Public Infrastructure Asset Management by W. Uddin, W. Ronald Hudson, Ralph Haas. ISBN 0071820116  McGraw-Hill, New York, 2013
Available from Amazon.com, July-August 2013

Book Foreword:

Dr. Robert C. Khayat

Chancellor Emeritus
The University of Mississippi

Excerpts from Chancellor Khayat’s Foreword:

Public Infrastructure Asset Management (Authors: Uddin, Hudson, Haas) ISBN 0071820116, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2013

“This second edition of Public Infrastructure Asset Management effectively addresses the role and importance of civil infrastructure across the spectrum of quality of life concerns including clean and adequate water supply, energy needs and consumption, and multiple means of transportation. Advocating public attention to this critical subject is increasing in importance globally as our nation addresses significant allocation of resource challenges. Infrastructure improvement cannot be delayed if we are to continue as a vital nation.

Professors Waheed Uddin, Ronald Hudson and Ralph Haas have rendered great service to professional engineers and to our society by producing a well-organized, thoughtful guide for moving forward as we address urgent needs that affect all of us.”

Dr. Khayat served as the 15th Chancellor of The University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) from 1995 until his retirement in 2009. Educated at Yale and Ole Miss where he was an Academic All-American football and baseball player, Dr. Khayat received the NFL Lifetime Achievement Award and the National Football Foundation Distinguished American Award. Under his outstanding leadership, the university experienced amazing changes, increased enrolment, campus infrastructure renovation, and addition of new facilities.

Dr. Khayat’s distinguished leadership as the 15^th Chancellor brought national focus on the new face of the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, Mississippi. Ole Miss hosted Obama’s First Presidential Debate in 2008.

Complete Foreword follows.  Dr. Khayat’s Foreword for 2013 Infrastructure Book, 26 Dec 2012

Public Infrastructure Asset Management

The new 2013 book updates the post-1997 technological developments, societal concerns, and impacts of built infrastructure assets on the environment. It provides optimal integration of design, construction, maintenance, rehabilitation, and renovation, for physical infrastructure facilities.

About The Authors 

Waheed Uddin is Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of Center for Advanced Infrastructure Technology (CAIT) at The University of Mississippi. Previously, a pavement expert for the United Nations, Dr. Uddin has contributed to highway and airport infrastructure management projects in the U.S. and many countries abroad. A pioneer in airborne laser mapping and satellite imagery applications in transportation and disaster impact assessment, Dr. Uddin is co-author of Infrastructure Management.

W. Ronald Hudson is the Dewitt C Greer Centennial Professor of Civil Engineering Emeritus at The University of Texas at Austin and Senior Consultant AgileAssets, Inc. A pioneer in developing and applying management systems to pavements, bridges, and other civil infrastructure assets, Dr. Hudson is co-author of Modern Pavement Management and Infrastructure Management.

Ralph Haas is the Norman W. McLeod Engineering Professor and Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. He holds country’s highest civilian honor, the Order of Canada and the highest academic honor, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. An innovator in pavement design and civil infrastructure management systems, Dr. Haas is co-author of Modern Pavement Management and Infrastructure Management.

Dr. Uddin’s note: The 2013 edition of our book will be published by McGraw-Hill in July 2013. See my other books.

Recently I met Chancellor Khayat regarding our new book on infrastructure management. Dr. Khayat spoke about Ole Miss and the amazing change that we observe and experience on the campus: grove, students, cultural diversity, and infrastructures. See video of Dr. Khayat’s conversation.

Numerous small tremors and on the average 19 major earthquakes occur globally each year. No state is free from earthquake risk in the United States. This was shown by Carrissa Beaseley in May/June 2011 Guest Post 1 who analyzed U.S. historical data of major earthquakes and created geospatial maps of seismic risk in the U.S.

Currently a graduate student at the University of Mississippi and CAIT Research Assistant, Ms. Carissa Beaseley has produced two more seismic risk maps. The first map compares historical 1895′s 6.8 magnitude earthquake at New Madrid, Missouri that affected a much larger area compared to a similar magnitude earthquake in California. The second map illustrates how many states, counties and population in a 200-mile radius around the New Madrid epicenter could be devastated by a future large earthquake event.

