lectureseries@civil
Reshaping Transport Planning
through Dynamic Illustration, Solid Evidence and Careful Conversations On Tuesday November 15, 2012, the Department of Civil Engineering was honoured to have Dr. Michael Shiffer, VicePresident of Planning and Policy, Translink, present a special faculty seminar. In his presentation, Dr. Shiffer discussed how “smart” buses, rail stations and roadways can digitally feed maps and a planning process, how an intermodal transport network can help to shape future demand along with complementary land use, and how one can balance the need to help shape future land use in suburban areas while
still serving the needs of a densely populated urbanized setting. The seminar was extensively illustrated and described an approach to planning for sustainable mobility, noting how information technology can be used to leverage more productivity out of existing transportation networks. Dr. Shiffer commented on a systematic evidence-based approach to planning for major transportation investments. He also shared his impressions of what distinguishes his planning experiences in Canada from those in the United States.
Christchurch Earthquake: One Year Later On Tuesday February 14, 2012, Professor Ken Elwood shared his first-hand experience during the Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake. Ken noted that at 12:51 p.m. on February 22, 2011, while he was attending a seminar on Seismic Assessment of Existing Masonry Buildings in Christchurch, an Mw 6.3 earthquake violently shook the city. Two reinforced concrete office buildings and hundreds of unreinforced masonry buildings experienced partial or total collapse, resulting in 182 fatalities. The financial loss grew as
unpredictable aftershocks continued to shake the city. Ken remained in Christchurch in the days following to assist with critical building assessments and co-lead a reconnaissance team from the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute documenting the earthquake for international building code development and seismic mitigation policy decisions. Ken related his experiences in Christchurch and the numerous parallels with his past and ongoing research efforts, including some new directions initiated since returning home.
Cleaning Membranes with Bubbles On Tuesday March 6, 2012, Professor Pierre Bérubé presented his findings on cleaning membranes with bubbles. Pierre commented that the increased use of membrane systems in water treatment applications is due mainly to their ability to effectively retain contaminants of concern, but that some of the retained material can accumulate and, unless removed, can result in a larger volume of material (i.e. foulants) which increases the resistance of the flow through the membrane, making the membrane filtration prohibitively expensive.
Pierre noted that bubble sparging is commonly used to remove and limit the accumulation of foulants, but that its effects are poorly understood and, as a result, have historically been designed using a trial-and-error approach. Research at UBC has shed light on the effects of bubble sparging on foulant accumulation, and recent research outcomes, as presented at the seminar, have contributed to reducing the operating costs of membrane systems by as much as 50%.
The Art and Science of Engineering Modelling On Tuesday March 27, 2012, Professor Terje Haukaas expressed his opinion that the ultimate goal in engineering is to make decisions about the suitability of candidate designs and actions. Terje commented that to make such decisions, engineers utilize models of various forms and complexity, and noted that his presentation would aim to provide a somewhat provocative exposure of existing models and how they are employed. Particular emphasis was placed on uncertainties and techniques to address them, and historical lines were drawn up to present-day 4
research to expose how this question has been answered in different times. Terje drew examples from structural engineering, where a broadening of the basis for design decisions is taking place, and commented on the classical capacity-demand considerations for structural components being amended to explicitly include the cost of damage, environmental concerns, and other impacts away from the building site. Terje is hopeful this will motivate the presentation of new models and modelling techniques to foster a change.