Geological Uncertainty and Societal Risk: the Perspectives of Engineering, Environment, and Geohazards( I )(2/2)

This integrated research is aimed at solving an unsolved engineering problem: while the importance of the knowledge of geology is well recognized by the profession, rarely this knowledge is quantified in a way useful to engineering practice owing to the barrier of high complexity of geological structures and great uncertainty in the geological model. Such ignorance often leads to failures of engineered structures, geohazards (such as soil liquefaction and landslides), and land subsidence and other groundwater and environmental problems, all of which can lead to huge societal risk. To this end, the focus of this integrated research is to characterize and quantify the geological model uncertainty and systematically examine its effect on engineering design, geohazard mitigation, groundwater resources and environmental issues. The strategy is to use socioeconomic risk as a unified language for communication among the public, the decision makers, and the domain experts. Through this transdisciplinary study, the research team is expected to obtain breakthrough outcomes that showcase solutions to the aforementioned unsolved engineering problem and greatly reduce the societal risk. This integrated research consists of seven closely knit projects. In Project No. 1, the geological model uncertainty is characterized and quantified systematically. It provides a unified basis for other projects to explore the effect of the geological model uncertainty. In Project No. 2, the geological model uncertainty is constrained by geophysical data and the interaction of the two is explored. In Projects No. 3 through No. 6, the propagation of the geological model uncertainty is assessed and the induced risk is quantified for each of the domains studied (such as energy-related offshore wind foundation design, ground water resources evaluation and pollute transport and mitigation, land subsidence, soil liquefaction and landslides mitigation). In Project No. 7, the induced societal risk is quantified using the geohazards as an example, and the reduction of socioeconomic risk as a result of reducing the geological model uncertainty is systematically assessed. The whole integrated project will be carried out under the direction of Dr. Charng Hsein Juang, a Yushan Scholar, who as the principal investigator (PI) will lead the research team with an aggressive agenda to accomplish the goals of this transdisciplinary study: achieving world-class breakthrough research outcomes that solve the aforementioned unsolved engineering problem, positively impacting the design codes and the practice of geotechnical engineering and applied geology, and contributing to the reduction of societal risk and enhancing the well-being of the public. The PI is also equipped and prepared to assist members of the research team to raise their profile and visibility on the international stage through publications in high impact journals and participation as a core member or leader in the international conferences, technical committees, professional organizations, and high impact research journals. In short, the research team through the planned activities is optimized to accomplish the goals set forth in the Shackleton program.