Historical Earthquake Map of the United States (map credit: Carrissa Beaseley)

Earthquake Risk Map of 200-km Radius Region around New Madrid, Missouri, the United States (map credit: Carrissa Beaseley)

Magnitude 3.4 earthquake rattles Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolis in the United States: The initial earthquake, measured at a preliminary magnitude of 3.4, struck at 11:05 p.m. CDT Saturday and was centered about 2 miles north of the Dallas suburb of Irving, the US Geological Survey’s national earthquake monitoring center in Golden, Colo., reported…the smaller aftershock with an estimated 3.1 magnitude occurred four minutes later and just a few miles away in another area west of Dallas. The Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport continued routine operations even though the shaking was felt at the airport, which is partly located in Irving’s city limits, airport public affairs officer David Magana said. He told AP that the airport, which has 1,800 daily departures and arrivals, had little air traffic late Saturday night. Irving’s emergency operators were flooded with more than 400 calls after the initial quake, with people reporting minor damage, such as cracks in some walls and a ceiling, pictures that had been knocked down and a report of a possible gas leak. USGS geophysicist Don Blakeman said Sunday… naturally occurring quakes can happen anywhere…. (credit: AP, ABCNEWS)

Magnitude 7.1 earthquake reported in Colombia, September 30, 2012: Colombian authorities say there are no immediate reports of injuries or damage from an earthquake centered deep underground in the country’s southwest whose magnitude the U.S. Geological Survey placed at 7.1. The USGS says the quake struck at 11:31 a.m. local time on Sunday 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the regional capital of Popayan. It says it was centered at a depth of 94 miles (150 kilometers). (credit: AP, http://abcnews.go.com)

Rare great earthquake in April 2012 triggers large aftershocks all over the globe: Large earthquakes can alter seismicity patterns across the globe in very different ways, according to two new studies by US Geological Survey seismologists. Both studies shed light on more than a decade of debate on the origin and prevalence of remotely triggered earthquakes. Until now, distant but damaging “aftershocks” have not been included in hazard assessments, yet in each study, changes in seismicity were predictable enough to be included in future evaluations of earthquake hazards. This is a syndicated post, which originally appeared at ScienceDaily: Natural Disaster News. View original post. September 26, 2012.

Large April 2012 earthquake triggered temblors worldwide for nearly a week: This year’s largest earthquake, a magnitude 8.6 temblor on April 11 centered in the East Indian Ocean off Sumatra, did little damage, but it triggered quakes around the world for at least a week, according to a new analysis by seismologists. This is a syndicated post, which originally appeared at ScienceDaily: Natural Disaster News. View original post. September 26. 2012.

Study reveals complex rupture process in surprising April 2012 Sumatra earthquake: The massive earthquake that struck under the Indian Ocean southwest of Sumatra on April 11, 2012, came as a surprise to seismologists and left them scrambling to figure out exactly what had happened. Analysis of the seismic waves generated during the event has now revealed a complicated faulting process unlike anything seen before. This is a syndicated post, which originally appeared at ScienceDaily: Natural Disaster News. View original post. September 26, 2012.  During the magnitude 8.7 earthquake, the Indo-Australian plate–a major tectonic plate that includes Australia and the surrounding ocean–ruptured over a complex network of at least four faults lying at right angles to one another. It was both the largest strike-slip earthquake and the largest intraplate earthquake ever recorded. The faults broke through the upper part of the plate and appear to have slipped as much as 35 to 40 meters during the quake….this is not a particularly hazardous type of earthquake, because the horizontal slip does not displace the water above the fault enough to generate a big tsunami and…present a lot of societal hazard…

Magnitude 8.7 earthquake was part of crustal plate breakup: Seismologists have known for years that the Indo-Australian plate of Earth’s crust is slowly breaking apart, but they saw it in action last April when at least four faults broke in a magnitude-8.7 earthquake that may be the largest of its type ever recorded. This is a syndicated post, which originally appeared at ScienceDaily: Natural Disaster News. View original post. September 26, 2012.

Associate Press (AP) Interactive Tutorial on Earthquakes: ”Thousand of earthquakes occur all over the world each day. Most are too small to feel. But on average there are 19 earthquakes each year that will be considered “major” or “great” according to the  U.S. Geological Survey.  The 1811 massive earthquake at New Madrid, Missouri caused landslides along the Mississippi River from southern tip of Illinois to Memphis.” (credit: AP)

Dr. Uddin’s Note: Destructive tsunamis are produced by earthquakes on ocean beds, such as 2004 Sumatra’s 9.3 earthquake and tsunami. An earthquake measuring 8.9 magnitude on the Richter scale hit the northeast coast of Japan on March 11, 2011 causing tsunami alerts throughout the Pacific Ocean. The 2011 Japan’s 8.9 earthquake and tsunami crippled the nuclear reactors of Fukushima power plant and led to one of the worst nuclear disasters in the world.

