1st Conference on Geophysics for Infrastructure Planning Monitoring and BIM

The First conference on Geophysics for infrastructure planning, monitoring and BIM aims to bridge the gap between geoscientists, geotechnical and geomechnical engineers, and asset owners/planners in this specific field. The conference will provide a platform for academia, governmental institutions and industry to address the challenges related to infrastructure life cycle: prior, during and after the construction of engineered structures and their long-term maintenance.

Detailed imaging of problematic geology, as well as quantification of physical properties of the soil- subsoil, are among the significant roles that geophysics can play during the infrastructure planning phase. In addition to these characterization tasks, geological risk assessment is a critical first step during the design of infrastructure projects. A detailed evaluation of the possible disruptions to infrastructure caused by natural events can avoid budget overruns, significant delays during construction phase and excessive maintenance costs throughout the lifespan.

Monitoring during and after construction are important control measures for hazards associated with infrastructure development. At these stages, geoscience can make a valuable contribution to assessing the impact of construction on the risk of landslides, subsidence, structure-related noise and/or building damage. Geophysical methods can also provide subsurface information at high resolution in space and time, and may be used to detect subsurface objects and utilities, as well as to identify problem areas for targeted maintenance of ageing infrastructure.

In all these steps prior, during and after construction, geophysical information must be delivered in a way that is meaningful to geotechnical and civil engineers, planners and asset owners. For this purpose, links between geophysics and geotechnical models must be established and new efforts must be made to communicate novel and multidisciplinary datasets. BIM (Building Information Modelling) tools are now becoming crucial for the communication of geomodels to clients, thus aiding decision making and overall understanding of the results. Given its significance, the conference will offer dedicated sessions on this subject as well as on the integration between geophysics and geotechnics.

Finally, special focus will be placed on new technologies and methodologies that can enhance the efficacy of geophysical methods applied to infrastructure, and on more challenging working environments such as in mega cities and in shallow-water cover infrastructure developments.