• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.873-889
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• 2015

In civil engineering, probabilistic seismic risk assessment is used to predict the economic damage to a lifeline system of possible future earthquakes. The results are used to plan mitigation measures and to strengthen the structures where necessary. Instead, after an earthquake public authorities need mathematical models that compute: the damage caused by the earthquake to the individual vulnerable components and links, and the global behavior of the lifeline system. In this study, a framework that was developed and used for prediction purpose is modified to assess the consequences of an earthquake in quasi real-time after such earthquake happened. This is possible because nowadays entire seismic regions are instrumented with tight networks of strong motion stations, which provide and broadcast accurate intensity measure maps of the event to the public within minutes. The framework uses the broadcasted map and calculates the damage to the lifeline system and its component in quasi real-time. The results give the authorities the most likely status of the system. This helps emergency personnel to deal with the damage and to prioritize visual inspections and repairs. A highway transportation network is used as a test bed but any lifeline system can be analyzed.

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.19-27
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• 2022

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly changed the Lifeline Program, a telecommunications rate discount program for low-income Americans. As the reliance on online activities such as remote work, distance education, and online shopping grows because of the spread of COVID-19, there is a concern that the digital divide will widen among low-income households that struggle to access internet infrastructure due to the burden of access rates. Accordingly, the US Congress passed a bill to help lower the internet bill for low-income households using the government budget to close the digital divide. The Lifeline Program, which is a part of the universal service obligation, has been in charge of the telecommunications rate discount for low-income households. However, according to the new law, the internet rate discount program based on the government budget was implemented beginning in 2021. As the internet rate discount based on the government budget begins, the US telecommunication rate discount system is transitioning from a system in which telecommunication industry support was borne by operators to one in which public support from the government budget will play a significant role. In this paper, we will look at recent changes in the US telecommunications rate discount program and their implications.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.33-42
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• 2018

In the aftermath of an earthquake, seismic-damaged infrastructure systems loss estimation is the first step for the disaster response. However, lifeline systems' ability to supply service can be volatile by external factors such as disturbances of nearby facilities, and not by own physical issue. Thus, this research develops the bayesian model for probabilistic inference on common-cause and cascading failure of seismic-damaged lifeline systems. In addition, the authors present network robustness estimation metrics in the context of failure propagation. In order to quantify the functional loss and observe the effect of the mitigation plan, power and water supply system in Daegu-Gyeongbuk in South Korea is selected as case network. The simulation results show that reduction of cascading failure probability allows withstanding the external disruptions from a perspective of the robustness improvement. This research enhances the comprehensive understanding of how a single failure propagates to whole lifeline system performance and affected region after an earthquake.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.69-71
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• 2005

Earthquake disaster frequently happens in Shizuoka Prefecture and it is commonly predicted that a giant earthquake(Tokai Earthquake) could occur in the near future. When a giant earthquake happens, extensive damage of lifelines will be expected. It is considered that the collection of damage information and the establishment of a communication network system are very important in order to restore lifelines quickly. And geographic information system(GIS) might playa very important role to grasp the spatial information of lifeline damage in a natural disaster. The authors' group had a research project to study a lifeline restoration support system with image processing and ad hoc networking in a natural disaster. The objectives of this presentation are to introduce our project and to show some results of our study. The authors finally constructed the GIS for the integration of damage information acquired by image processing and ad hoc networking.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.61-66
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• 2008

As the water distribution system which is one of the critical lifeline system is deteriorated and pipe failures occur frequently, the more efficient pipe monitoring system becomes a critical issue in the water industry. One of the pipe monitoring systems is called "Smart-pipe System" which is permanent, comprehensive and an automated SIM (Structural Integrity Monitoring) system and has superiorities to existing monitoring system. To implement a smart-pipe system on a water distribution system, assessment of its indirect benefit obtaining from smartpipe such as the ratio of preventing water main failures must be preceded. However, only some researches on this field have been performed. In this paper, the concept of smart-pipe system is compared with the current monitoring systems for a water distribution system, and a method to quantify its benefit using the inconvenient time for customers is suggested. The suggested method was applied to a real water distribution system to estimate its applicability and benefit.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.15-21
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• 2014

