Minutes of Fourth & Final Meeting of TC32of ISSMGE in Period 2001 ?2005
(TC32: “Technical Committee on Risk Assessment and Management?
ISSMGE: International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical
Engineering)
Held
Goals of TC32
As previously established, the goals of TC32 are to promote and enhance professional activities and education in geotechnical and geo-environmental engineering, in areas related to:
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Geostatistics and
probabilistic site characterization
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Quantification of uncertainties in performance
prediction
?span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> Reliability-based design
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Risk-based decision analysis
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Calibration of LRFD-type geotechnical design
codes
These goals are to be achieved through the
following activities:
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Arrange special
sessions and short courses in connection with relevant international
conferences and seminars
?span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> Create a Glossary of risk terms and definitions by December 2004
?span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> Develop Guidelines for risk assessment and management in geotechnical engineering by December 2004
?span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> Liaison and co-operation with other risk-related committees
?span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> Provide relevant information on the web (e.g., case studies and bibliography) to the geotechnical community
TC32’s current mandate is through September 2005.
Meeting Agenda (see Appendix):
1.
Introduction and welcome
2.
Review of previous
minutes
3.
Report on committee
tasks in the period 2001-2005
4.
Upcoming conferences
and events of interest
5.
Recommendation for activities of
TC32 for the period 2005-2009
6.
Any other business
Meeting convened at
List of attendees:
|
Name |
Organization |
Country |
Status |
E-mail |
|
Farrokh
Nadim |
NGI |
|
Chair |
|
|
Wai-Keung Pun (representing
Ken Ho) |
Civil Engineering and Development Department |
Hong Kong |
Core Member |
|
|
Marcus
Pacheco |
Rio de Janeiro State Univ. |
Brazil |
Core Member |
|
|
Anthony O’Brien |
Motto MacDonald Ltd |
|
Member |
|
|
Bak
Kong Low |
Nanyang
Technological University |
|
Member |
|
|
D. |
|
|
Observer |
|
|
Hans Rathmayer (representing Leena
Korkiala-Tanttu) |
VTT |
|
Member |
|
|
Kok Kwang Phoon |
|
|
Observer |
|
|
Jan Hellings |
Dr Jan Hellings &
Associates Ltd |
|
Observer |
|
|
Yusuke Honjo |
|
|
Observer |
|
|
Waldemar Hachich |
|
|
Observer |
|
|
Werner Bilfinger |
Vecttor Profetos LTDA |
|
Observer |
|
|
Peter Scharle (representing Nagy
Laszlo and J. Lorincz) |
|
Hungry |
Member |
Apologies were received from Gordon Fenton, Bill Roberds, Philippe Bourdeau, Wilson
Tang, Baris Trak, and Lars
Olsson.
The minutes of the previous meeting of TC32 (June
2004 in
Item 3 ?Report on committee tasks in the period 2001-2005
Farrokh Nadim
has prepared a report on TC32 activities in the period 2001-2005, which is
available on the TC32 web site and will be published in a post-conference
volume of the 16th ICSMGE proceedings.
The following inter-related TC32 activities were discussed:
?span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> Glossary ?An official glossary of terms for risk assessment and management was issued by TC32 in July 2004. The development of the official glossary has been a major accomplishment for TC32. The glossary is available on the TC32 web site and is provided in an appendix to Nadim’s report on TC32 activities in 2001-2005. A number of comments have been received to the recommended definitions in the glossary. The current TC32 feels that the task of updating the glossary should be left to the next TC32 in the period 2005-2009.
TC32 Member Lars Olsson <lars.olsson@geostatistik.se> has also been leading the effort of developing a more extensive glossary. Due to personal reasons, Lars has not yet completed this work.
?span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> Guidelines ?Develop a general framework for geotechnical risk assessment and management.
TC32 Core Member Bill Roberds <broberds@golder.com>,
who is involved in a similar effort with ASCE GeoInstitute’s
Risk Assessment and Management Committee, is leading this effort and has
developed a detailed annotated outline. Bill could not attend the meeting in
?span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> Bibliography ?Develop a bibliography for risk assessment and management, in support of the guidelines and glossary.?
TC32 Core Member Ken Ho <cge_lid@ced.gov.hk> is leading this effort, coordinating with ASCE GeoInstitute’s Risk Assessment and Management Committee, who are also developing such a bibliography. W.K. Pun informed that Ken Ho has completed the first draft of the bibliography. The initial bibliography will be posted on the TC32 web site, where it would be periodically updated per the categorization scheme / procedure.
Hans Rathmayer
mentioned that Prof. Victor Rizkallah of
?span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> Case studies ?Assemble an extensive set of case studies that demonstrate various approaches and the value or benefit of the results of risk assessment, for various types of applications.?To facilitate their use, it would be desirable that these case studies be categorized (keywords) in terms of scope, approach and application, consistent with the above guidelines, glossary and bibliography.?A potential problem may be the confidential nature of some projects, which would require specific measures to allow publication.?It will be the author’s responsibility to obtain client approval.?Each case study should be reviewed and limited to 3 pages.
