On April 20, 2013, a 6.6 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter in Lushan struck the southern portion of the Longmenshan mountain range southwest of Chengdu, Sichuan province, and caused damage to structures and lifelines. The worst affected areas included the cities of Lushan, Baoxing, Tianquan, Sheungshizhen, and Taipingzhen, with landslides and rockslides causing major road closures and hampering emergency response efforts. This TCLEE Monograph discusses the following lifeline systems: electric power; water distribution; wastewater treatment; roads and bridges, telecommunications; emergency response methods; and essential and regular building stock. General seismology of the event and geotechnical features of the area are included.

When a magnitude 8.8 earthquake occurred off the coast of Chile on February 27, 2010, it affected 80 percent of Chile's population. Damage to lifelines was caused by strong ground shaking, permanent ground deformation, lateral spread, and a tsunami in the coastal areas of Bio Bio and Maule. Lifeline services were significantly disrupted for the first week, at a considerable cost to Chile's economy. This TCLEE report discusses in detail the effects of the earthquake, as observed by an ASCE-TCLEE team of civil engineers in April 2010. The team examined the performance of lifeline infrastructure systems, including transportation, ports, gas and liquid fuel, electric power, telecommunications, water and wastewater, and airports. An overview of each system's performance is provided, followed by a description of the damage to specific sectors or locations. An analysis of infrastructure interdependencies and resilience in Chile is included, as well as a report on emergency response, recovery, and social impact. This monograph will be of particular interest to civil engineers, managers, planners, emergency management personnel, and government officials charged with maintaining lifeline infrastructure systems to withstand earthquakes and other natural hazards.

The seismic evaluation and retrofit of water transmission infrastructure is an area of growing concern to utilities that own large water conveyance systems. Many water and power utilities today rely heavily on water transmission structures built in the 1930s or earlier without regard to seismic design. Today, utilities are finding that these facilities are threatened by many seismic hazards including liquefaction, landslides, surface faulting and ground shaking. If these facilities are not seismically strengthened, they pose a significant threat to the utility's ability to provide water for customer service, for fire fighting purposes after major earthquakes, or to supply hydroelectric facilities. This book provides guidelines for the seismic evaluation and retrofit of water transmission infrastructure, including aqueducts, tunnels, canals, buried pipelines, elevated pipelines and their appurtenances. The current state of the practice in seismically strengthening these key facilities is covered, as well as past performance during earthquakes, performance criteria, risk analysis, and analysis methods. Case studies address seismic designs and retrofits for the Mokelumne Aqueduct, the Contra Costa Canal, the Borel Canal, buried pipes at fault crossings, and auxiliary water fighting systems. These case studies examine the technical, geotechnical and structural disciplines, as well as post-earthquake operations, financial issues and benefits of seismic retrofits.