Engineering Commons^™

Landslide Hazard In El Salvador, Carlos Eduardo Rodriguez, A. T. Torres, E. A. León

Geohazards

The destructive seismic events of January 13 (ML: 7.6) and February 13 (ML: 6.1) 2001 in El Salvador, with origin in the subduction area and the volcanic chain, respectively, provide an ideal scenario to analyse the factors that define the landslide hazard in this country. In this paper we analysed the events in terms of strong-motion and precedent climatic condition and their relation with the landslides induced; establishing a great opportunity to compare some hazard assessment methods as those proposed by Mora and Vahrson (1994) and Rodríguez (2001) which define the hazard in terms of the interaction between triggering agents …

Hazards, Climate Change And Extreme Weather Events, Christian Jaedicke, Kalle Kronholm, Anders Solheim, Ketil Isaksen, Dagrun Vikhamar, Kari Sletten, Lars Harald Blikra, Asgeir Sorteberg, Asbjørn Aaheim

Geohazards

Geohazards are events related to geological features and processes that cause loss of life and severe damage to property and the natural and built environment. The most common and destructive geohazards in Norway are snow avalanches, clay-, debris- and rock slides, and floods, which together caused more than 2000 deaths during the last 150 years. Statistically, about 10 large slides and avalanches are expected to occur in Norway the next 50-100 years, each with possibly 20-100 deaths, unless preventive planning and actions are made. In addition to the loss of lives, geohazards pose a large impact on infrastructure and the …

Seismic Hazards For Lifelines, Farshad Vazinram, Reza Rasti

Geohazards

The response of lifelines against earthquakes and seismic hazard effects on them are studied in this paper. As lifelines pass through wide areas, it may be affected by many seismic hazards. These hazards are such as ground rupture, fault movement, landslides and large deformation due to liquefaction. Based on the experiences from past earthquakes, damages to the lifelines with attention to damaged parts are classified and illustrated. This classification is based on the damages of body, joints, facilities and serviceability. Since the buried lifelines are filled with some materials with almost same unit weight of soil, their seismic response characteristics …

3d Visualization For Urban Earthquake Risk, S. Kemec, S. Duzgun

Geohazards

Visualization is the graphical presentation of information, with the goal of improving the viewer’s understanding of the information contents. As today’s world is getting richer in information, visualization of the information is important for effective communication and decision making. In this study, generation of a 3D city model in CAD environment and its use in a spatial decision support system for earthquake risk in an urban area is presented. As CAD products’ quality is more enhanced than the other tools the 3D city model is generated in CAD environment. In CAD environment, a 2D building foot print vector layer is …

Tsunami Relief Work - Biopesticide Spray Operations - A Case Study, Kadarkarai Murugan

Geohazards

Tsunami occurred on 26th December, 2004 and in India more than 8000 people were killed due to the massive attack. The worst affected districts in Tamil Nadu were Viz., Velankanni, Nagapattinam and Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, India. Official sources said that due to massive death of animals and human beings, the public health has been affected/spoiled and it will cause further outbreak of infectious diseases like diarrhea, cholera and mosquito transmitting diseases. After a week there were incidents of outbreak of mosquito transmitting diseases such as malaria, and dengue. Tsunami had caused a mixing of animal debris in the breeding ground …

Hydrodynamics And Rheology: Key Factors In Mechanisms Of Large Landslides, L. Bonzanigo, P. Oppizzi, M. Tornaghi, A. Uggeri

Geohazards

When checking the behaviour of large landslides, deterministic stability analysis has little sense. Stability coefficients can only be seen as the relationship between acting and reacting forces. In fact, large landslides simply move in any case, more or less quickly. When stable, the displacements are actually so small that they aren't detectable. Thus the so called security factor could always be set to unity, and the computations performed as back analysis. The transition from a very slow viscous displacement to a catastrophic failure is better described in a change of rheological behaviour than in an overtaking of a stability coefficient. …

Integrated Database For Rapid Mass Movements In Norway, Christian Jaedicke, Karstein Lied, Halvor Juvet, Kalle Kronholm

