In recent years, structural integrity monitoring is a paradigm that has become increasingly important in the structural engineering and in the construction management fields. It represents an influential and effective tool for dependability assessment of existing structural systems, integrating - in a unified perspective - systems engineering and performance based-design.
Structural integrity monitoring issues include performance, design environment and structural breakdown, sensor systems and their optimal placement, data transmission arrangement, advanced signal processing techniques, state identification methods and numerical modeling updating.
The first part of this work deals with the concepts of dependability and structural integrity. In the second part, this work provides a reference framework for monitoring and identification of civil structures. In particular, techniques related to the implementation of the monitoring process using soft computing algorithms are explained.

Keywords: Structural Integrity, Structural Systems, Dependability, Performance-based Design, Structural Health Monitoring, Numerical Modeling.