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Infrastructure Maintenance Systems Engineering Lab
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The lab protects infrastructure such as bridges and roads over the long term through experiments, analysis, and data.
AboutAbout the lab
How do we protect infrastructure in a mature society?
The Infrastructure Maintenance Systems Engineering Lab studies how to maintain infrastructure such as bridges and roads.
Drawing on structural mechanics and knowledge of deterioration phenomena, the lab uses experiments and numerical analysis to examine how structural performance changes from design through management and renewal.
In Japan, where the population is aging and shrinking and rural depopulation is advancing, the lab also works on research that uses infrastructure data and social data to propose maintenance strategies for a mature society.
At present, the lab is organized around individual faculty members rather than as a single lab unit: Professor Nagai, Associate Professor Matsumoto, and Assistant Professor Furuuchi each run their own activities.
Key terms
- GIS
- A system that overlays location information and various kinds of data on a map for analysis and display
- Clustering
- An analysis method that automatically divides data into groups of items with similar characteristics
- RBSM (Rigid Body Spring Model)
- An analysis model that represents concrete as a collection of small rigid blocks connected by springs, and calculates cracking and failure
ResearchResearch themes
The lab uses experiments and numerical analysis to investigate how the performance of infrastructure changes from design through management and renewal. It also works on developing maintenance strategies using infrastructure data and social data, and on deploying these technologies overseas, including in developing countries.
*Illustrative imageHow much will bridges be used in the future?
This research combines future population projections with road types to assess how much the bridges in Hokkaido are likely to be used in the future. By overlaying bridge locations and population data in GIS, the lab identified bridges around which people are predicted to no longer live.
*Illustrative imageIdentifying causes of bridge deterioration
The lab analyzes inspection data for bridges managed by municipalities in Hokkaido using GIS, and examines how geographical, environmental, and social conditions affect bridge condition. For reinforced concrete bridges, the financial strength and staffing of the municipality had a large effect on deterioration.
*Illustrative imageMaintenance characteristics by municipality
Using social conditions and open data on structures, the lab clustered the municipalities of Hokkaido and clarified the different maintenance situations and challenges faced by each group of municipalities.
*Illustrative imageEstimating rebar corrosion from cracks
The lab proposes a system that estimates where and how much the reinforcing bars inside reinforced concrete have corroded, based on the width of cracks on the concrete surface. It combines an analysis model called RBSM with machine learning.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Infrastructure Maintenance Systems Engineering Lab consist of faculty, postdoctoral researchers, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, exchange students, and secretaries.As of 2026
- ProfessorKohei Nagai
- Associate ProfessorKoji Matsumoto
- Project Associate ProfessorKeita Iwama
- Assistant ProfessorHitoshi Furuuchi
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Taushubetsu-River-Bridge” MaedaAkihiko / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- How much will bridges be used in the future?: “Nandarou Bridge ( )” Tzuhsun Hsu from Taipei, Taiwan / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Identifying causes of bridge deterioration: “Deteriorating deck - Arlington Memorial Bridge 2013” "Public Meeting: Arlington Memorial Bridge Environmental Assessment." George Washington Memorial Parkway, Washington, D.C., and Virginia. National Park Service. U.S. Department of the Interior. April 23, 2013, p. 11. / Public domain (cropped)
- Maintenance characteristics by municipality: “140724 Biei Hokkaido Japan01s8” 663highland / CC BY 2.5 (cropped)
- Estimating rebar corrosion from cracks: “Qew bruecke nf beton kaputt 09 von 46” Achim Hering / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Environmental Functional Materials Engineering Lab): “The World's Longest 3D Printed Concrete Bridge” Municipality of Nijmegen/Michiel van der Kley / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Building Materials Lab): “Crushed Sioux Quartzite (upper Paleoproterozoic, b.y.) in concrete (Chamberlain, South Dakota, USA) 2” James St. John / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Structural Design Engineering Lab): “Horohira Bridge over the Toyohira RIver, Sapporo - Aug 18, 2024” MIKI Yoshihito / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Transportation Network Analysis Lab): “Aerial view of M6A38 Spaghetti Junction” Highways Agency / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
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