Despite the long life span of civil structures, they cannot be considered maintenance-free. Several incidents of catastrophic failures remind the engineering world that monitoring is imperative for prevention of loss of life and property and for effective infrastructure management. Due to the variety of types of structures and their vulnerabilities, different tools must be used—many times complementary —in order to lead to reliable assessment results. Indeed, the reliability of in situ application is a key issue for any technique along with other characteristics such as testing speed and cost-effectiveness.

Several nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques have showed their suitability in material and structural characterization. As an example, elastic waves and radar have proven their suitability in distinguishing heterogeneities. Thermography is also used as a full-field method for detection of subsurface damage and moisture. Results of the aforementioned methods and a number of others like acoustic emission, radiography, optic fibers, electrical resistivity, and slightly destructive surface strength methods in conjunction with visual inspection provide a platform for decision making concerning maintenance.

However, most NDT techniques have not reached their potential. This special issue examines all possible tools for economic and timely infrastructure condition assessment, with emphasis on reliability and projection to the proper maintenance action. The challenges are even higher since the use of innovative materials is increasing. Although they offer better potential for sustainable construction, their assessment through the same techniques as for conventional concrete should not be taken for granted.

In this special issue, we will highlight the latest advances in structural health monitoring (SHM) focusing on civil infrastructures. We invite authors to contribute original as well as review articles. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Development and advances in all different NDT techniques, as well as combined used of techniques
• Decision making systems about structural maintenance based on engineering criteria
• Use of modern materials like recycled, nanomodified, textile-reinforced matrices, structural wood and how they respond to usual monitoring techniques
• Numerical simulation as a tool for NDT methods
• Proper design of structures to simplify and aid SHM
• Wireless monitoring technology and energy harvesting for SHM
• Studies and development of sensor technology for SHM

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/tswj/civil.engineering/hmc/ according to the following timetable: