ASSESSING THE UNDERWORLD - AN INTEGRATED PERFORMANCE MODEL OF CITY INFRASTRUCTURES

地面城市交通基础设施-我们的道路、自行车道、步行区、有轨电车和铁路-由地面支撑，因此地面的特性必须在很大程度上控制其结构性能。公用事业基础设施--向我们的家庭提供公用事业服务并支持城市生活的管道和电缆--通常埋在我们的城市街道下面，也就是说，它位于地面交通基础设施(通常是道路和铺设的步行区)的下面。因此，使用传统的沟渠挖掘来安装、更换、修理或维护这些公用设施管道或电缆的街道工程将扰乱交通和人员流动，并且往往会严重破坏地面交通基础设施及其承载的地面。因此，很明显，地面和物理(即公用设施和地面运输)基础设施是按照共生关系存在的：其中一个设施进行物理干预，其他设施几乎不可避免地以某种方式受到影响，无论是立即还是在未来。此外，管道和电缆、地面和上面的道路结构的物理条件对于确定街道工程造成的影响的性质和严重程度至关重要。评估地下世界(ATU)旨在使用部署在地表和内部水管上的地球物理传感器来远程(即无需挖掘)确定这些城市资产的状况。ATU建立在由EPSRC的First Ideas Factory(或沙坑)资助并得到许多行业合作伙伴支持的非常成功的绘制地下世界(MTU)项目的基础上。MTU沙坑汇聚了一支在这一领域逐渐被公认为国际领导者的团队。ATU将气候变化、基础设施政策、工程可持续性和管道系统方面的领导者引入MTU团队，将这项研究带入一个新的影响范围，作为使街道工程更可持续的25年愿景的一部分。ATU提议开发在MTU中创建的地球物理传感器来寻找不同的目标：有迹象表明埋在地下的管道和电缆显示出退化或损坏的迹象，有迹象表明道路结构显示出退化的迹象(例如，裂缝、分层或潮湿)，以及地面具有与未改变的地面不同的特性(例如，因泄漏的管道而湿润或被侵蚀，因当地的沟渠挖掘而松动，被水浸湿通过破裂的道路结构进入)。例如，劣化(破裂、横向移动、腐蚀或孔洞)的管道对地球物理传感器的响应将与原始管道不同，而邻近土壤的湿润或因含水管道泄漏而造成的局部侵蚀造成的空洞将导致地面对未改变的自然土壤或填充物的不同响应。同样，一条劣化的道路(有垂直裂缝或湿润的地基)将对位于适当排水的地基上的完整、连贯的边界层产生不同的反应。利用地球物理传感器提供的信息并将其与管道、电缆和道路的记录相结合，并引入这些物理基础设施的劣化模型，了解它们的年龄和记录状况(在可获得该信息的情况下)，将允许使用一种方法来预测如果在特定道路上挖沟时它们将如何反应。在某些情况下，替代施工技术可以避免严重损坏(例如水管爆裂、需要完全重建的道路结构故障)或伤害(煤气管道破裂)。提供这些信息将通过为街道工程工程师创建决策支持系统来实现。最后，街道工程对经济、社会和环境的全面影响将在可持续发展评估框架中建立模型，以便清楚地表明工程对更广泛的影响。

The surface urban transport infrastructures - our roads, cycle ways, pedestrian areas, tramways and railways - are supported by the ground, and hence the properties of the ground must control to a significant degree their structural performance. The utility services infrastructure - the pipes and cables that deliver utility services to our homes and which supports urban living - is usually buried beneath our urban streets, that is it lies below the surface transport infrastructure (usually roads and paved pedestrian areas). It follows that streetworks to install, replace, repair or maintain these utility service pipes or cables using traditional trench excavations will disrupt traffic and people movement, and will often significantly damage the surface transport infrastructure and the ground on which it bears.It is clear, therefore, that the ground and physical (i.e. utility service and surface transport) infrastructures exist according to a symbiotic relationship: intervene physically in one, and the others are almost inevitably affected in some way, either immediately or in the future. Moreover the physical condition of the pipes and cables, of the ground and of the overlying road structure, is consequently of crucial importance in determining the nature and severity of the impacts that streetworks cause. Assessing the Underworld (ATU) aims to use geophysical sensors deployed both on the surface and inside water pipes to determine remotely (that is, without excavation) the condition of these urban assets.ATU builds on the highly successful Mapping the Underworld (MTU) project funded by EPSRC's first IDEAS Factory (or sandpit) and supported by many industry partners. The MTU sandpit brought together a team that has grown to be acknowledged as international leaders in this field. ATU introduces leaders in climate change, infrastructure policy, engineering sustainability and pipeline systems to the MTU team to take the research into a new sphere of influence as part of a 25-year vision to make streetworks more sustainable.ATU proposes to develop the geophysical sensors created in MTU to look for different targets: indications that the buried pipes and cables are showing signs of degradation or failure, indications that the road structure is showing signs of degradation (e.g. cracking, delamination or wetting) and indications that the ground has properties different to unaltered ground (e.g. wetted or eroded by leaking pipes, loosened by local trench excavations, wetted by water ingress through cracked road structures). For example, a deteriorated (fractured, laterally displaced, corroded or holed) pipe will give a different response to the geophysical sensors than a pristine pipe, while wetting of the adjacent soil or voids created by local erosion due to leakage from a water-bearing pipe will result in a different ground response to unaltered natural soil or fill. Similarly a deteriorated road (with vertical cracks, or with a wetted foundation) will give a different response to intact, coherent bound layers sitting on a properly drained foundation.Taking the information provided by the geophysical sensors and combining it with records for the pipes, cables and roads, and introducing deterioration models for these physical infrastructures knowing their age and recorded condition (where this information is available), will allow a means of predicting how they will react if a trench is dug in a particular road. In some cases alternative construction techniques could avert serious damage (e.g. water pipe bursts, road structural failure requiring complete reconstruction) or injury (gas pipe busts). Making this information available will be achieved by creating a Decision Support System for streetworks engineers. Finally, the full impacts to the economy, society and environment of streetworks will be modelled in a sustainability assessment framework so that the wider impacts of the works are made clear.