Note from the FORESEE Coordinator, Iñaki Beltran (Tecnalia)
It is great to be sending you a note again after an unprecedented year of COVID-19 impacts across Europe and the globe. As you can see from the picture on the left, the FORESEE project held our General Assembly meeting online, adapting to the Zoomification of project operations that many of you have also adopted this year. We have had much success this year and our network has grown so that our collaborations are reaching a higher number of stakeholders. We hope you enjoy this issue of our e-newsletter which features a spotlight on the impact of the Storm Alex on roads and bridges in Europe with notes from RINA and Telespazio UK. We also take stock of our hugely successful Joint Virtual Workshop with PANOPTS, SAFEWAY and RESIST as well as our well-attended Stakeholder Reference Group workshop in October. Our Stakeholder Reference Group keeps growing with new experts and is positioning itself as a relevant platform in the sector. Its next webinar will be on January 21st, and you can find more details below in this newsletter. Thank you for following our project. Stay safe, keep in touch, and have a Merry Christmas. - Mr.Iñaki Beltran (Tecnalia): inaki.beltran@tecnalia.com
Remotely safeguarding our bridges from frequent and extreme weather events: A case for Satellite-Structural Health Monitoring by RINA and Telespazio UK
Severe flooding caused by frequently occurring and high intensity storm events can no longer be called unusual or unprecedented. Extreme weather events in the recent decades is closely linked to climate change factors such as an increase in sea surface temperatures (SST) which is observed to be increasing 24% faster than a decade ago. Every bit of warming increases precipitation levels, which directly correlates to storm intensities. Our global temperatures are at a record high average of 1.1⁰c higher than the last century and the harsh reality is that these record readings and subsequent flooding events are not anomalies, they are new patterns that will only continue to exceed year on year. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC) warned in 2014 that the UK was set to receive about 10 percent additional rainfall on an average per year by 2100 with evidence of greater flood risk on the island. We are now seeing those projections playout as climate experts in the UK have noticed that the average number of storm events since 2016/2017 has increased from 5 to 8 and are recurring in quicker successions than ever before, a recent example being the twin storms Ciara and Denis of February 2020. The recent devastation caused by Storm Alex during the month of October 2020 is evidence against extreme climate disruption caused by countries and is a forewarning as Europe aims to become the world’s first climate neutral continent by 2050.
RINA, the esteemed partner in the EU H2020 FORESEE project consortia, has documented the magnitude of Storm Alex impact in Italy and France with a series of photographs. In particular, RINA has focussed on its impact on road transport links, a critical backbone for communities and their connectivity
1.1 There has been severe damage to transport infrastructure in Europe this Autumn and Winter. FORESEE experts have collated some reports on Italy and France. Please see below for details.
1.2 Collapse of the Historic Roman bridge In Bagnasco (Cuneo) because of the impact of the Tanaro river. The river caused different damages in the nearby locations, Ormea, Ceva, Bagnasco, Garessio.
The high level of the Sesia river caused the collapse of the Romagnano bridge in Novara, one hour after the opening of the service. Collapse occurred after the wave of bad weather.
1.3 LENZINO BRIDGE - ALTA VALTREBBIA (80 KM FROM PIACENZA)
Historic Bridge Collapse in the State Road 45 in Alta Valtrebbia in the municipality of Cortebrugnatella (Piacenza). The State Road, that connects Genoa to Piacenza, is closed and so the viability has changed, increasing the travel time and the kilometers of the road section. The bridge has been in disrepair for years that remarks the lack of maintenance and mitigation actions.
1.4 GABY BRIDGE – VALLE D’AOSTA
The collapse of the Gaby bridge interrupted the connection between two towns, Gressoney-Saint-Jean and Gressoney-La-Trinite
1.5 BRIDGE COLLAPSE – VENTIMIGLIA
The overflowed event of the Roya river in Ventimiglia caused the collapse of the Squarciafichi walkway, one of the symbols of the city. The Roya river broke the banks and is floded a Ventimiglia, causing disastrous flood due to torrential rains.
1.6 BRIDGE COLLAPSE IN VASSALICO – IMPERIA
1.7 BRIDGE COLLAPSE IN THE PROVINCE OF BIELLA
The road segments of the bridge partially collapsed due to the impact of the Strona river.
