EXPERTISE

GEOHAZARD ASSESSMENT & MANAGEMENT

EXPERTISE

APPLYING HAZARD & RISK MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES AT ALL LEVELS OF YOUR DECISION PROCESS

BGC will help you to understand and control the risks related to geographical elements through transparent approaches conveyed with clarity.

The cycle of managing hazard and risk

BGC’s engineers, geoscientists, and software specialists help clients manage landslide, flood, permafrost, seismic, snow avalanche and ground deformation hazard and risk at scales ranging from single sites to thousands of hazards impacting global asset portfolios. Our expertise spans the full range of steps to analyze, evaluate and control risk through both structural and non-structural approaches to operations planning, policy, and regulation.

The risks we help our clients manage

We help clients with the full cycle of safety and economic risk management for assets that include road and rail transportation networks, electrical generation and transmission infrastructure, resource extraction and waste management and residential development. Through the translation of complex data into a clear basis for decision making, we help clients make sense of risk, implement controls where needed most, and understand the level of risk reduction that has been achieved.

Geohazard Recognition

Geohazards are often unrecognized until disaster strikes. BGC excels at recognizing, classifying and quantifying geohazards before a catastrophic event occurs using a multidisciplinary skillset that includes:

Field-based reconnaissance and hazard mapping
Analyses of aerial photographs, visible satellite imagery, Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (INSAR) and lidar (Light Detection and Ranging)
Stratigraphy mapping in test trenches and natural exposures

Site Characterization

BGC routinely carries out site investigation programs to characterize hazard sites. This work often includes detailed field and aerial photograph mapping; test pitting and stratigraphic analysis; geotechnical drilling, testing, and sampling; ground motion monitoring, laboratory testing; and installation of borehole instrumentation.

Instrumentation & Monitoring

BGC is experienced with the selection and installation of a variety of instrumentation types, including rain gauges, piezometers, slope inclinometers, and extensometers (crackmeters).

Hazard Mapping

Hazard maps often combine the results of the hazard recognition and site characterization phases with detailed analyses. Maps are a primary tool for communicating hazards to stakeholders. BGC provides hazard assessment that are individually tailored to specific projects and typically involve estimating:

Where the hazard area is (extent)
What the chance is that the hazard will occur (likelihood, frequency)
How big and destructive it will be (magnitude, intensity)

Risk Assessment

Risk assessments combine assessments of hazards and their consequences, such as loss of life, economic losses or environmental damage. Clear understanding of risk is critical for decision making, including creation of site development plans, infrastructure design, and measures to reduce risk to tolerable levels. Risk assessments address questions such as:

What is the likelihood of losses to persons, buildings, or infrastructure?
Is the risk intolerable (should we take steps to reduce risk)?
How can we communicate risks with clarity to subject matter specialists, decision makers, and the public?

Risk Control

BGC helps clients both reduce geohazard risk and understand the level of risk reduction that has been achieved. We develop conceptual risk reduction options; facilitate stakeholder engagement and option evaluation; prepare detailed designs; and provide engineering services during procurement and construction. Options typically available to reduce geohazard risk include:

Land use or infrastructure planning to avoid the hazard
Warning systems based on monitoring thresholds
Stabilization to prevent hazard occurrence
Surface water and groundwater management
Flow diversion or conveyance away from elements at risk
Barriers or basins to capture rocks, sediment or debris

Cambio Geohazard Management System

BGC developed the Cambio Geohazard Management System to support risk-informed decision making by government and major industry. Cambio users include pipeline, railway and energy utility operators, transportation authorities, mining operators and governments tasked with community planning, regulation and emergency management. For major infrastructure, Cambio allows users to proactively plan inspections, monitor hazards in real-time and implement risk control measures according to a defensible and transparent decision-making process. For communities, Cambio can help identify the location and characteristics of geohazards, determine population and assets at risk and establish transparent approaches to prioritize, plan and regulate land use and development.

River Network Tools

BGC’s River Network Tools (RNT) is a powerful and versatile web-based application for analysing hydrotechnical geohazards associated with rivers and streams. Floods and channel-forming processes can pose risk to linear infrastructure such as pipelines, railways, and highways. Quantifying the potential risks to both existing and proposed infrastructure is essential, yet the expansive geographic regions traversed can result in a prohibitive amount of data requiring extensive man-hours to effectively gather and analyze. In response, BGC developed RNT as a set of modules that integrate publicly available hydrometric data with GIS-based analytical tools to help manage hazard and risk at watercourse crossings. The RNT has proven to be invaluable for a variety of applications, including geohazard and flood hazard management programs.