Geotechnical News• December 2019
47
GEOHAZARDS
Pipeline Context
The book arrives at a time of increas-
ing interest in the topic of pipeline
geohazard management, particularly
in the United States and Canada. This
attention has been generated by a
number of pipeline incidents caused by
ground movement and other geologi-
cal processes that have occurred in the
United States in the last few years. A
recent issue of the Federal Register
included an advisory bulletin from the
U.S. Federal Pipeline Safety Regula-
tory Agency that noted several of these
incidents, including those that resulted
in the release of more than 1,200 bar-
rels of gasoline in Lycoming County,
Pennsylvania, in October 2016; more
than 12,600 barrels of crude oil in Bill-
ings County, North Dakota, in Decem-
ber 2016; more than 2,600 barrels of
propane in Marshall County, West
Virginia, in April 2018; and 165,000
MCF of natural gas near Moundsville,
West Virginia, in June 2018.
In its 2017 transmission pipeline
industry performance report, the
Canadian Energy Pipeline Association
(CEPA) estimates that geotechnical
causes of pipeline incidents between
2012 and 2016 account for 7% of all
reportable incidents (Fig. 2). A signifi-
cant incident includes one or more of
the following: caused a serious injury
or fatality; caused a liquid release of
greater than eight cubic metres (50
barrels); produced an unintentional
ignition or fire; resulted in a rupture of
a pipeline (CEPA, 2017).
Significant incidents accounted for
about 8% of all reported incidents
in the CEPA statistics. Similarly, the
National Energy Board (NEB) indi-
cates that geohazards contributed to
between 5 and 9% of incidents during
the period 1991and 2009.
In addition to the heightened aware-
ness of the subject in the United States
and Canada, interest is also strong in
other regions around the world. Many
places like South America and parts
of Europe have dense distributions
of geohazards that cannot be avoided
while developing linear infrastructure.
Looking at pipeline systems perfor-
mance outside the U.S. and Canada,
one of the leading causes of rupture
incidents is geohazards.
Since the publication of the first edi-
tion in 2008, many major pipeline
projects have been proposed and
advanced through various phases of
project planning, design and regula-
tory reviews and approvals. Some of
these projects have been constructed
and have since been commissioned
and are in operations. A subset of these
projects has navigated through rug-
ged and geohazard-intensive terrain,
as well as steadily rising stakeholder
scrutiny and expectations.
In undertaking these projects, the
pipeline industry has responded with
continuous improvements in the plan-
ning, design, construction and opera-
tions of pipelines. The period since the
publication of the first edition of this
book has witnessed a resetting of the
state-of-practice in the area of pipeline
geohazard management across the
planning, design, construction and
operations stages of a pipeline’s life
cycle. As part of the industry’s overall
continuous improvement, the experi-
ences acquired in tackling challenging
project environments as well as a wide
range of advances in enabling tech-
nologies underpin the new state-of-
practice that has emerged.
About the book...
The book is an updated edition of the
book “Pipeline Geo-Environmental
Design and Geohazard Management”
(Rizkalla, ed., 2008) which was pre-
mised largely on the experience of the
Mackenzie Gas Project in Canada. The
new book clocks in at 824 pages, more
than double the size of the original.
It is intended as a state-of-the-art
reference for practitioners in operat-
ing pipeline companies, as well as
specialized pipeline engineering, and
geotechnical consultants involved in
either the design and construction of
new pipelines or the integrity manage-
ment of operating pipelines.
Subject matter experts were invited
to contribute entire chapters, short
Invited Technical Briefs or longer
Invited Perspectives in their areas of
specialization. Where suitable, certain
chapters include many photographs
and figures of practical applications
from projects around the world.
Additionally, some authors elected to
include supplemental references both
for completeness and as recognition of
the considerable work by others.
Geohazard considerations at
various pipeline project stages
During the corridor selection stage
of pipeline development, a balance
is required in addressing engineer-
ing, biophysical and socioeconomic
factors. Boundaries for routing are
established through the integration of
multi-disciplinary datasets as a basis
to address a pipeline proponent’s
range of responsibilities with respect
to land owners, land users, the envi-
ronment and wildlife. The extensive
use of remote sensing products includ-
ing maps, satellite imagery and aerial
photography is a hallmark of this stage
of a project’s development.
Enabled with the now ubiquitous
application of Geographic Information
Systems (GIS) in synthesizing various
data sets into geological models to
support decision making and com-
munication, the book provides an
overview of the very dynamic space of
data set generation, integration, man-
agement and visualization. The rapidly
changing state-of-practice and emerg-
Figure 2: Causes of pipeline inci-
dents for CEPA members between
2012 and 2016 (CEPA, 2017).