Many kinds of falling prevention systems with a safety block have been supplied in order to prevent falling accidents and acquire the long life and cost down for the maintenance. However, there are not the reliable and domestic the falling prevention system until now. Almost systems were imported from U.S.A, Japan, U.K and Germany. The structural safety of the imported safety block is satisfied sufficiently, but it has heavy weight due to the cover with the aluminum and thickness. Especially, the falling prevention system as the safety block is very expensive. It brings about flow the enormous money out of country. Furthermore it has a heavy weight when workers climbed the ladder with a falling prevention system and moved, many workers are not feeling themselves. Thus, the aim of this work is to develop a commercial self-escape SRL(Self Retracting Lifeline) with the safety block function that has a light weight and an advanced strength. The cost efficiency and convenience of the system and safety for workers also will be improved remarkably even though this system has a light weight. The results show that the maximum stress is obtained in each part by the lower more than yield strength and has sufficient safety in the developed new safety block.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.73 no.3
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• pp.339-351
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• 2020

Earthquakes are natural disasters that cause serious social disruptions and economic losses. In particular, they have a significant impact on critical lifeline infrastructure such as urban water transmission networks. Therefore, it is important to predict network performance and provide an alternative that minimizes the damage by considering the factors affecting lifeline structures. This paper proposes a probabilistic reliability approach for post-hazard flow analysis of a water transmission network according to earthquake magnitude, pipeline deterioration, and interdependency between pumping plants and 154 kV substations. The model is composed of the following three phases: (1) generation of input ground motion considering spatial correlation, (2) updating the revised nodal demands, and (3) calculation of available nodal demands. Accordingly, a computer code was developed to perform the hydraulic analysis and numerical modelling of water facilities. For numerical simulation, an actual water transmission network was considered and the epicenter was determined from historical earthquake data. To evaluate the network performance, flow-based performance indicators such as system serviceability, nodal serviceability, and mean normal status rate were introduced. The results from the proposed approach quantitatively show that the water network is significantly affected by not only the magnitude of the earthquake but the interdependency and pipeline deterioration.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.248-258
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• 2021

24-hour monitoring is required to maintain the city's lifeline function in the underground facility for public utilities. And it is necessary to develop technology to exchange the shortage of human resources. It is difficult to reflect the specificity of underground space management in general management methods. This study proposes underground facility for public utilities digital twin system requirements. The concept of space is divided into physical space and virtual space, and the physical space constitutes the type and layout of the sensor that is the basis for the construction of the multimodal image sensor system, and the virtual space constitutes the system architecture. It also suggested system functions according to the task. It will be effective in preventing disasters and maintaining the lifeline function of the city through the digital twins.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.335-349
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• 2021

As the frequency of seismic disasters in Korea has increased rapidly since 2016, interest in systematic maintenance and crisis response technologies for structures has been increasing. A data-based leading management system of Lifeline facilities is important for rapid disaster response. In particular, the water supply network, one of the major Lifeline facilities, must be operated by a systematic maintenance and emergency response system for stable water supply. As one of the methods for this, the importance of the structural health monitoring(SHM) technology has emerged as the recent continuous development of sensor and signal processing technology. Among the various types of SHM, because all machines generate vibration, research and application on the efficiency of a vibration-based SHM are expanding. This paper reviews a vibration-based pipeline SHM system for seismic disaster response of water supply pipelines including types of vibration sensors, the current status of vibration signal processing technology and domestic major research on structural pipeline health monitoring, additionally with application plan for existing pipeline operation system.

• 한국방재학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.16-24
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• 2010

This paper introduces the applications of Taiwan Earthquake Loss Estimation System (TELES), which is developed by the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE). Seismic disaster simulation technology (SDST) integrates geographical information system to assess the distribution of ground shaking intensity, ground failure probability, building damages, casualties, post-quake fires, debris, lifeline interruptions, economic losses, etc. given any set of seismic source parameters. The SDST may integrate with Taiwan Rapid Earthquake Information Release System (TREIRS) developed by Central Weather Bureau (CWB) to obtain valuable information soon after large earthquakes and to assist in decision-making processes to dispatch rescue and medical resources more efficiently. The SDST may also integrate with probabilistic seismic source model to evaluate various kinds of risk estimates, such as average annual loss, probable maximum loss in one event, and exceeding probability curves of various kinds of losses, to help proposing feasible countermeasures and risk management strategies.