On information value and decision analyses

Abstract

This paper addresses value of information, structural health information, and decision analyses in built environment engineering. Decision analyses are used for the joint optimization of information collection and the identification of physical measures for the management and enhancement of the expected utility of built environment systems. To these ends, this paper contains (1) principal descriptions of decision scenarios and the model basis in conjunction with the objective functions, embedded in (a) a summary of the historical background and (b) the origins of the methods of decision and value of information analyses, (2) an overview of methods for decision analyses highlighting solution strategies to handle comprehensiveness and computational challenges, (3) principal application areas and case studies, and (4) insights into recent advances. The main insights and an outreach to potential future research perspectives are summarised at the end of this paper.