Combining remote sensing techniques and field surveys for post-earthquake reconnaissance missions

Remote reconnaissance missions are promising solutions for the assessment of earthquake-induced structural damage and cascading geological hazards. Space-borne remote sensing can complement in-field missions when safety and accessibility concerns limit post-earthquake operations on the ground. However, the implementation of remote sensing...

Developing a diagnostic assessment tool to evaluate damage in buildings

Mining activities at the Groningen gas field are causing earthquakes which result in building damage. This has started a discussion on what type of damage is caused by earthquakes. These discussions are typical in the forensic engineering field, especially in complex cases. The problem is the lack of regulations, in terms of standardizations and...

District-scale numerical analysis of settlements related to groundwater lowering in variable soil conditions

This study presents a novel framework in which numerical modelling contributes to the performance of district-scale, subsidence-induced damage assessment in cities where ground settlements affect entire quarters. Therein, the implementation of expeditious procedures offers geotechnical engineers the possibility of contributing beyond the...

Lessons for Remote Post-earthquake Reconnaissance from the 14 August 2021 Haiti Earthquake

On 14th August 2021, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck the Tiburon Peninsula in the Caribbean nation of Haiti, approximately 150 km west of the capital Port-au-Prince. Aftershocks up to moment magnitude 5.7 followed and over 1,000 landslides were triggered. These events led to over 2,000 fatalities, 15,000 injuries and more than 137,000...

Integrated InSAR monitoring and structural assessment of tunnelling-induced building deformations

Structural deformation monitoring is crucial for the identification of early signs of tunnelling-induced damage to adjacent structures and for the improvement of current damage assessment procedures. Satellite multi-temporal interferometric synthetic aperture radar (MT-InSAR) techniques enable measurement of building displacements over time...

Identifying Structural Hazards in Building Construction Projects: A research into structural failure databases and risk assessments

Building failure incidents are occurring within the Netherlands and these incidents can be a valuable source of technical data regarding improvements in structural safety. This research has attempted to utilize this information gained to develop a tool to aid the building construction sector in identifying hazards during building construction...

Statistical analysis of building damage from the 2013 super typhoon haiyan and its storm surge in The Philippines

In November 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) hit the Philippines. It caused heavy loss of lives and extensive damages to buildings and infrastructure. When collapsed buildings are focused on, it is inter-esting to find that these buildings did not collapse for the same reasons after the landfall of the typhoon and storm surge. The...

Rapid Building Damage Detection Through SAR Timeseries Analysis in the Google Earth Engine: Using Sentinel-1 GRD imagery in the Google Earth Engine to detect Building Damage in Rapid Disaster Response Situations

Humanitarian crises related to building and infrastructure damage, i.e. natural hazards and collateral damage during warfare, result in many hundreds of thousands of casualties on a yearly base. Earthquakes, for example, are responsible for taking around 50.000 lives on a yearly base due to falling debris and collapsing buildings, making them...

Automated Building Damage Classification using Remotely Sensed Data: Case study: Hurricane Damage on St. Maarten

In the second half of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century the amount of natural disasters has increased rapidly. Due to this rise in occurrences, more people are affected. An important indicator for people affected is the amount of damage to buildings. To gather this information aid workers now have to go into the field to gather data on...

Modelling of settlement induced building damage

This thesis focuses on the modelling of settlement induced damage to masonry buildings. In densely populated areas, the need for new space is nowadays producing a rapid increment of underground excavations. Due to the construction of new metro lines, tunnelling activity in urban areas is growing. One of the consequences is a greater attention to...

Damage to buildings