Seismic activities around the globe can be seen on the live world earthquake map available through the internet (USGS/Google). The USGS and NOAA have installed seismic monitoring stations in the U.S. and all over the world. In the case of tsunami it helps to provide early warning alerts to residents in the affected coastal communities. In earthquake prone Turkey there is a similar effort to monitor seismic tremors deep below ground in and around Marmara Sea.

Exploration drilling to monitor earthquakes in the Istanbul area, Turkey: Today the drilling starts for a seismic monitoring network on the Marmara Sea near Istanbul. Specially designed seismic sensors in eight boreholes on the outskirts of Istanbul and around the eastern Marmara Sea will monitor the seismic activity of the region with high precision. In each of the respective 300 meter deep holes several borehole seismometers will be permanently installed at various depths. These detect even barely perceptible earthquakes with very small magnitudes at a high resolution and can thus provide information about the earthquake rupture processes associated with these. This is a syndicated post, which originally appeared at ScienceDaily: Natural Disaster News. View original post. September 7, 2012.

• The Wenatchee Complex Fire started with a lightning strike on September 9, 2012. It has grown to over 39,000 acres and is currently 22 percent contained.
• The Okanogen Complex Fire started with a lightning strike (in three of the four fire locations) on September 8, 2012 and is has currently burned over 5,000 acres. The Buckhorn, Leecher, and Hunter Fire are all part of this complex.
• The Goat Fire started a week later on the night of September 15, 2012 and its cause is still under investigation. Terrain is extreme with this fire complex making it much more difficult to fight.
• The Table Mountain Complex Fire had a lightning strike start as well on September 8, 2012. It is currently 9500 acres in size.
• The Yamika Fire Complex started on Saturday, September 8th during a significant lightning storm. Over 3,000 strikes occurred in Eastern Washington, igniting well over 100 fires. Three thousand acres are currently burning in this complex fire and it is over 40 percent contained.
• The Cascade Creek Fire is burning on the south slope of Mt. Adams. It is nine miles north of Trout Lake, WA. The fire was started by a lightning strike from that same storm that ignited most of the fires burning in Washington State. Currently over 9,300 acres have been affected and the fire is 50 percent contained. The highest priority remains keeping the fire from moving east onto the Yakama Nation, state and private lands.

• In the study published in the journalNatural Hazards, the researchers drew a map of the world's geographic zones that are more at risk of large tsunamis. Based on this data, 23 nuclear power plants with 74 reactors have been identified in high risk areas.
• One of them includes Fukushima I. Out of them, 13 plants with 29 reactors are active; another four, that now have 20 reactors, are being expanded to house nine more; and there are seven new plants under construction with 16 reactors.
• "We are dealing with the first vision of the global distribution of civil nuclear power plants situated on the coast and exposed to tsunamis," as explained by José Manuel Rodríguez-Llanes, coauthor of the study and researcher at the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) of the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. The authors used historical, archaeological, geological and instrumental records as a base for determining tsunami risk.
• Despite the fact that the risk of these natural disasters threatens practically the entire western coast of the American continent, the Spanish/Portuguese Atlantic Coast and the coast of North Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and areas of Oceania, especially in South and Southeast Asia are at greater risk due to the presence of atomic power stations.
• China: Some 27 out of 64 nuclear reactors that are currently under construction in the world are found in China. This is an example of the massive nuclear investment. "The most important fact is that 19 (two of which are in Taiwan) out of the 27 reactors are being built in areas identified as dangerous," state the authors of the study.
• Japan: Japan in March 2011 suffered the consequences of the worse tsunami in its history, there are seven plants with 19 reactors at risk, one of which is currently under construction.
• South Korea is now expanding two plants at risk with five reactors.
• India (two reactors) and Pakistan (one reactor) could also feel the consequences of a tsunami in the plants.

This is my third report related to the flood impact assessment after my December 2011 visit to Bangkok, Thailand. As observed during my student days of 1973-75 at the beautiful AIT campus, the surrounding area was mostly paddy fields, klongs, and small villages with traditional Thai wooden buildings on wooden piles so that the first floor and living space was above normal flood level. This is one type of flood protective design of residential/commercial buildings recommended by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in addition to the dike (flood wall) protection that was used to protect the AIT campus where all buildings were built of reinforced concrete structures.

The entire campus of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Pathumthani province was inundated with by 2-3 m of floodwater on October 21 for about six weeks until the end of November 2011. The administration deployed their emergency evacuation plan successfully and evacuated all staff, students, faculty and a number of classroom furniture and computer equipment to two temporary locations in Hua Hin and Cha-am. The floodwater was pumped out and recovery and restoration operations started at the campus in Rangsit immediately in early December with the help of campus community and Thai alumni with the worldwide alumni support. http://infrastructureglobal.com/?p=1744.

