Research Initiation Award: Robust Management of Earthen Levee Stability in the Face of Uncertainty for Resilient Geotechnical Infrastructures

研究启动奖为历史上黑人学院和大学的初级和中级职业教师提供支持，他们正在建立新的研究项目或重新定向和重建现有的研究项目。预计该奖项将有助于进一步提高教师的研究能力和效率，改善家庭机构的研究和教学，并使本科生参与研究经验。授予哥伦比亚特区大学（UDC）的这一奖项在许多领域具有潜在的更广泛的影响。该项目的目标是推进对作为岩土基础设施性能指标的稳健性的基本理解，并建立一个知情的决策支持框架，用于对土堤进行稳健管理，以抵御多种灾害。该研究将被整合到UDC的岩土工程课程中。该项目将开发一种稳健的管理方法，以解决多种灾害下的基础设施稳健性问题，并推进岩土基础设施适应性管理的实践状态。鲁棒管理方法的基石是三个紧密结合的概念：工程鲁棒性对多种危险，贝叶斯推理，多目标决策支持。首先，一个原始的定量鲁棒性度量将制定评估土堤抵御灾害事件，如洪水和地震的能力。在此基础上，建立了土堤结构鲁棒性和可靠性评估的概率框架。最后，将创建一个智能决策支持框架，将数值模拟结果和性能数据转化为强大的管理能力。该研究有望填补岩土工程的知识空白，将稳健性概念转化为岩土基础设施管理的有效决策支持工具。该研究成果将为面临不确定性的弹性岩土基础设施提供创新解决方案，通过更安全的工程实践来减少和缓解风险，从而保护公众并造福社会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Research Initiation Awards provide support for junior and mid-career faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities who are building new research programs or redirecting and rebuilding existing research programs. It is expected that the award helps to further the faculty member's research capability and effectiveness, improves research and teaching at the home institution, and involves undergraduate students in research experiences. This award to the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) has potential broader impacts in a number of areas. The goal of the project is to advance the fundamental understanding of robustness as a performance indicator for geotechnical infrastructures and establish an informed decision support framework for robust management of earthen levees against multiple hazards. The research will be integrated into geotechnical engineering courses at UDC.The project will develop a robust management methodology to address the infrastructure robustness under multiple hazards and advance the state-of-practice in adaptive management of geotechnical infrastructures. The cornerstones of the robust management methodology are three tightly integrated concepts: engineering robustness against multiple hazards, Bayesian inference, and multi-objective based decision-support. Firstly, an original quantitative robustness metric will be formulated for assessing the capability of earthen levees to withstand hazard events such as floods and earthquakes. Then a novel probabilistic framework will be established for robustness and reliability assessment of earthen levees. Finally, an intelligent decision support framework will be created to turn numerical simulation results and performance data into robust management capability. The research is expected to fill a knowledge gap in geotechnical engineering by transforming the robustness concept into an effective decision support tool for geotechnical infrastructure management. The results of the research will lead to an innovative solution for resilient geotechnical infrastructures in the face of uncertainty, which can protect the public and benefit society through safer engineering practice for risk reduction and mitigation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.