Geohazards

Rapid mass movements include all kinds of slides in geological material, snow or ice. Traditionally, information about such events is collected separately in different databases covering selected geographical regions and event types. In Norway the terrain is susceptible to all types of rapid mass movements ranging from single rocks hitting roads and houses to large avalanches and huge rock falls where entire mountainsides collapse into fjords creating flood waves and endangering large areas. In addition, quick clay slides occur in desalinated marine sediments in south eastern and mid Norway. For the authorities and inhabitants of endangered areas, the type of …

Prediction Of Complex Systems Using Grey Models, Dirk Proske, P. H. A. J. M. Van Gelder

Geohazards

Complexity is an inherent property of the world known. According to Kolmogoroff Randomness and Complexity are connected. Therefore the description of randomness using stochastical procedures has been widely used. Nevertheless other methods might be used to predict complex systems, such as Grey Models.

In this paper the occurrence of extreme water levels along the Dutch north-sea has been investigated using Grey Models. Other applications are possible and have been carried out by the authors, such as identification of damaged elements in reinforced concrete structural elements.

Risk Analyses And Risk Management - Slope Instabilities In Alpine Environments, S. Eder, G. Poscher, C. Prager

Geohazards

Two prominent deep-seated gravitational slope deformations in the Eastern Alps (Tyrol, Austria) have been activated in the last seven years and pose serious threats to the densely populated valleys. Based on multidisciplinary field investigations, different hazard scenarios of slope failures have been evaluated for risk management processes. These event scenarios, which are characterised by strongly varying volumes of the failing slide masses as well as by different probabilities of occurrence, and varying disintegration factors control different accumulation and damage scenarios. Finally, these evaluations and risk analyses aimed to define “design events”, i.e. which scenarios are relevant for the dimensioning of …

Quantitative Risk Assessment As Applied To Natural Terrain Landslide Hazard Management In A Mid-Levels Catchment, Hong Kong, Ian Muir, K. K. S. Ho, H. W. Sun, T. H. H. Hui, Y. C. Koo

Geohazards

This paper presents a case study of the application of quantitative risk assessment techniques to a site-specific natural terrain hazard study in Hong Kong. The development of the landslide hazard and susceptibility models is described and salient details of the consequence model are given, including the assessment of debris flowpaths and runout using state-of-the-art Geographic Information System (GIS) tools and debris runout computer models. A synthesis of the risk quantification process and schematic design of risk mitigation works is presented.

Studies Of The Gaviota Slide Offshore Southern California, Mark Zumberge, Jeff Babcock, Hugh H. Banon, John Blum, C. D. Chadwell, Jeff Dingler, Neal Driscoll, Gerald D'Spain, Philippe Jeanjean, Graham Kent, Graham Openshaw, John Orcutt

Geohazards

We are engaged in a study of a seafloor landslide off the coast of Santa Barbara, California. A large scar there remains from the Goleta slide, a well studied feature (1.51 km3 of failed material) that likely failed several thousand years ago. A smaller neighboring feature, the Gaviota slide (0.02 km3 of failed material), was probably triggered during the 1812 Santa Barbara earthquake. Our investigations started in 2004 with a chirp sonar survey. The survey revealed a relationship between a “crack” in the sediment propagating from the Gaviota slide’s headwall and a thrust fault clearly seen in the subsurface layers. …

A Hydrodynamics Perspective For The 2004 Megatsunami, Costas E. Synolakis

Geohazards

The megatsunami of 26 December 2004 was the first tsunami with transoceanic impact since the 1960 Great Chilean and 1964 Great Alaskan tsunamis. Because of the distribution of deaths among a large portion of the nations of the world, the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami is the first universal natural disaster of modern times. For the purpose of adequate mitigation of future tsunamis, it is important to understand which factors control most critically the final characteristics of the flooding, namely runup and inundation. Their successful modeling requires not only a credible database of inundation parameters, against which models can be tested …

Disasters And Decision Processes, Carsten Felgentreff

Geohazards

One of the most important topics in hazard and disaster related research is the effective reduction of vulnerability. Despite the fact that our knowledge about several physical and human dimensions of disasters has grown rapidly in recent decades, there is ample evidence that casualties and damages due to natural disasters have grown even faster. Apparently, there is no such formula like ‘more data = better knowledge = less casualties and damages’.

