Webinar – Sissterra

Jan 03, 2023

Sixense and the Association of Geotechical & Geoenvironmental Speclialists – AGS-HK are pleased to invite you to our technical webinar held by Maria Saadé and Clément Mogenier, Sixense geophysics experts.

Sissterra is a turnkey solution for 3D underground imaging in restricted environments. It is a unique passive seismic solution using ambient noise generated by human activity to image the subsoil and monitor dynamic changes beneath the surface.

Join our webinar to find out more about our solution :

📅 Date: 13 January 2023

⌚ Time: 18:30 – 19:30 (Hong Kong Time)

💻 The webinar will be conducted through Zoom. Successful applicants will be informed by emails with a Zoom’s link to the webinar.

💲 The webinar is free of charge

Registration: AGS (HK) Technical Seminar 13 January 2023 (google.com)

Please register not later than 9 January 2023. Successful applicants will receive webinar details on 10 January 2023.

Synopsis:

Sissterra® is a 3D passive tomography solution for imaging the subsoil at high resolution. The measurements require the deployment of a network of autonomous, non-intrusive and easy to deploy, seismic nodes on the surface of the study area. The network does not have to be regular and can be adapted to the area of study. Its design can be defined relatively to the depth of investigation (depends on the dimensions of the network) and the lateral resolution needed (equal to the spacing between nodes) and can allow to investigate deep and shallow depths without requiring any active source such as explosives or truck-mounted vibrators.

The Rayleigh waves hidden in the noise signal are extracted by the computation of a cross-correlation between each pair of receivers. This procedure multiplies the number of measurements since we consider pairs of receivers and not individual ones. Dispersion curves obtained from the cross-correlations are inverted into shear velocity variations with depths. The resulting 3D Vs model can allow the highlight of the main geological features in the area, the different seismic horizons, and contrasts that can be interpreted as heterogeneities, weathered soil, cavities, etc.

About the speakers:

Dr. Maria Saadé is currently Expert in Seismic method and mainly the SISSTERRA solution for Sixense Group in Nanterre, France.
She did her PhD in Seismology, specialized in passive monitoring at Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in 2016. She held then 2 postdocs at the university, the 1^st one in the seismology team working on passive imaging and monitoring for earthquakes in Japan and the 2^nd one in the planetology team working with the scientific team of the NASA InSight mission.
At Sixense, she worked on several projects including: extensions to Paris metro lines, construction sites, dams and seismic risk analysis with different entities such as the CEA (French Alternative and Atomic Energies Agency) and EDF (Electricity of France), tunneling projects in France and Luxembourg, deep underground storage facilities in Morocco, the NEOM project in Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Clement Mogenier is currently Senior Project Manager for Sixense Group in Lyon, France.

He received his MSc in Applied Geosciences in 2006 from Université Savoie Mont Blanc, France. He spent his whole career as an Engineering Geophysicist for Sixense Group in Europe and in Hong Kong SAR.

He has been involved in large scale geophysical surveys for several major construction projects in France: the Eastern High Speed railway, extensions to Paris and Lyon metro networks, Lyon-Turin Base Tunnel (TELT)… and also overseas in Africa, Western Europe, Asia, Middle East, Oceania for large infrastructures projects like the West Island and South Island Lines, the Shatin to Central Link in Hong Kong, the Nam Theun 2 dam in Lao, the Metro Tunnel Project in Melbourne, or more recently the NEOM project in Saudi Arabia.

InSAR and Earth Observation Techniques for Infrastructure (C805)

Dec 19, 2022

The development of Earth Observation techniques

Earth Observation covers a wide range of technologies that have come of age throughout the past two decades and are expanding into a new era of cloud processing, very high-resolution and near real-time service delivery with the use of spaceborne data within infrastructure asset management.

The launch of the new CIRIA guidance report

We are delighted to announce that the new CIRIA (Construction Industry Research and Information Association) guidelines on Earth Observation and InSAR technology in civil infrastructure is now available.

Produced by a consortium led by Sixense and Imperial College London, the guidance report improves accessibility to Earth Observation technology by understanding techniques and products applied to infrastructure management.

