Harmonized aproach to STRESs Tests for critical infrastructures against natural hazards (STREST)

Description:

Under this project, a new engineering risk based multi-level framework for stress tests has been developed. It is named STREST and it aims at verifying the safety and the risk of individual components as well as of a whole critical infrastructure system.

The methodology is based on rigorous models for the hazard, vulnerability, performance and resilience assessment under different natural hazards. Although weather events (and particularly those potentially related to changes in climate) are not addressed in the project, the methodological workflow can be directly applied to climate change adaptation purposes.

A multi-level framework is proposed, covering different levels of complexity of the analysis (e.g. quantification of epistemic uncertainty, expert elicitation), and different risk assessment approaches (single or multi-hazard, probabilistic or scenario based), and taking consideration of the available resources for conducting the stress tests. A formalized multiple expert integration process has been also developed dealing with the management of epistemic uncertainty called EU@STREST (Epistemic Uncertainty at STREST) and integrated into the stress test Workflow.

The application of STREST follows a workflow consisting of four phases: Pre-Assessment phase; Assessment phase; Decision phase; and Report phase. In the Pre-Assessment phase all the data available on the CI and on the hazard of interest is collected. The goal, the time frame and the most appropriate Stress Test Level to apply to test the CI are then defined. In the Assessment phase, the stress test is performed at Component and System Level. In the Decision phase, the stress test outcomes are checked i.e. the results of risk assessment are compared with the objectives defined in Pre-Assessment phase. Then critical events, i.e. events that most likely cause a given level of loss value are identified and risk mitigation strategies and guidelines are formulated based on the identified critical events and presented in the Report phase.

The STREST approach has been applied to six case studies, including the port infrastructures of Thessaloniki in Greece. In this case, the natural hazards considered have been limited to earthquakes, liquefaction hazards and tsunamis. The flowchart of the STREST framework for the stress test application in the port of Thessaloniki is presented in the figure below.

 

Project information

Lead

Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule Zurich (ETH Zurich)

Partners

Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule Zurich (ETH Zurich)

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Basler & Hofmann (BUH)

European Centre for Training and Research in Earthquake Engineering (EUCENTRE)

 Analisi e Monitoraggio del Rischio Ambientale (AMRA)

 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)

Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek (TNO)

Institut des Sciences de la Terre (ISTerre), Université Joseph Fourier (UJF)

 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH)

Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI), Bogazici University (BU)

Ljubljana University (UL)

Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Source of funding

European Commission FP7