Pipelines and other linear facilities that traverse mountainous terrain may be subject to rock fall and rock slide hazards. A system is required to determine which sites pose the greatest hazard to the facility. Once sites are ranked according to hazard exposure, a risk management program involving inspection, monitoring, contingency planning and/or mitigation can be implemented in a systematic and defensible manner. A hazard rating methodology was developed to identify and characterize rock slope hazards above a South American Concentrate Pipeline, and to provide a relative ranking of hazard exposure for the pipeline, an access road and operational personnel. The rating methodology incorporates the geometry of the right-of-way, estimated pipe depth, staff and vehicle occupancy time, failure mechanism and magnitude, and the annual probability of hazard occurrence. This information is used in a risk-based framework to assign relative hazard ratings within rock slope sections of relatively uniform hazard exposure. This paper outlines a general framework for natural hazard and risk management along linear facilities, describes the rock slope hazard rating methodology, and illustrates how the system was applied along a South American Concentrate Pipeline.
Moral Hazard and Risk Management in Agri-environmental Policy