A decision support tool for assessing risks to above ground river pipeline crossings

Georgios Maniatis, Richard Williams, Trevor B. Hoey, John Hicks, William Carroll

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Infrastructure assets require suitable management and assessment protocols due to age-related deterioration, extreme weather events and climate change impacts. Above ground river crossings are weak links in pipe networks since bank erosion and scour can undermine the integrity of built structures. A simple protocol was developed to assess river bank stability in the vicinity of river pipeline crossings. The Erosion Risk Index (ERI) follows established bank erosion estimation techniques, adapted for users who are not trained geomorphologists. The calculation of ERI is based on the analysis of photographs, acquired during an optimised inspection protocol using a custom app on a ruggedized tablet computer. ERI was tested across Scotland and proved to be adequate for a first order geomorphological assessment, and to provide a classification of crossings according to susceptibility to river bank erosion. ERI is transferable, with appropriate testing, to other infrastructure river crossing networks in the United Kingdom and beyond. The methodology used to develop and test ERI is applicable to the development of other protocols to manage and assess infrastructure assets.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)87-100
    Number of pages14
    JournalProceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Water Management
    Volume173
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 14 Aug 2019

    Bibliographical note

    This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

    Keywords

    • Infrastructure planning
    • Pipes & pipelines
    • River engineering

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