• To develop a monitoring system for constructed facilities that, along with the civil engineering software that will also be developed, will provide, automatically, a reliable, near real-time assessment of the structural condition and damage of both the structural components  and the structural system of the monitored facility as a whole, after a disaster

• To develop , based on the above estimates of the structural damage,  a methodology and the corresponding software implementation for the automatic, near real-time estimation of the resulting non-structural damage,  the functionality of the facility, the total volume of debris  from both structural and non-structural components in the monitored facilities, the cost and duration of structural and non-structural repairs and construction manpower and materials needs.

• To continuously update the estimates of structural damage and needs for monitored facilities.

• To provide seamless interoperability among heterogeneous networks to secure that the required information from the monitored facility can reach, in near real-time, the base-station (and more specifically, a module on Structural Assessment), even under difficult conditions, such as post-crisis situations (e.g., in a post-earthquake situation).

•  To use sensor-based damage assessment of the monitored facilities for the calibration and validation of remote sensing methods.

• To develop a Post Crisis needs assessment tool in regards to Construction Damage and related Needs (PCCDN)that will collect information from all the monitored facilities in the affected region (e.g., the parliament, the Ministry of the Interior, hospitals, bridges) and process it in order to provide recovery stakeholders with near real-time, reliable, continuously updated information, in the form that each one of the stakeholders’ needs it, on structural and non-structural damage, shoring and demolition needs, loss of functionality, direct economic loss and the resulting needs in construction labor and materials for the monitored buildings. Moreover, damage information from the monitored buildings will be used to calibrate and validate spaceborne and airborne damage maps of the monitored buildings and the surrounding affected area in case of an extensive event, so that calibrated and validated such maps will be produced and offered by the PCCDN Tool in a much reduced time. Furthermore, this Tool will enable fusion and integration of relevant external data and information, allow for customization and future expansion of the system, provide international interoperability and allow for collaborative work between the civil agencies/authorities and the relief units

The technology in RECONASS, which will permit the near real-time, continuous and reliable assessment of the structural condition of monitored constructed facilities after a disaster, will be implemented in this work in the case of reinforced concrete  buildings subjected to seismic, blast and impact loading and fire. However, after a successful conclusion of this project, this work will be extended to cover additional materials, e.g., steel, additional infrastructure, e.g., bridges or tunnels, and additional loadings, e.g., wind loads, tsunamis or land sliding.

Monitoring based on spatially discrete sensor nodes that measure continuously information on physical structural damage will eventually also allow other parameters to be added (e.g., chemical sensors) that, coupled with remote sensing, will allow an assessment of the entire area affected by a crisis situation based on low temporal resolution but synoptic image data, calibrated by high temporal resolution discrete sensor measurements. Specifically, the utility of the sensor networks will be further increased by using it as a backbone for another, distributed, sensor network.A single node in each of the sensor-monitored buildings (affixed on the outside of the building) equipped with a suitable sensor to detect dangerous chemical or biological traces de facto creates a new sensor network that spans all monitored buildings, and will give an overview of the distribution of the hazardous agent. Satellite imagery or existing cadastre information can then be used to assess the number of buildings (or people, if detailed registration data exist) exposed to the threat, and be further coupled with current weather data to predict further development of the hazardous agent, or assess the threat in areas not covered by sensors.