International Travel Grant for Survey of Structural Damage from the September 2009 Samoan Islands Tsunami

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The September 29, 2009, earthquake-induced tsunami caused extensive damage to coastal structures on the American Samoan and the Western Samoan islands. Field data from these islands may provide invaluable evidence for calibration of the experimental and numerical models and design guidelines being developed under the current NSF-supported NEES research (NEESR) project entitled "NEESR-SG: Development of Performance Based Tsunami Engineering, (PBTE)," (award CMMI-0530759). To supplement the on-going research under the PBTE project, a seven-member team will field survey the structural damage and aerial and submarine scour effects of the affected Samoan islands. The field survey team consists of four PBTE researchers, a practicing structural engineer, and one undergraduate and one graduate student. The field survey will be performed during the first week of November 2009. This schedule allows for collection of time-sensitive data and learning from tsunami inundation and aerial scour and landslide surveyors without interfering with the relief and recovery efforts currently underway. Similar to a survey conducted by members of the field team after Hurricane Katrina, this survey intends to collect and preserve data to (1) compare against numerical simulations, (2) update the database for risk models, (3) develop retrofit and design recommendations, and (4) improve the understanding of the dynamics of fluid, structure, and sediment interactions, which is critical to the general design and retrofit of levees, dams, and a wide range of coastal structures. The results of the field survey will be documented in a reconnaissance report. In addition, the team will perform a comparison of the data and analysis results obtained from the Samoan tsunami with those from the Hurricane Katrina survey and document the findings in a journal paper.