Purpose of this paper is the identification of some potential reasons for this obvious dilemma. After briefly addressing selected social science concepts of hazards, disasters, and risks, it is …

Probabilistic Seismic Loss Estimation For Eskisehir, Turkey, M. S. Yucemen, N. Y. Ozturk, A. Deniz

Geohazards

Stochastic methods are utilized for the assessment of seismic hazard for the Eskisehir region. A comprehensive earthquake catalog, in which earthquakes in different scales are converted to a common scale, is compiled. Seismic source zones near the region with revised boundaries and various attenuation relationships are employed. Uncertainties related to the seismicity parameters and different assumptions are taken into consideration by using the logic tree procedure. Seismic hazard maps in terms of peak ground acceleration and MSK intensity, corresponding to a return period of 475 years are developed for Eskisehir. At the end of the study, the expected earthquake damage …

Dealing With Tsunami Risk - A Case Study For Thailand, Kjell Karlsrud, Farrokh Nadim, Hilmar Bungum, Carl B. Harbitz

Geohazards

The December 26 2004 tsunami event devastated large areas along the coastlines of Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and India, and even some parts of the east African coastline. It is a great challenge to the authorities in the countries affected by the tsunami to deal with the future risk of tsunami events and how to rehabilitate the devastated areas under consideration of that risk. On initiative from the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), a project has been initiated to help develop a rehabilitation strategy in Thailand, but it is also intended as serve as an example project for other countries …

A First-Order Second-Moment Framework For Probabilistic Estimation Of Vulnerability To Landslides, Marco Uzielli, S. Duzgun, B. V. Vangelsten

Geohazards

The object of the present paper, which synthesises a broader research effort by ICG (2006a), is the development of a probabilistic framework for the quantitative estimation of the vulnerability of the built environment to landslides. The method draws inspiration from an existing 3-dimensional qualitative framework proposed earlier by ICG (2005). As vulnerability is directly included in quantitative risk analysis (QRA), it would be beneficial to convert the conceptual framework to a quantitative perspective. It should be recognised that, in real investigations, the input parameters and the models used in vulnerability assessment are necessarily vague and imprecise, and are subjective to …

Remote Sensing Technologies For Monitoring Climate Change Impacts On Glacier- And Permafrost-Related Hazards, Andreas Kääb, C. Huggel, L. Fischer

Geohazards

Glacier- and permafrost-related hazards represent a continuous threat to human lives and infrastructure in high mountain regions. Because the surface and subsurface ice involved is generally close to melting conditions, glacier and permafrost hazards are particularly sensitive to climate changes. The present shift of cryospheric hazard zones due to atmospheric warming, process interactions and chain reactions, and the potential far reach of glacier disasters make it necessary to apply modern remote sensing techniques for the assessment of glacier and permafrost hazards in high mountains. In this contribution we provide an overview of different hazard types and how air- and space-borne …

Back Analysis Of The Lower San Fernando Dam Slide Using A Multi-Block Model, C. A. Stamatopoulos, P. Petridis

Geohazards

A multi-block sliding system model has been developed to simulate the displacement of sliding geo-masses. This model is a useful tool, especially when displacements are very large and computer codes based on the Finite Element Method cannot be applied. The paper investigates the ability of the model to predict the response of the well-documented Lower San Fernando Dam slide. The predicted movement, and deformation agreed reasonably well with that of the upper part of the slide. Yet, the lower part of the slide slid more that the model prediction. The multi-block model was applied a second time. This 2-slide approach …

Instability In Soft Sensitive Clays, V. Thakur, G. Grimstad, S. Nordal

Geohazards

Soft sensitive clays like quick clays are well known in Scandinavia and in some regions in Canada. The salt pore water of these marine clays has been leached out since last glaciations and left a brittle mineral structure. Slides in quick clays can be extremely disastrous, as in Verdal, Norway in 1893 or Rissa in 1978. The slides may be initiated by local overloading, river erosion or similar and can escalate in size in a retrogressive manner in which large volumes of clay finally may liquefy. Norwegian quick clay has a very low permeability and hence pore water pressure becomes …

