CLIFFS launch meeting26 October 2005, Holywell Park, Loughborough University

BIOLOGICAL AND ENGINEERING IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON

SLOPES (BIONICS)

Stephanie GlendinningStephanie Glendinning

BIONICS

• Overview of project

• Information/research needs addressed

• Information/research needs identified

BIONICS - BACKGROUND

• Earthworks slopes constitute major part of the infrastructure asset

(£20B of a total £60B for highways alone)

• Failures cost significant £

(£50m for highway maintenance in 1988/9)

• Maintenance costs a fraction of emergency repairs

(£emergency = 10 x maintenance)

• Climate change predicts:

• Hotter, drier summers

shrinkage, cracking, loss of vegetation

• Followed by:

• More intense periods of rainfall

swelling, infiltration, increased

water pressure, erosion, (flooding)

THE PROBLEM!

STAKEHOLDERS & FUNDING• 11 industrial partners, including

– Network Rail

– Railway Safety and Standards Board

– Metronet Rail SSL (London Underground)

– Highways Agency

– British Waterways

• 6 Universities

• £1.1m project; £900k from EPSRC through BKCC

Stakeholder Uncertainties and Information Needs

• Prediction, planning and preparation

or

• What, when and how?

• Cost

AIMS OF BIONICS

1. Establish a world-class facility for engineering

and biological research

2. Improve basic understanding of the effects of

climate on slopes

3. Improve modelling capability to examine long-

term impacts

ENGINEERING OVERVIEW

• Construct an embankment 90m long, 6m high, with

climate control

• Simulate road and rail construction

• Monitor biological, hydrological and geotechnical

conditions and their interaction

• Produce a database of performance data

EMBANKMENT DESIGNEMBANKMENT DESIGN

5m

29 m

2

1

6m

Plastic lining into draining channel

0.5m topsoil

RAINFALL SIMULATION

MODELLING OVERVIEW

• Produce a ‘hybrid’ computer model for design and

prediction

• Validate against data from:

– The embankment

– Centrifuge models and

– ‘Real’ slopes

• Develop a methodology to identify ‘at risk’ sections of the

infrastructure

INFORMATION/RESEARCH NEEDS ADDRESSED

• Test facility with known subsurface and history

• Climate control

• Up-to-date climate scenarios

• Modelling to look at long term, mechanisms, influence of soil type, construction method, age etc

• Cross-disciplinary academic collaboration

• Some Stakeholder-defined aims and deliverables

INFORMATION/RESEARCH NEEDS IDENTIFIED

Stakeholder:• Lack of information about the networks

(historical and current)• Lack of ‘higher-level’ engagement• Insufficient resources

Research:• Need to incorporate more complex soil models• Need to be less guarded with research – more

collaboration required

For more information…….

• www.ncl.ac.uk/bionics