Brief description
Natural disasters are typically associated with loss of life and major economic consequences. However, despite their undesirable consequences, they also represent a truly unique opportunity to assess the full-scale response of geo-infrastructure to extreme loads. Deploying shortly after natural disasters to collect perishable site performance data is an important activity of our research team that provides insights on the performance of geo-infrastructure. Early data collection is complemented by subsequent site characterization, testing and numerical modeling to fully leverage the lessons from these major events, identify flaws in our design procedures, guide better decision making, improve risk assessment and enhance disaster preparation for future events. My research team has been deploying following various natural disasters, such as earthquakes (1999 Athens-Greece, 2004, Hawaii 2006, Parkfield-California, 2014 Cephalonia-Greece, 2015 Gorkha-Nepal, 2015 Lefkada-Greece, 2016 Kaikoura-New Zealand, 2020 Puerto Rico), hurricanes and medicanes (Maria 2017, Ianos-Greece, 2020), dam failures (Edenville Dam in Michigan, 2020), landill failures (Xerolakka landfill, Greece, 2010) and major landslides (such as Rat Creek failure of highway 1 in California, 2021). Our research team employs multi-scale approaches that involve, satellites, Unmanned-Aerial Vehicles, field deployments and in-situ and laboratory testing for data collection, and big data analytics, AI, and geotechnical numerical modeling to fully leverage the opportunities to learn from these disasters.
Video Gallery
Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Satellites to Map Fault Rupture and Landslides Following the Kaikoura 2016 earthquake in New Zealand
A story and a video of our work to map ground failure caused by the magnitude-7.8 earthquake that struck New Zealand’s South Island on Nov. 13, 2016. Using satellite stereo-imagery, our team created 3D geometries of an area that is approximately equal to the State of South Carolina and compared the results with Ultra-High Resolution imagery from UAVs
Use of Drones to Map Landslides following the Gorkha 2015 earthquake in Nepal
More than 20,000 landslides took place in Nepal during the Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake on April 25th 2015 . This video describes the landslide mapping efforts of researchers from the University of Michigan (Dr. Marin Clark, and Dr. Dimitrios Zekkos), University of Southern California (Dr. Josh West) in the US and Tribhuhan University (Dr. Deepak Chamlagain) in Nepal. The research team used drones and photogrammetry principles to view map and create 3D models of large rock slides, debris flows and even rockfalls. The drone was particularly needed in this case, because of the steep topography and the large size and runout length of some of the landslides, that made it nearly impossible to map otherwise. Video prepared by Geoengineer.org staff.
Drones and Natural Disasters
Outreach video explaining our research focus on the use of drones in post-earthquake reconnaissance. Developed by the University of Michigan College of Engineering (MCONNEX).