Arnór Elvarsson

Research assistant

ETH - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

Biography

I research how societies facilitate efficient and effective infrastructure planning. In my research I embrace digital tools to provide decision support for planning decisions made 10-30 years before infrastructure completion. At this point in time, decisions are made considering a high degree of future uncertainty. The research contributes analysis of organisational processes, governance structure and novel tools to make robust planning decisions bearing in mind uncertain land-use transport interactions.

Interests

Infrastructure planning
Transport demand modelling
Decision-making under uncertainty

Education

MSc in Spatial Development and Infrastructure Systems, 2018

ETH Zürich
BSc in Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2014

University of Iceland

Experience

Research assistant

ETH Zurich

January 2021 – Present Zurich, CH

Responsibilities include:

Research responsiveness in infrastructure planning and communicate results
Teaching courses: Developing, managing, lecturing courses and assisting students
Supervising students: Bachelor and Master theses and other Master projects

Project Engineer

Infrastructure Management Consultants

November 2018 – December 2020 Zurich, CH

Worked on projects related to Infrastructure maintenance management and Information management, e.g., ProZEnt, BIM4AMS, AMSfree, MAPFalke

Skills acquired: Project management, technical writing, prototype development, digitalisation & BIM

Specialist

EFLA Engineers

June 2014 – August 2015 Reykjavik, IS

Worked on projects related to transport infrastructure design, planning and maintenance

Skills acquired: Fostering relationships with project owners and contractors, CAD

Projects

Adaptive Mobility Infrastructure and Land-use

Our module focuses on conducting cutting-edge studies and can be summarised into three pillars - (a) Transforming and forecasting city-wide mobility patterns, (b) Decision-making and planning processes for transport infrastructure in the face of uncertainties, and (c) Sustainable and interactive land-use planning.

Responsiveness of infrastructure planning - Embracing adaptive planning methods to meet societal needs

This research (1) maps the planning process of transport infrastructure, (2) identifies the potential of adaptive planning methods in planning practice, (3) develops state-of-the-art tools to plan regional infrastructure development considering future uncertainties

Wider-impacts of future mobility

This research explores the wider social and economical impacts of automated connected transportation through Scenario Development & Evaluation

Gallery

Featured Publications

Arnor B. Elvarsson, Bryan T. Adey, Orlando Marcel Roman Garcia

July, 2023 Conference paper presented at 8th International Symposium on Life-Cycle Civil Engineering (IALCCE 2023), Milan, Italy, July 2-6, 2023; Conference lecture held on July 4, 2023. , https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000640587

The value of accelerating the infrastructure planning process

Constructing or modifying infrastructure usually requires years, or even decades, meaning that stakeholder needs often change during the planning process itself. The responsiveness will steer how quickly planners can accommodate to changing societal needs.

Recent Publications

Quickly discover relevant content by filtering publications.

Arnór Elvarsson, Fabrice Marggi, Bryan T. Adey (2024). A methodology to identify and assess transport infrastructure development considering land-use uncertainty. Conference paper presented at 24th Swiss Transport Research Conference (STRC 2024), Ascona, Switzerland, May 15-17, 2024; Conference lecture on May 15, 2024. , https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000672982.

Slides DOI

Fabrice Marggi, Arnór Elvarsson, Bryan T. Adey (2024). Implementing early-stage highway planning support in Dübendorf-Hinwil considering uncertain land-use and mobility demand. Conference paper presented at 24th Swiss Transport Research Conference (STRC 2024), Ascona, Switzerland, May 15-17, 2024; Conference lecture on May 15, 2024. , https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000672985.

Slides DOI

Tim Blumenfeld, Arnór Elvarsson, Rade Hajdin, Frank Schiffmann, Christopher Grund, Henning Balck (2024). A methodology for probabilistic pavement condition forecast based on Bayesian filters. Structure and Infrastructure Engineering , 20 (1), pp. 83 – 96, https://doi.org/10.1080/15732479.2022.2077769.

DOI

Orlando Marcel Roman Garcia, Arnór Elvarsson, Bryan T. Adey (2023). Exploratory modelling for transport infrastructure planning under future uncertainty. Conference paper presented at 8th International Symposium on Life-Cycle Civil Engineering (IALCCE 2023), Milan, Italy, July 2-6, 2023 , https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000648146.

Project DOI

Arnor B. Elvarsson, Bryan T. Adey, Orlando Marcel Roman Garcia (2023). The value of accelerating the infrastructure planning process. Conference paper presented at 8th International Symposium on Life-Cycle Civil Engineering (IALCCE 2023); Conference Location: Milan, Italy; Conference Date: July 2-6, 2023; Conference lecture held on July 4, 2023. , https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000640587.

Slides DOI

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