A team from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association has been mobilized to investigate the impacts of the storm surge, wave loading and flooding on the geotechnical elements of infrastructure in the areas of Florida affected by Hurricane Irma.
Dr. Nina Stark will lead a GEER group that will collect data in the areas of Miami, Naples and the Florida Keys, starting on Sunday September 24. Dr. Inthuorn Sasanakul (University of South Carolina) and Dr. Luis Arboleda (University of Central Florida) will assist as part of Dr. Stark’s group. Dr. Ellen Rathje (University of Texas at Austin) is supporting the GEER team as the Steering Committee Event Coordinator.
The GEER team will conduct detailed reconnaissance of sediment erosion and deposition, and infrastructure structures that had geotechnical elements subjected to unusual loading due to the hurricane, such as flood walls, coastal structures, levees, dams, and bridge foundations. The team will document its observations so that potentially perishable information can be shared and used to advance the engineering practice and related research.
This trip comes almost immediately after Stark led a GEER group to the coast of Texas following Hurricane Harvey.
After the field investigation is complete, observations and findings will be posted on the GEER website. Additional information on GEER is available at: http://www.geerassociation.org/.