An Introduced Methodology For Estimating Landslide Hazard For Seismic Andrainfall Induced Landslides In A Geographical Information System Environment , M. D. Ferentinou, M. Sakellariou, V. Matziaris, S. Charalambous

Geohazards

The demand for estimating landslide hazard has evolved during the last decade. Landslides are characterised among the most severe natural hazards, which can cause casualties, fatalities, harm or detriment in natural and man-made environment.

In the first part of this paper the results of the research conducted on slope deformation due to seismic loading are presented. According to field observations deformation and displacement of natural and man-made slopes in strong earthquakes are common phenomena, even though they are associated to moderate magnitude seismic events. These permanent displacements are due to seismic loading, and are produced because the material, through which …

On Tsunami Risk Assessment For The West Coast Of Thailand, Farrokh Nadim, Thomas Glade

Geohazards

The catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004 raised a number of questions for scientists and politicians on how to deal with the tsunami risk in coastal regions. This paper discusses the challenges in tsunami risk evaluation and presents the results of a tsunami risk mitigation study for the west coast of Thailand. It is argued that a scenario-based approach is particularly well suited for evaluation of the risk posed by tsunamis. The approach consists of considering scenarios of plausible extreme, tsunami-generating events, computing the tsunami inundation levels caused by these events, estimating the possible range of casualties for …

The 1999 Colorado Springs, Colorado Landslides – Federal, State And Local Government Response; Public Involvement; And Future Long-Term Risks And Challenges, Mark W. Squire

Geohazards

In the spring of 1999, heavy rain precipitated landslides in over 12 developed areas in Colorado Springs. The landslide damage and destruction exceeded $80 million dollars. A combined federal, state and local response included active participation by property owners in an open and transparent public process. The resulting federally funded mitigation project was a success, but this can only be considered an interim objective for an inherent serious local problem. Colorado Springs is normally an arid environment but high moisture years, like 1999, can result in activation of new landslides and reactivation of existing landslides. Residential neighborhoods continue to expand …

A Capacity Spectrum Method For Seismic Risk Assessment, Sergio Molina, Conrad D. Lindholm

Geohazards

Although earthquakes and the associated damage occur in a fundamentally deterministic way, the processes are so complex that our prediction scenarios are basically uncertain approximations. In the first attempts to model hazard and risk, point estimates based on empirical data were used, however, for quite some time the more advanced seismic hazard modelling has been based on models in which the variability/uncertainty of the input parameters are consistently carried through the computations so that the results are probabilistically combined to give a median value and confidence levels that reflect on the input parameter uncertainty. For seismic damage scenarios the first …

Quantification Of Energy Consumption And Emissions Using Biodiesel In An Urban Bus Fleet, A. R. Branco, R. Silva, A Vasconcelos, T. L. Farias, L. T. Moura,

Bioenergy - I: From Concept to Commercial Processes

No abstract provided.

Oleochemical Biofuel, Peter Reimers

Bioenergy - I: From Concept to Commercial Processes

No abstract provided.

Biogas Potential In Chile, Rolando Chamy, Elba Vivanco

Bioenergy - I: From Concept to Commercial Processes

No abstract provided.

Enhanced Profitability Through Technology, Integration And Diversification, Jeffrey Robert

Bioenergy - I: From Concept to Commercial Processes

No abstract provided.

Biorefinery Process Economics, Gregory M. Bohlmann

Bioenergy - I: From Concept to Commercial Processes

No abstract provided.

Brick Furnaces – Hoffman Type: Technical Feasibility Of Incinerating Municipal Solid Wastes (Msw), Cesar Augusto Garcia U., Juan Carlos Moreno P.

Bioenergy - I: From Concept to Commercial Processes

No abstract provided.

Ethanol Processing Co-Products - Current Constraints And Future Directions, Kurt A. Rosentrater

Bioenergy - I: From Concept to Commercial Processes

No abstract provided.