55th Rankine Lecture

Introduction

Hazard, Risk and Reliability in Geotechnical Practice by Dr Suzanne Lacasse of the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI)

More and more, society requires to know the risk which people, property and the environment are exposed to. The role of the geotechnical engineering profession should increasingly be reducing exposure to threats, reducing risk and protecting people.

The objective of the 55th Rankine Lecture is to convince you that you can implement, with benefit, concepts of hazard, risk and reliability to assist you in design, decision-making and engineering recommendations. After an overview of the basic concepts, the lecture discusses the advances of hazard, risk and reliability in geotechnical engineering, and explains several real life case studies. In these examples, specific engineering questions had to be answered, and risk and reliability applications provided insight for informed decision-making. The factor of safety remains the main indicator of safety in practice, and its significance and that of key parameters used for design, e.g. the characteristic strength, are discussed. The examples presented are taken from a wide realm of geotechnical problems, including the selection of soil properties, the mapping of hazard and risk, as well as hazard and risk assessment associated with slope stability, dams, offshore installations and code calibration. The contributions of risk assessment and management to geotechnical engineering, the strengths and drawbacks of the approach and issues such as tolerable and acceptable risk, perceptions of risk and cascading hazards are discussed. The lecture shows how interactions with other disciplines is part of providing a soundly engineering solution.

The geotechnical engineer's role is not solely to provide judgement on selection of parameters, methods of calculation and resulting safety, but also to take an active part in the evaluation of hazard, vulnerability and risk.

For full details download the flyer: Rankine Lecture flyer 2015

Watch online

.

Rankine Dinner Information

Dinner tickets are now available. Please book via the ICE website using the Rankine Dinner Booking Link

Please note that the cost remains at £85.00 per person but patrons may only purchase a maximum of two tables of 10 places each at a cost of £850.00 per table; it is not necessary to nominate guests unless they have special dietary or access requirements.

The 2015 Rankine Dinner tickets will be sold using the ICE's online booking system, which is designed to allow delegates to book themselves and guests on to events, either individually or as table bookings. It cannot accommodate bookings made on behalf of other people, ie where the person making the booking is not attending the event, and patrons are therefore encouraged to make their bookings personally. If you are not an ICE/BGA member you must register as a non-member before booking your tickets.

However, should you experience any problems in making a booking, or are acting on behalf of a third party (but not attending the dinner yourself), please e-mail your request (and telephone number), quoting your ICE/BGA membership number, to the BGA Co-ordinator, at Shelagh.fleming@ice.org.uk who will contact you for credit card details and make the booking “offline”. Provisional bookings cannot be accepted and tickets will be sold strictly on a first-come, first-served basis.

Please note that “offline” bookings are:
• Subject to availability
• Processed in order of receipt of enquiry
• Not secured until the credit card payment procedure has been completed

Further details see the BGA Rankine dinner flyer 2015 or contact Shelagh Fleming at Shelagh.fleming@ice.org.uk or 020 7665 2007.