The academic program was relocated to the Rangsit campus in February 2012. These milestone achievements have been unprecedented. It also necessitated the need for strategic flood defense planning in case of future floods to save the campus infrastructure and expensive laboratory and computer research equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

AIT Campus Infrastructure and Inspection Map Based on 19 Dec 2011 Visit Notes of Dr. Waheed Uddin (Map Credit: Alper Durmus)

The following summary of imagery-based pre-flood campus inventory and post-flood damage assessment of the AIT campus in Bangkok is partially based on the M.S. thesis of Alper Durmus completed on July 26, 2012 at the University of Mississippi. Only key results of the geospatial analysis using pre- and post-flood Ikonos satellite imagery scenes are presented to assess pre-flood built infrastructure and post-flood safeguard strategies.

The 2010 pre-flood imagery from December 18, 2010 shows clearly all the roads, buildings, dikes, and other features of this green and ecologically healthy campus.

Uddin’s Pre-Flood Assessment of AIT Campus Infrastructure Using geoeye’s IKONOS Imagery of 18 Dec 2010

 

The 2011 imagery from early November 4, 2011 shows the flooded campus and confirms the field inspection on December 19, 2011. Flood water devastated the first floors of all buildings.

Uddin’s AIT Campus Flood Assessment Using geoeye’s IKONOS Imagery of 4 Nov 2011

The 2.5m high campus dikes, serving well as a floodwall to protect the campus since 1970 for over 40 years, were breached as the highway on eastside worked as a dam collecting runoff and floodwater from around other educational institutes and industrial/commercial estates.

Uddin’s AIT Flood Assessment Map of Flood Depth With Features, 30 June 2012 (Map Credit: Alper Durmus)

A detailed analysis of several flood defense strategies was conducted. Alternative 1 was the least costly based on initial construction costs, which is being implemented by AIT due to the urgency and available funding constraint. The following ranking is based on 50-year life cycle costs.

Alper Durmus’s M.S. thesis examines in detail the catastrophic flood damage assessment of the AIT campus using pre- and post-flood 1-m satellite imagery scenes and recommends FRP sheet pile panel along the existing dikes as a long term cost-effective flood defense strategy.

 

ASEAN Region Countries (data credit: CIA Factbook; geospatial map credit: Carrissa Beasely)

Since its establishment in Bangkok in 1959 AIT has served billions of people worldwide by supporting and granting MS and PhD degrees to over 19,000 selected students across the globe from 88 countries. AIT is a successful model of post-graduate higher education institution serving Asia and other developing countries in the world for achieving capacity building and self reliance goals.

AIT Alumni by Country of Origin, Spatial Map (map credit: Carrissa Beasely, Oxford, Mississippi / data credit: Dr. Tien, AIT)

AIT Campus, Pathumthani (north of Bangkok), Thailand

AIT celebrated its 117th Graduation Ceremony on 1 June 2012 in Thailand, another milestone since AIT renewed its status as an international intergovernmental organization. A total of 425 students from 25 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America were conferred with postgraduate degrees by AIT President Said Irandoust. These new alumni include 28 Doctoral degrees and 397 Master’s degrees in the fields of engineering, environment, and management.

According to Dr. H.L. Tien, Head of AIT Alumni Affairs, 90% of AIT alumni reside in Asia. The following addition information is provided by AIT Alumni Affairs:

• AIT Alumni now reside in 108 countries/territories or more than half of the world’s 193 U.N. member countries/territories.
• After June 2012 Graduation, there are more than 19,000 alumni and 26% of them are female and 5.4% of them with AIT Doctor or PhD degrees.
• The number of graduates of the first 7 years of The SEATO Graduate School of Engineering was only 175.
• The number of AIT graduates of from 2001- June 2012 consists of 44% of the total number of alumni.
• Alumni were holding or still hold some high-ranking government offices and top decision-making positions or listed among the richest persons of a country such as:

   √     Members of a National Parliament

   √     Ministers in a Government

            √      Supreme Commander of a National Armed Forces

            √     Rector/President of National Universities and International Research Institutions

            √     Ambassador of a country to other country

            √     Listed among 40 richest persons of a nation

            √     Executive Chairman, owner or President of the leading or biggest companies in a country/territory

            √     Executive Directors of multinational or international Organizations or companies

• Many alumni received prestigious international awards/honors including the Ramon Magsaysay Award.
• As per information available there are at least 30 alumni working for top 100 of Fortune 500 companies.

