Date of Award
2012
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.S. in Engineering Science
First Advisor
Waheed Uddin
Second Advisor
Christopher Mullen
Third Advisor
Ahmed Al-Ostaz
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
This research was initiated with a review and synthesis of infrastructure related to city and urban growth, built infrastructure to meet transportation needs and travel demand, and role of mass transit in reducing adverse impacts on the environment and greenhouse gas emissions. Floods are the most frequently occurring natural disaster in the world, which so far claimed millions of lives and resulted in billion-dollar economic costs. Built infrastructure assets in urban and rural areas are not spared from floods' aftermath. A major motivation for this thesis was the 2011 megaflood disaster of Thailand which devastated the green campus of Asian Institute of Technology or AIT located north of Bangkok, a prominent higher education institution in Asia. AIT Campus was inundated with flood water for several weeks in late October and most of November 2011. The primary objective was to develop a geospatial decision support system for flood disaster protection of AIT using spaceborne remote sensing satellite imagery. Pre-flood 1-m IKONOS imagery of the campus area was used to create planimetrics and geospatial infrastructure inventory. Ground truth measurements along with site inspection photos facilitated further flood impact analysis and creation of a detailed flood depth map of the entire AIT Campus. Post-flood 1-m IKONOS imagery was used to estimate existing dike's top width. The imagery-based planimetric of the dike and related cross-section data provided by AIT were used to conduct stability analyses of a proposed raised dike system. Other flood protection strategies proposed in this study include concrete and composite sheet pile flood wall design. Value engineering analysis was implemented to evaluate these flood wall protection alternatives for AIT Campus. Based on comprehensive present worth life cycle cost analysis conducted over 50-year performance period, the least costly composite fiber-reinforced plastic sheet pile flood wall system was recommended to protect AIT Campus from future floods at US$ 1.71 million per km. Further recommendations for future flood protection include: (1) elevated AIT access roads and other campus area roads using composite sheet pile retaining walls and culverts and (2) one or more buildings protected by composite sheet pile peripheral enclosures for emergency management applications.
Recommended Citation
Durmus, Alper, "Geospatial Assessment of Sustainable Built Infrastructure Assets and Flood Disaster Protection" (2012). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 94.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/94
Concentration/Emphasis
Civil Engineering