| EPSRC Reference: |
EP/C525205/1 |
| Title: |
Research collaboration and discussions with partners in Brazil |
| Principal Investigator: |
Cripps, Dr J |
| Other Investigators: |
|
| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
|
| Project Partners: |
|
| Department: |
Civil and Structural Engineering |
| Organisation: |
University of Sheffield |
| Scheme: |
Overseas Travel Grants Pre-FEC |
| Starts: |
07 November 2004 |
Ends: |
06 February 2005 |
Value (£): |
2,600
|
| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
|
| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| No relevance to Underpinning Sectors |
|
|
| Related Grants: |
|
| Panel History: |
|
|
Summary on Grant Application Form |
|
The proposed research follows from PhD studies under my supervision at Sheffield by Dr Femandes da Silva of the Geological Institute of Sao Paulo State, Brazil. The objectives were to develop improved methods of land evaluation for the assessment of land instability and groundwater contamination using remotely sensed data. It is part of research into methods of improving the availability, relevance and quality of data about ground conditions for land-use planners and at the preliminary stages of engineering construction. The research at Sheffield centred on the development of methods for deriving data about the joints, bedding planes and foliation in rock masses from remotely sensed data. Consideration of these structural features would improve the assessment of their engineering and hydrogeological performance or rock masses. It was hypothesised that although small-scale structural features are not directly discemable on remotely sensed images, their presence can be deduced from the distribution and characteristics of the drainage and topographic features on the images. As manual extraction of data about the landscape features is a time-consuming and difficult task, the partial automation of the process was investigated. Testing of the methodology at two sites in Brazil proved that it is capable of improving assessment of ground conditions.Obviously methods that enable reliable geological data to be derived from remotely sensed data are of immense value, especially in remote and poorly mapped areas of Brazil. Even in relatively well-mapped regions such as the UK, only very general data are available about the rock mass structural features. Such information is essential to making reliable assessments of the stability of rock masses in natural slopes, cliffs and infrastructure cuttings and in assessing the potential for the migration of pollution.This visit to Brazil is an opportunity to undertake further testing of the methods developed at Sheffield and to apply these data to the assessment of the engineering performance of rock masses in two projects. At the Municipality of Cosmopolis the site for a large landfill facility is being investigated, where a hydrgeological assessment will be made and at Ubatuba, in a quarry reclamation project, the application to the assessment of rock mass stability will be tested.Whilst in Brazil I will discuss the opportunities for future collaboration with the Geological Institute for the State of Sao Paulo and the Universities of Campinas and Sao Paulo State University. One of the objectives is to develop a land-use information system capable of providing data about the ground conditions at the planning and pre-site investigation stages of development. Projects in which the methodology is applied to a variety of rock slope stability, coastal erosion and groundwater protection problems in different terrains are also envisaged.I have also been invited to give short courses at the Universities of Campinas and Sao Paulo State University but funding for these activities are not sought in this application
|
|
Key Findings |
|
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
|
|
Potential use in non-academic contexts |
|
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
|
|
Impacts |
|
| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
|
| Date Materialised |
|
|
|
|
Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
|
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
|
| Project URL: |
|
| Further Information: |
|
| Organisation Website: |
http://www.shef.ac.uk |