends in pavement roughness measurement technique...

Effective water pipeline leak detection and localization can help water practitioners save water losses and reduce pipe rehabilitation budgets. Different sensing technologies can provide essential data aiding model development for predicting future leaks in the water distribution networks. Solutions for applying different sensing technologies to re...

Healthy road networks are essential to facilitate economic and social development. Sustaining the integrity of road pavement necessitates having reliable performance models. Such performance models can facilitate evaluating the effect of different physical, environmental and operational factors on road pavement performance. Hence, this research ado...

Road networks are the backbone of transportation infrastructure systems around the world. Thus, it is crucial to maintain the integrity of road networks to facilitate economic and social prosperity. Proper assessment of road pavement conditions is essential to effectively preserve road networks in good condition. The development of adequate conditi...

The growing complexity and dynamism of construction projects have ultimately elevated the importance of project delivery systems. In addition, working in post-conflict environment has further magnified their significance. The literature review lacks a synthesized framework that is designed for the selection of project delivery systems in post-confl...