Floods and landslides are natural disasters with material damage and often with human casualties. The effects of floods and landslides are directly related to hydrometeorological conditions. The main factors for the occurrence of floods and landslides are excessive precipitation. Long-term rainfall is caused by flood waves in the rivers. A special problem is the rivers with unregulated coasts.

Large water return periods of 1/100 or more can cause major damage to the area around the watercourse (flooding of urban areas, agricultural land and damage to earthen defensive embankments).

Regulated watercourses and built water protection facilities reduce floods in urban areas. Long-term rainfall, apart from floods, also causes landslides on the slopes of the terrain. This is particularly pronounced where no rain drainage in urban areas has been constructed. Also, the influence of a man on the landslide phenomenon can not be ignored.

In addition to large and long rains and unplanned construction of buildings, it affects the appearance of landslides on slopes.

This special issue focuses on the use of ferrocement materials in a broad range of applications relating to construction industry. Scholars are invited to contribute original research as well as review articles dealing with the impact resistance, fatigue strength, corrosion, compressive strength with various types of meshes, and strength under multiaxial loading conditions.

The low material cost, labor intensity and semi-skilled labor requirements make ferrocement the most promising alternative materials for housing. The constituent materials of ferrocement are easily available and are quite inexpensive. The fabrication technique of ferrocement is quite easy and common people could be trained in a short time to learn the skill. Ferrocement is not only durable compare to indigenous materials but also strong enough to resist natural calamities. Most importantly, it is an environment-friendly technology; unlike brick it has no environmental hazard. Though initial cost of ferrocement application is relatively higher but in the long run it is economic compare to the local material. Beside this, as Ferrocement is lightweight material, buildings that are made up of ferrocement shall be less vulnerable to earthquake.

There is another important point which is very hard to overlook. To address the housing solution for rapid growing inhabitants, it is necessary to find out a cost-effective building construction technology that permits to extend vertically rather occupying of farming land. The density of population is increasing day by day and this phenomenon is affecting the cultivable land negatively. Generally, people are used to build single storied houses destroying their agricultural land to meet the need of housing that is the result of overpopulation. For reducing this adverse effect on cultivable land, it is necessary to change the strategy of construction of such type of single storied houses rather than cost effective multistoried buildings that can be accomplished by applying “Ferrocement technology” in rural housing sector.

According to the United Nations, buildings and construction activities use 40% energy, 30% mineral resources and 20% water resources of the world. It also accounts for 40% CO2 emissions, 30% solid wastes and 20% water pollution in the world. The production of cement, used in construction, causes release of 1 ton of CO2 into the atmosphere for every ton of cement produced. The increasing generation of fly ash and other solid wastes from thermal power plants and other industries using coal as a fuel is also causing a serious threat to the environment across the world.

The urban infrastructure has grown piecemeal and rising urban populations are putting pressure on housing and transport, land, water, energy and finance, causing depleting vegetation and water resources, excessive pollution and waste generation leading to ecological imbalance and climate change at large as well as loss of quality life. Urban transport is another potential source of air pollution by the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The alarming rate of global warming from economic development has raised the eyebrows of all nations. The Sustainable Development Goals adopted at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012 and the CoP21 Paris agreement in 2015 call for balancing the aspirations for holistic economic development with ecosystem preservation.

Sustainable development is the challenge of meeting growing human needs for natural resources, energy, shelter, and effective waste management while conserving and protecting environmental quality and the natural resource base essential for future life and development. Civil Engineering community has a tremendous role to play in achieving the goals of Sustainable development. Green buildings, resource conservation, waste reuse and recycling, waste management and disposal as well as smart cities form some of the solutions to the challenges of sustainable development.

As cities contribute to 80% of world’s GDP, Smart cities with focus on sustainable development ensure economic development without endangering the environment and quality of life. The performance and growth of smart cities needs quick and convenient Urban Transport (UT) and with little environmental impact with efficient and effective mass transport well integrated with other modes. The ideal “Green Building” project preserves and restores habitat that is vital for sustaining life and becomes a net producer and exporter of resources, materials, energy and water rather than being a net consumer, in order to reduce resource consumption while enhancing quality of life. Utilization of fly ash in concrete and other civil engineering applications is another potential area. What is needed is development of effective process for estimation and monitoring of sustainable development indicators.

The aim and purpose of this Issue is to bring out the contribution of Civil Engineering for balancing infrastructure development and environmental sustainability with a special focus on sustainable development, smart city, urban transport, green buildings, waste utilization, waste management and Resource conservation.

Concrete has been an important construction material since Roman times. Concrete is the second most widely used construction material in the world.

The aim of Recent Advancement in Concrete is to be publishing best research on advances in cement & concrete. Topic include , but are not limited to numerous advances in all areas of concrete technology including mixture proportion, use of supplementary cementitious materials, use of waste materials, advanced experimental techniques, use of different type of admixture, microstructure characterization, possible enhancement of durability properties of concrete and use of recycle materials. We expect this special issue could support to realize the potential.

The Journal of Civil Engineering Research is seeking high quality research papers for a special issue on Structural Damage Assessment (SDA) using Acoustic Emission and Smart Sensors. Recent developments in Acoustic Emission and Smart Sensors are taking SDA to a new level. In order to take these remarkable developments to scientific community, Journal of Civil Engineering Research has organized a special issue on these new developments. The purpose of this special issue is to produce a combined knowledge to all community on these new technologies and their current progress.

The objective of the special issue on Green Building Technology is to provide an excellent opportunity for dissemination of information and technology, sharing of expertise and exchange of views related to Green building planning, design, execution, operation and maintenance. The information sharing about the state of the art & cutting edge research will be immensely beneficial for designing and developing Green Buildings.

A computer simulation (model) is a computer program that attempts to simulate a particular system. Computer simulations have become a valuable part of mathematical modelling of many natural systems in Engineering, Medicine, Consumer product design, etc.

The scope of this special issue is to publish novel ideas and state-of-the-art research (numerical models, advances, results) on all topics relevant to computer simulations in Civil Engineering and make a contribution to the knowledge of engineers and academics by promoting, sharing, and discussing various technical issues and developments in the field of computers in Civil Engineering.

The purpose of the special issue is to assess the current state-of-the-art technologies in this field and to discuss and identify key and emerging issues in research and development that are critical and unique in structural health monitoring and structural reliability. Both theoretical developments and practical applications related to the uncertainty, safety, risk and reliability of structures and systems in civil engineering, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, marine/offshore engineering, industrial engineering, etc.