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Coordinator: Filipe Moura
Thematic Strand 2 (TS2), Risk and Safety in Built and Natural Environments, encompasses a range of R&D activities geared towards the assessment and management of the main risks associated with natural and man-made hazards affecting the built and natural environment.
The risks included both natural hazards (e.g. earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, floods, droughts, tornadoes, and hurricanes) and man-made hazards (e.g. fires, pollution, inadequate planning, structural failures, pipeline leaks, faulty construction). Natural and man-made hazards can cause significant damage to the built and the natural environment. Namely, they pose direct threats to residences, service buildings, monuments, and various structures like bridges, industrial facilities, dams, and crucial lifelines providing essential services such as electricity, telecommunications, transportation, water, and gas, as well as to rivers, coastal areas, and forests. Risks resulting from poor urban planning and infrastructure degradation are also addressed within this context. Therefore, the identification of hazards, conducting thorough risk assessments, and the subsequent development of structural and non-structural safety measures are imperative societal challenges.
R&D activities developed within TS2 focus on cross-cutting issues whose resolution directly contributes to tackling major societal challenges, addressing several sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, in particular, SDG 11-Sustainable Cities and Communities and SDG 13-Climate Action.
R&D responses to referred risks and threats are organized into three main themes:
TS2 comprises a diverse array of fundamental and applied research studies based on experimental and numerical analysis. These endeavours include extensive experimental programs conducted in civil engineering laboratories, encompassing full-scale tests (e.g. fire tests on composite beams, performance tests of novel prototype propeller turbines) and small-scale tests (e.g. local scour around bridge piers and river mouths, as well as hydrodynamics within storage tanks). Furthermore, field measurements are conducted within real-world infrastructure settings (e.g. seismic geophysical tests in buildings, water quality tests in grids, and pressure transient tests in pumping/hydropower plants). Examples of advanced numerical modelling studies developed in CERIS include temperature flow within composite beams, moving loads on distributed friction foundations applied to railroad tracks, dynamics of earthquake ruptures, propagation of water floods in urban areas, and hydraulic transients in penstocks and at the surface, among others. Research also reflects on outreach actions for the preparedness of populations.
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