ACADEMIC TOPICS
1) Management of natural threats associated with the design and construction of transportation pipelines
- Route selection and characterization: state-of-the-art methods with remote sensing such as optical images, radar images, LiDAR
- Special considerations for mountainous terrain
- Design and installation of special crossings: open river crossings, trenchless crossings and river structures, road crossings, passage through terrain susceptible to instability, passage through environmentally sensitive areas
- Effects of climate variability on design and construction
- Design and construction of slope stabilization and erosion control works: new technologies and alternative solutions
- Definition during the design stage of geohazard monitoring systems and their installation during construction
- Examples of solutions to limitations due to environmental and social management
- Risk assessment and contingency management in the design and construction of pipelines
- Management of geohazards in systems for transporting fluids other than hydrocarbons.
- Consideration of threats of anthropic origin
- Special cases of geohazard management in design and construction.
- Cases of parallelism with coexistence and interference with other linear or point infrastructures
2) Analysis of design and construction casesAnálisis y evaluación de riesgos por geoamenazas y su planificación en la gestión de integridad de ductos
Considerations on geohazard risks:
- Characterization of geohazards based on background information on design, construction, operation, maintenance and integrity and their impact on risk management.
- The activity of triggering agents (precipitation, earthquakes) in geotechnical and hydrotechnical morphodynamic processes
- The geomorphological environment (e.g., process inventory, susceptibility zoning and identification of geohazards)
- The definition of admissible thresholds of critical variables (e.g. rainfall thresholds, percentages of pipeline deformation, relative displacements, seismic and volcanic activity, actions of third parties)
- The management of risk due to technological accidents (NATECH)
- The interaction with third parties and their combined effects with Geohazards
Implementation of decision-making processes in integrity management planning:
- Strategies for data collection, capture, preparation and management
- Multidisciplinary analysis of the interaction of threats to pipeline integrity and their consequences compared to admissible, tolerant and non-tolerant risk values (e.g., ALARP)
- Application of analysis methodologies, evaluation and risk criteria (i.e. probability of occurrence of Geothreats, pipeline vulnerability, mitigation and resilience effectiveness, consequence analysis including spill simulation)
- Development of integrity plans and prioritization based on multidisciplinary analysis
- Roadmap planning and implementation of transformation technologies
- Requirements, as applicable for each country, of the standards, laws and regulations specific to the industry
3) Implementation of monitoring, geothreat mitigation and performance management
It includes the application of monitoring, mitigation actions and lessons learned in the management of Geothreats
- Application of technologies for monitoring geothreats in pipelines related to automated or manual techniques, such as:
- In-Line Inspection (e.g., inertial, geometric, corrosion)
- Geotechnical instrumentation (inclinometers, piezometers, extensometers, topographic control)
- Remote sensors (satellite monitoring, multispectral images, LiDAR, radar)
- Unmanned aircraft, drones
- Topography, fiber optics, among others
- Tools, technologies and specialized instrumentation for monitoring settlements or anthropogenic effects on geothreats (e.g., right-of-way, displacements of pipelines subject to vertical or lateral loads)
- Proposals for the application of cutting-edge monitoring methods, such as: virtual reality, predictive models, early warning systems, artificial intelligence (AI), among others.
- Cost and time efficiencies through the use of new technologies or innovative methods in geothreat management.
- Practical examples of management based on specific monitoring techniques, including the integration and analysis of results, operational intervention and correlations with the expected time of interventions.
- Practical cases of occurrence of unforced errors in the development of monitoring due to inadequate systems, invalid readings, among others
- Examples of conventional or innovative geotechnical mitigation or repair solutions to maintain the integrity of pipelines
- Lessons learned in the process of mitigation, monitoring and management of Geothreats
4) Management of Anthropic Effects (Third Parties) on Pipeline Geothreats
It includes anthropogenic activities that can activate, generate or worsen geotechnical or hydrotechnical instability processes affecting pipeline transportation systems. Consequently, the proactive management of anthropogenic effects and their influence on geothreats will benefit both the pipeline system and people, communities and the environment.
These anthropogenic interferences can be associated with the construction or maintenance of roads, railways, other pipeline transportation systems, hydraulic works (upstream or downstream of crossing sites), mining activity, land use change, among other cases. Likewise, it is observed in the construction of embankments, or structures or the execution of excavations that may involve the right of way or be parallel to it, or in adjacent areas of influence, which modify the geomorphological characteristics of the environment and therefore the right of way. This topic specifically includes:
- Management for the management of anthropogenic effects, including the identification and assessment of their impact on the Geothreat and subsequent integrity of the pipeline
- Case studies, designs and construction of solutions to manage anthropogenic management
- Management for the early detection of anthropogenic interference that may trigger effects on the pipeline system and its surroundings.
- Social and engineering strategies and solutions for the mitigation and protection of pipelines from anthropogenic effects;
- Management for the follow-up and monitoring of anthropogenic effects
- Prevention mechanisms, construction and maintenance agreements, signage, emergency lines