1.8 MAISSA BRIDGE IN SAINT -MARTIN VESUBIE (FRANCE)
The heavy rains which fell on the Alpes – Maritimes caused the Maissa bridge collapse as the river suffered a significant flood. The water level in the Boreon Rier reached a high level and its impact destroyed the bridge.
1.9 ELUCIDATIONS: RINA
The events that hit Italy and France in October 2020 remark the need of Risk and Resilience Assessments that Transport Infrastructures may include in the Asset Management. Foresee project tries to define a methodology that allows the determination of the Level o Criticality of different type of assets composing the Network, as Bridges, road segment (slopes, embankments and trenches) and tunnels against hazard of this type derived from Rainfall and heavy flooding events.
In Foresee the Vulnerability and Fragility Tool and Decision Support Module gives an overview of the vulnerability, risk, impacts and resilience estimation of bridges, road segments and tunnels against natural hazards. The tool, in case of a Traffic Module implementation, defines the Level of Service reductions in different sections over the Transport Infrastructure due to the service interruption caused by a specific asset.
The aftermath of a single storm event highlights the resilience of critical infrastructure to extreme weather events, such as heavy rainfall, high temperatures and winter storms. The economic and societal dependency on these infrastructures, especially in flood prone countries such as the UK makes it one of the most demanding challenges for the government. The UK has historically suffered from flooding and suffers from an exponential increase in economic damages to the country’s infrastructures and societies. Prior to the 2020 storms, the last time several storms struck in quick succession – Eva, Frank and Desmond, it caused damages valued at £1.3bn. The February 2020 storms, Ciara and Denis together incurred an estimated insurance loss of £350-425 Million and counting . We are yet to understand the economic impact of Storm Alex. A report by the Environmental Agency notes that critical transport infrastructures such as road and rail links incur significant economic impacts from floods, reportedly an estimate average of £12 Million for Rail transport and £ 220 Million for Road transport.
Public authorities understand that different types of bridges are sensitive to different failure mechanisms, hence having awareness of the bridge health and its surroundings is the first step for an effective risk management of the asset. Successfully chosen under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, FORESEE tries to define a methodology that allows the determination of the Level of Criticality of different type of assets composing the Network, as Bridges, road segment (slopes, embankments and trenches) and tunnels against hazard of this type derived from heavy rainfall and flooding events. A critical component of the project led by Telespazio UK is furthering the development of its Satellite Structural Health Monitoring (S-SHM) tool to detect structural deformation. Using big data analytics, S-SHM shall characterise assets and their potential structural vulnerabilities delivering increased situational awareness before, during and after extreme events.
Through exclusive access to the COSMO-SkyMed X-band satellite information combined with C-band Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite data, Telespazio UK demonstrates the effectiveness of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technique to detect millimetre ground deformations from subsidence helping to gather a wealth of information on the stability of the infrastructure and its surroundings. Ground motion detected by Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry is also useful to identify potentially hazardous slopes across wide areas and when combined with other data sources produces cost effective and accurate landslide prediction models. Ultimately, the data from the S-SHM tool combined with the landslide prediction model, being developed by the University of Edinburgh shall be integrated into a Situational Awareness System (SAS) notification tool for stakeholders to receive 3D visualisations of the failure points within a structure and to issue failure alerts when predicted structural motion exceeds a critical threshold for the asset.
In this case, the S-SHM tool can support and improve operational efficiencies for management staff responsible for inspections and maintenance by providing accurate information on – historical site data, hazard and vulnerability information and early warning information. S-SHM as a service has many wide spread benefits to safeguard critical transport network from extreme weather events and is a key assessment tool of an assets performance and condition. A weather independent service, S-SHM allows multiple bridges to be managed simultaneously with planned target inspection, long term enhanced awareness of maintenance requirements and predictive analysis of structural motion and deformation estimates of surrounding land. With the now persistent threat of more frequent and more intense weather events because of a changing climate, it is imperative for all transport authorities to adopt necessary measures to forecast, maintain and prepare critical infrastructures as part of its own climate risk disclosure and operational resilience. Incorporating S-SHM into best practices will bring exceptional cost savings and operational benefits to all stakeholders involved from public authorities, engineering contractors to insurance providers.
