This volume contains the proceedings of the Fourth Symposium on Strait Crossings, and deals with technology for bridges, sub-sea tunnels, submerged floating tunnels, floating bridges and ferries. It covers planning, construction and maintenance, as well as technical solutions.

In The Estonian Straits, Alexander Lott establishes the interrelations between the main legal categories of straits. Through this detailed and exceptional account, he provides legal classifications for the Viro Strait in the Gulf of Finland as well as the Irbe Strait and the Sea of Straits in the Gulf of Riga. Consequently, the passage rights of foreign ships and aircrafts in the northeastern part of the Baltic Sea are determined. The author demonstrates that the legal regime of the Estonian Straits has been and continues to be determined by such factors as the outer limits of maritime zones, treaties, islands, maritime boundary delimitation, domestic law on internal waters and baselines as well as geopolitical implications (particularly the concept of State continuity).

Maintenance, Safety, Risk, Management and Life-Cycle Performance of Bridges contains lectures and papers presented at the Ninth International Conference on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management (IABMAS 2018), held in Melbourne, Australia, 9-13 July 2018. This volume consists of a book of extended abstracts and a USB card containing the full papers of 393 contributions presented at IABMAS 2018, including the T.Y. Lin Lecture, 10 Keynote Lectures, and 382 technical papers from 40 countries. The contributions presented at IABMAS 2018 deal with the state of the art as well as emerging concepts and innovative applications related to the main aspects of bridge maintenance, safety, risk, management and life-cycle performance. Major topics include: new design methods, bridge codes, heavy vehicle and load models, bridge management systems, prediction of future traffic models, service life prediction, residual service life, sustainability and life-cycle assessments, maintenance strategies, bridge diagnostics, health monitoring, non-destructive testing, field testing, safety and serviceability, assessment and evaluation, damage identification, deterioration modelling, repair and retrofitting strategies, bridge reliability, fatigue and corrosion, extreme loads, advanced experimental simulations, and advanced computer simulations, among others. This volume provides both an up-to-date overview of the field of bridge engineering and significant contributions to the process of more rational decision-making on bridge maintenance, safety, risk, management and life-cycle performance of bridges for the purpose of enhancing the welfare of society. The Editors hope that these Proceedings will serve as a valuable reference to all concerned with bridge structure and infrastructure systems, including students, researchers and engineers from all areas of bridge engineering.

According to the ancient Greeks, nature was composed of four elements: air, fire, water and earth. Engineers are continuously faced with the challenges imposed by those elements, when designing bridges and tall buildings to withstand high winds; constructing fire resistant structures, controlling flood and wave forces; minimizing earthquake damage; prevention and control of landslides and a whole range of other natural forces. Natural disasters occurring in the last few years have highlighted the need to achieve more effective and safer designs against extreme natural forces. At the same time, structural projects have become more challenging. Featuring contributions from the First International Conference on Engineering Nature, this book addresses the problems associated in this field and aims to provide solutions on how to resist extreme natural forces. Topics include: Hurricane, Tornadoes and High Winds; Aerodynamic Forces; Fire Induced Forces; Wave Forces and Tsunamis; Landslides and Avalanches; Earthquakes; Volcanic Activities; Bridges and Tall Buildings; Large Roofs and Communication Structures; Underground Structures; Dams and Embankments; Offshore Structures; Industrial Constructions; Coastal and Maritime Structures; Risk Evaluation; Surveying and Monitoring; Risk Prevention; Remediation and Retrofitting and Safety Based Design.