TC32 Core Member Ken Ho <cge_lid@ced.gov.hk> is leading this
effort, coordinating with ASCE GeoInstitute’s Risk
Assessment and Management Committee, who are also developing a set of case
studies.?TC32 Core Member Bill Roberds has developed a Word-template for case studies that
can be downloaded off the web site and then submitted electronically when
completed by the author.?The procedure
for submitting the case studies is described in the minutes of the previous
TC32 meeting in
?span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> Prediction symposium ?The idea of a prediction symposium was discussed at TC32 2003 meeting, but not at the 2004 meeting. Waldemar Hachich expressed the opinion that an eventual prediction symposium should have a proper framework for evaluating the predictions and their associated uncertainties in a probabilistic manner. Otherwise it will be of little value for quantifying the modeling uncertainty for different prediction methods.
?span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> Website ?A website currently exists for TC32 <http://www.engmath.dal.ca/tc32/index.html>, developed and maintained by TC32 Secretary G. Fenton <Gordon.Fenton@dal.ca>.?It is intended that this web site would be the primary method for disseminating information re TC32, such as the materials discussed above in addition to what is already contained there (roster, news, meeting minutes, links, etc.).?If members would like their home page to be linked to the TC32 website, send your URL to Gordon Fenton.?TC32 Secretary G.Fenton will continue to lead this effort; however, he may need assistance.
Item 4 ?Upcoming conferences and events of interest
The upcoming conferences and events of interest are listed in the call to meeting (see Appendix).
D. Vaughan Griffiths gave some information about CISM course
on probabilistic methods in geotechnical engineering to be given in
Farrokh Nadim
and K.K. Phoon urged the meeting attendees and other TC32
members who work with issues related to risks associated with geohazards to attend the ECI Conference on Geohazards in
Farrokh Nadim
distributed the brochures provided by Helmut Schweiger
for the VIth European Conf, on Numerical Methods in
Geotechnical Engineering that will be held in
Item 5 ?Recommendation for activities of TC32 for the
period 2005-2009
There was general consensus that the activities of TC32 should be continued in the period 2005-2009 along the lines suggested in Nadim’s report to ISSMGE. It is of course up to the new leadership of ISSMGE to decide whether or not TC32 should continue its activities, and if it does, in what form it should work.
It was pointed out by several attendees that current
situation of all TCs concluding their work after a
4-year period and new TCs starting up again is not very
efficient. More continuity in the work of TCs will
produce better results in the long run.
Item 6 ?Other Business
There was a long discussion about the risks to geotechnical engineers involved in major construction projects. With the trend of modern codes moving more and more towards performance-based design, projects are judged by their final outcome and it is important to know who is taking which risk. Some attendees recommended that TC32 focus more on legal and economic risks, while others had the opinion that this type of “risk?needs to be addressed by TC20 “Professional Practice? and not by TC32. There was, however, general agreement that TC32 should work closely with TC16, TC20 and TC23 to make sure all relevant issues are addressed.
There was no other business.
Closure
TC32 Chairman Farrokh Nadim thanked all TC32 members and meeting attendees for
their enthusiasm and contributions during 2001-2005. The meeting was adjourned
at
__________________________________________________________________________
Appendix: Agenda for TC32 Meeting of
ISSMGE TC32: Engineering Practice of Risk
Assessment and Management
Agenda for TC32
Meeting on
1) Introduction and welcome
2) Review of previous minutes: http://www.engmath.dal.ca/tc32/2004.html
3) Report on committee tasks in the period
2001-2005
The activities below were defined in the Terms
of Reference for TC32 for the period 2001-2005. The status of the activities
will be discussed.
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style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
Glossary
of risk terms and definitions
?span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
Guidelines
for risk assessment and management in geotechnical engineering
?span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
Liaison
and co-operation with other risk-related committees
?span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
Providing
relevant information on the web to the geotechnical community ?/span>
?span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
Arranging
special sessions and short courses in connection with relevant international
conferences and seminars
4) Upcoming conferences and events of
interest
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1st International
Conference on Geotechnical Engineering for Disaster Mitigation and
Rehabilitation, 12-13 December 2005,
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Sessions organised
by Geo-Institute Risk Assessment & Management Committee for GeoCongress,
a)
Biologically inspired modeling for geotechnical and pavement systems
b)
Incorporation of uncertainty
in site response into Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis
c)
Probabilistic modeling and design in geotechnical engineering
d)
Geostatistics: Applications and Visualizations
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Second
International Forum on Engineering Decision Making,
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ITA Annual
Conference,
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Session on Limit
State Design in Geotechnical Engineering Practice at GeoShanghai, Shanghai, China, June 2-4, 2006 (Asia)
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XIIIth Danube-European Conference on Geotechnical
Engineering,
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ECI Conference on Geohazards,
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CISM Course on
Probabilistic Methods in Geotechnical Engineering,
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VIth European Conf on Numerical Methods in Geotechnical
Engineering,
5) Recommendation for activities of TC32
for the period 2005-2009
6) Any other business