Europe has a number of bridges with important historical value – all of which are essential to the economy and society. The trend towards urbanisation continues to rise, demanding effective monitoring strategies to identify structural problems before they become critical and endanger public safety. The climatological threats on our transportation infrastructure and its alarming economic impact raises many questions around the understanding and preparedness for these risks. The events that hit Italy and France in October 2020 remark the need of state of the art Risk and Resilience Assessments to be adopted by the transport sector. The ongoing success of the FORESEE project is geared to provide short and long term resilience schemes for rail and road corridors to reduce the magnitude and/or duration of disruptive events produced by humans or the nature.
Words by Krupa Nanda Kumar (Telespazio UK) and Marcello Cademartori (RINA)
Joint Virtual Workshop with RESIST, PANOPTIS and SAFEWAY, November 2020
Together with colleagues from @PANOPTIS, @project_resist and @SAFEWAY_EU we particpated in a joint virtual workshop on November 10th. Over 75 participants logged on from all over Europe and the globe to contribute to enriching discussions on the future of transport. We focussed on the importance of transport resilience for Europe and the need for safe and reliable Automobile and Train infrastructure. #H2020RTR20 We will work with our colleagues to continue to have more collaborations in the future.
SRG Workshop on adaptation measures for resilient transport infrastructures: new materials and systems: October 2020
On the 27th October, the FORESEE Stakeholder Reference Group organised the 2nd Workshop “Adaptation measures for resilient transport infrastructures New materials and systems” gathering 44 international experts, 35 members of the consortium and 1 representative from INEA.
During this meeting, participants shared knowledge and successful experiences in two sessions with another relevant topic to the ongoing research: increase resilience and safety while reducing risks and users’ risk perception both in railway and road infrastructures.
The webinar was divided in two sessions and the final roundtable to gather external experts animating further discussions. Main elements of the first session focussed on climate change mitigation, network vulnerability, flooding, slope drainage and stabilisation (flexible systems), protection systems (rock fall barriers) and computer simulations. The second session covered latest developments in permeable pavements and new flooding methodology offering an overview of sustainable drainage systems and their potential application in transport infrastructures.
Proving a valuable contribution through its continuous counsel to the consortium, SRG experts had the opportunity to further engage in the research exchanging views on the topic and preparing contributions to a dedicated questionnaire that will be submitted in the coming weeks.
The SRG´s involvement will intensify during the six demonstrations starting in 2021. It will also help to validate and facilitate the acceptation of the results thanks to its 120 stakeholders including several infrastructure owner and managers from public and private sectors. Concretely, coming events of the SRG will be the following:
• 4th SRG webinar (January 21st, 2021): measuring the resilience of, and prioritizing interventions for, road transport systems in practice, including some application to A16 highway in Italy)
• 3rd SRG workshop (March 18th, 2021): structural Health Monitoring (bridges, tunnels, slope protections, etc)
For further information about the FORESEE Stakeholders’ Reference Group, please contact the FORESEE SRG chairman, Dr. Jesús Rodríguez Santiago: jesus.rodriguez@upm.es
Upcoming Stakeholder Reference Group webinar: Measuring the resilience of, and prioritizing interventions for, road transport systems in practice
January 21st, 2021: 10:00 to 12:00 (CET)
In this 4th webinar, the use of two methodologies to: (i) measure the resilience of the transport infrastructure and (ii) prioritize interventions accordingly, are presented and discussed. The work follows up with these discussed in the 3rd SRG webinar, where the algorithms to determine optimal restoration and risk reduction intervention programs where presented. Here these algorithms are briefly recall in the introduction and then two presentations are given to show how to support managers in deciding on interventions prioritization in real-world conditions of practice, i.e. with various degrees of accuracy required, time-frame at disposition, expertise and information available. The presentations covers the following:
• a methodology to define clearly a transport system, how to measure the service provided and the resilience and how to set resilience targets, and
• a methodology for prioritizing resilience enhancing interventions, taking into account current and target values of resilience indicators.
For demonstration purposes, the explanation of the two methodologies is supported by their use on the case study transport system of the A16 highway in Italy (Figure 1), which is also presented and discussed.
Should you have any questions about the webinar, please contact the FORESEE SRG chairman, Dr. Jesús Rodríguez Santiago: jesus.rodriguez@upm.es
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Created with images by pasja1000 - "the side of the road snow mountains" • Julius_Silver - "london tower bridge england" • marcinjozwiak - "road drone aerial"