These AIT graduates reside and work in 108 countries/territories. Approximately one-third of these proud AIT alumni have been from Thailand, which is a testimony of AIT’s valuable contribution to the Royal Thai Government.

AIT Alumni by Country of Residence, Spatial Map (map credit: Carrissa Beasely, Oxford, Mississippi / data credit: Dr. Tien, AIT))

Top 22 countries with more than 100 alumni residing include:

1. Thailand        5933
2. Vietnam         2805
3. Taiwan           777
4. Nepal             721
5. Indonesia      678
6. Bangladesh   664
7. Philippines    625
8. India              603
9. United States 581
10. Pakistan         587
11. Sri Lanka       545
12. China              529
13. Australia        502
14. Myanmar       392
15. Cambodia      376
16. Laos                309
17. Malaysia        277
18. Singapore      219
19. Canada           208
20. France            163
21. Japan             154
22. Korea             155

AIT serves Thailand and all other countries in the ASEAN region. Overall more  than 70% world population is served by AIT zone of influence where AIT alumni reside, work, and serve the society.

ASEAN Countries (map credit: Carrissa Beasely, Mississippi / map data source: CIA Fact Book)

Dr. Uddin’s Note: I am indebted to AIT where I received my M.S. degree through a full scholarship grant of the U.K. Government. Following several years of experience in airport and road construction projects, I was awarded PhD in transportation from the University of Texas at Austin. Since 1992 I have been teaching, conducting research, and mentoring students at the University of Mississippi in the U.S. My specialized professional areas include infrastructure, transportation systems, sustainability  and biodiversity practice in engineering design and construction, remote sensing and geospatial applications.

In May Intersession 2012 I continued my annual geospatial courses for 3 credit hour that I have been offering since 2008 at the University of Mississippi, USA. ENGR597-section 25 is senior/graduate level course. Since 2012 I have been offering CE495 course for undergraduate senior students. During 2012 semester course lectures I motivated the students to use “sustainability” challenges for their geospatial and GIS term projects. Again, like previous years students conducted excellent research and produced outstanding reports on the following topics:

1. The Environmental Impacts of Oil Refineries – Christopher Betts
2. Geospatial Analysis of Disaster Evacuation Options using Infrastructure Assessments of Select City School Districts in Mississippi – Seth Cobb
3. A Geospatial Study of Emission Testing Programs and Transportation Related Air Pollution Indicators – Courtney Cunningham
4. Geospatial Analysis study of Wetland Loss Along The Coast of Louisiana – Kyle Grantham
5. Geospatial Mapping of Carbon Dioxide Emissions due to Burning of Fossil Fuels for Different Sectors of U.S. Economy – Sean Levine
6. Geospatial Analysis of U.S. Gasoline and Natural Gas Among the States – Miller McNamara
7. Comparison of Current and Future Demands of Electricity Worldwide using Visualization Application Techniques – Whitney Pardew
8. Geospatial Analysis of Vehicle Miles Traveled by State and How it Relates to CO₂ Emissions – Andrew Rose
9. Geospatial Study of Deforestation Trend in the United States - William Shaw
10. Geospatial Analysis of United States Highway Fatality Trends by Functional Class – Landon Shows
11. Geospatial Assessment of Pre-flood Campus Infrastructure, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand – Alper Durmus (M.S. student)

Ms. Carrissa Beasley, CAIT Research Assistant, assisted me in the course. Carrissa will graduate in summer 2012.

Selected guest posts from the above list will be published soon.

Dr. Waheed Uddin’s Geospatial Course, 25 May 2012

Dr. Waheed Uddin’s Geospatial Course, 25 May 2012

The purpose of roadside guardrail is to absorb the impact energy of a vehicle that may have lost control and stopped and redirected by the guardrail to avoid serious crash. The computer simulation result shown in the animation accurately reproduced an actual crash test results reported in the literature.

Pickup C2500 Impacting Thrie Beam Guardrail at 15 deg impact angle

The following excerpt is from car-accidents.com: “Accident data indicates that 50 to 60% of all reported guardrail accidents result in an injury or a fatality…… However, other accident data that takes into account unreported accidents, indicates that guardrails may be safe. This study believes that unreported guardrail impacts represent nearly 90% of the total collisions with guardrails, with the other 10% being reported. When looked at this way only 6% of guardrail accidents result in injuries or death.”

Dr. Uddin’s Note: The simulation animation that I presented in this post was originally developed as a part of the Crash Modeling and Simulation Center of Excellence project conducted at the University of Mississippi.