What you will learn about ?

The report draws on the extensive experience of the consortium members and detail current practices, illustrated with case study examples, and outline respective advantages and limitations of the various techniques to assist all users and in particular those involved in asset management and construction. It forms an important step towards establishing the use of Earth Observation techniques as a matter of ongoing best practice for asset management in civil infrastructure projects.

Follow the link below to order your copy:

https://www.ciria.org/ItemDetail?iProductCode=C805&Category=BOOK&WebsiteKey=3f18c87a-d62b-4eca-8ef4-9b09309c1c91

For more information, please contact satellite@sixense-group.com

How we can build more resilient infrastructure projects?

Aug 08, 2022

A sustainable infrastructure also means a more resilient one. For that matter, we asked Bunafsha Mislimshoeva, Head of International Projects Development at Resallience (our design office specialised in climate resilience), to explain more about this concept and how we can build more resilient transport infrastructure projects, in the context of an everchanging climate environment.

Let’s see what our expert Bunafsha has to say about this. ?

? Could you please explain to us the importance of building a more resilient infrastructure? Please provide us with a bit of context: where does this urgency come from and why now?

The urgency of building climate resilient infrastructure has been there at least for the last two and half decades. Already during the early Conferences of the parties (COPs) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) climate change impacts on infrastructure have been raised. This urgency became more evident after the Paris Agreement which was negotiated and agreed upon by 196 countries in 2015. This conference and the follow up COPs indicate a clear consensus about the impacts of climate change on infrastructure among all other sectors. The report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was released in the beginning of this year, indicated an urgent need for climate change adaptation and mitigation across countries and sectors. The IPCC, for example, also mentions that by 2050 urban areas will be home third of the world’s population. This means that our infrastructure will have to accommodate more people, but at the same time should become more resilient. Any impact on infrastructure will increase the exposure of big share of the population of cities and create a cascading effect across critical infrastructures. Therefore, building resilient infrastructure is crucial as never before. Bunafsha Mislimshoeva, Head of International Projects Development at Resallience

? What does building climate resilience actually mean?

It basically means to plan, design, build and operate infrastructure that anticipates impacts of climate change, preparing for these impacts and adapt to them. As a result, the impacts of climate change may not be fully eliminated but they can be reduced to the extent possible. In more concrete terms it means that new infrastructure considers climate change impacts that may occur over the lifetime of that infrastructure. As for the existing infrastructure it is about managing them differently, for example during the maintenance, renovation to reduce the impacts of climate change. So it is about acting and not re-acting to the impacts of disasters. The link between infrastructure and climate change is rather complex and two-sided because infrastructure can both - contribute to climate change but also be affected by climate change. For example, the built environment generates nearly 50% of annual global CO2 emissions and at the same time continuously impacted by extreme events. As the frequency and intensity of climate and weather extremes increases, our infrastructure will need to adapt to better absorb these shocks. Therefore, the upcoming few years play decisive role for the development of our infrastructure. Metaphorically speaking, we need to design and construct our infrastructure in a way that it can be bend but not break. Bunafsha Mislimshoeva, Head of International Projects Development at Resallience

? How do you see the degree of preparation of other countries regarding the subject of climate resilience? Is Europe ready to act or has it already started planning?

Unfortunately, there are no available rankings or indexes or so to show the preparedness of all countries with focus on resilience only. However different rankings are available which use diverse methodologies to rank the performance of countries on climate change. The results are however similar, or at least show similar trends. The results show that Denmark, Sweden, Norway, UK, Morocco, Finland, and Malta at forefront of tackling climate change. Many other EU countries also received high rankings and are within the top 10 countries, which is a good indication of Europe taking active actions. There is a lot happening following the European Green Deal and the implementation of related policies as well as regulations. Europe aims to be the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 which requires ambitious changes across sectors including infrastructure. The role of businesses, cities initiatives, investors and generally making funds available for implementation is very critical now. It all boils down to actions and consequent changes on the ground which require substantial funding and financing. So, yes, Europe is ready to act and slowly but surely, we are witnessing the impacts of these acts on the ground in our daily life. There is a strong political shift and even if we are far away from the goals, we should not lose hope and optimism and each of us should play its part. Bunafsha Mislimshoeva, Head of International Projects Development at Resallience

Digitisation in the construction sector: a story to be written

May 07, 2021

In terms of digitisation, the construction industry is slowly starting its transformation. However, solutions already exist which will soon allow the two worlds of construction and operations, for building and infrastructure, to communicate with one another, while very little interaction was possible up until now. Pascal Berger, CEO of Sixense Group, explains.

