Environmental policy support for pre-demolition audits in Luxembourg

Luxembourg is witnessing a rapid development in the construction sector including renovation of the existing building stock and due to its small size, the country needs an efficient management of the resulting construction and demolition (C&D) waste. National legal obligations require contractors to carry out an inventory of building materials...

Waste audit – securing good quality raw material from construction and demolition waste

Pre-demolition audit or waste audit is the tool to assess the materials to be removed from the building or infrastructure and their potential value by external experts prior to the demolition or renovation activity. Such audits are essential since they enable all stakeholders involved to get information of the composition of waste and make it...

Indigenous Knowledge and Modern Technology in the Management of Natural Disasters: Exploring the Linkages

The increasing frequency of disasters, coupled with a number of emerging threats and trends, are leaving more people vulnerable to the effects of disasters and inflicting greater damage, loss, and dislocation on vulnerable people worldwide. According to the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), in 2008, more than 235,000...

Preliminary Assessment of Debris Flow Hazard in a Catchment under Extreme Condition

Due to hilly terrain and frequent heavy rainstorms, debris flow is one of the most common and catastrophic hazards in Hong Kong. To mitigate the debris flow risk, prediction of the magnitude and consequence of debris flow is essential. The objective of this paper is to simulate debris flow hazards in a study area in Hong Kong. Assessment of the...

Risk Assessment of Induced Earthquake Hazards in the Northern Netherlands

During the last decade, at least eight earthquakes occurred in the Northern Netherlands with a magnitude of 3 or higher on the Richter scale. These earthquakes are not tectonic but induced by natural gas production from the Groningen Gas Field. Before that time there were no earthquakes in Groningen with such magnitudes. Research conducted by...

The Statistical Analysis of Hydrological Disasters

Shocking media images are broadcast daily about various acts of violence, natural and technological (man-made) “disasters”. Television may present a single fallen tree as the outcome of large-scale storm damage. The capacity to compare the losses incurred by threats and disasters would help us clarify the comparison of common events. However,...

Eight Things Successful Geotechnical Riskmanagers Do

Looking back over a period of 10 years of underground works, geotechnical risk management has matured and has definitively contributed to the success of geotechnical projects in Rotterdam. But, what exactly was it that made geotechnical risk management successful? Looking back, and analysing the process, 8 habits of the (geotechnical) risk...

Probabilistic Methodology for Seismic Deformation Assessment of Slopes in Regions with Low to Moderate Seismicity

Earthquake-induced sliding deformations are commonly used to assess the seismic performance of slopes. These deformations are the cumulative, downslope movement of a sliding mass occurred due to earthquake shaking, and represent the valuable indicator of risk and possible damage above slope. Current probabilistic procedures that use seismic...

Oxidation and combustion of fuel-rich N-butane-oxygen mixture in a standard 20-liter explosion vessel

Experiments on forced ignition of extremely fuel-rich n-butane-oxygen mixture with the equivalence ratio of 23 in the standard 20-liter spherical vessel at elevated initial pressure (4.1 bar) and temperature (500 K) reveal the nonmonotonic influence of the forced ignition delay time on the maximum explosion pressure and the maximum rate of...