The digitisation process in the construction industry is going at a slower pace than in other sectors. How far have we come in this respect?

We are still at the beginning of the journey, even if digitisation is already in place in numerous areas, such as quality control or supply chain, which follow established standardized processes. However, as far as the core business is concerned, construction on one hand and infrastructure operations on the other, digital tools are still not visible at a large scale. There are many stakeholders collaborating and interacting in these activities. One of the challenges that digitisation addresses is the orchestration of these actors, who need to have access to a common source of information continuously and updated in real time. In this context, the key principles to be implemented are the digitisation of the operational tasks and the capture of real time information to provide updated status on the work or the asset.

What is the main purpose?

The ultimate objective is to monitor the full life cycle of the infrastructure in order to help make decisions during construction, operations and maintenance. Today, the two worlds of construction and operations continue to exist separately. Both are being digitised, but independently. Therefore, there is still a gap between these two worlds, which do not yet communicate efficiently. A seamless process between them needs to be built; the goal being to manage and control the data throughout the full life cycle.

Are there already solutions to achieve this?

We do have a solution under development. It is a data integration platform called Beyond. This platform can be activated during the construction phase, just as it can be used during the operations and maintenance phase. Digitisation will then expend through the multiplication of use cases generating value. Over time, the multiplication of such use cases will create a seamless connection between construction and operations, through the emergence of common standards relevant for both domains.

Environmental responsibility is one of the new challenges facing construction companies. Will digitisation enable the industry to meet its commitments on this topic?

Environment is a major stake for these new technologies, in which I also include artificial intelligence, and how they can contribute to this challenge. These technologies offer new ways of ensuring infrastructure and building sustainability, which essentially means expending their lifespan. Thanks to real-time monitoring, it will become possible to get a better understanding of how these infrastructures age and evolve. Civil Engineers will be able to optimise their maintenance so that buildings and infrastructures can last longer, while anticipating and managing risks, whether these risks are linked to ground events (landslides, subsidence, etc.) or to the structure of the edifice itself.

An article from #JMLECO BFM Business by Scribeo (France)

Sixense coauthors the new ASCE publication

Apr 07, 2021

The American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 150,000 members of the civil engineering profession in 177 countries. Founded in 1852, ASCE is the nation’s oldest engineering society. ASCE stands at the forefront of a profession that plans, designs, constructs, and operates society’s economic and social engine – the built environment – while protecting and restoring the natural environment.

ASCE’s newest publication

ASCE recently released its newest book, “Remote Sensing for Monitoring Embankments, Dams and Slopes, GSP 322”. It provides information on selecting and deploying a monitoring network to assess the behaviour, geometry, total and differential for embankments, dams, and slopes (EDS) movement, and potential risks of the EDS movement on people and infrastructure. It includes information on a broad range of technologies for deploying remote sensing:

Radio Detection and Ranging (radar),
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR),
Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR),
Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR),
Digital photogrammetry and image processing,
Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS),
Automatic Motorised Total Stations (AMTS), and
Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS).

Sixense’s contributions to the book

This book, sponsored by the Geo-Institute Embankments, Dams and Slopes Technical Committee is the product of many practitioners’ and academicians’ contributions over a period of more than 24 months. Employees from Sixense USA and Iberia contributed to this collective work through book planning and co-authoring the InSAR, AMTS, Satellite Internet, and Case Histories chapters. Practitioners and researchers will find this publication useful in understanding and utilising currently available remote sensing technology and to advance and refine the monitoring of embankments, dams and slopes.

Both the print and e-book are available for purchase on ASCE Bookstore.
More detailed information about individual book chapters can be found on ASCE library.