The three stakeholders in this project, Transport Northern Ireland (TNI), Northern Ireland Rail (NIR) and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) all have one common need which this project addresses. They are required to monitor ground deformations across their geotechnical assets (e.g. embankments, cuttings and earth retaining structures) using the most efficient, cost effective methods, with a view to minimising and managing the geotechnical risk to their businesses and the road/rail users. The objective of the work therefore is to apply the methodologies that the British Geological Survey (BGS) have already developed through past research projects of assessing the deformation of geotechnical infrastructure, such as slope movement or ground subsidence, using Satellite Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR). The project will validate this methodology through ground truthing, using geotechnical monitoring and high resolution photogrammetry developed by Queen's University Belfast (QUB). Through this project, the stakeholders will be able to monitor ground deformations in a more cost effective, efficient, more thorough and more robust way, and embed the use of this methodology across their organisations making a step change on how they approach assessment and manage the resilience of their geotechnical infrastructure. TNI anticipate that the use of InSAR data will help form their strategies for monitoring their geotechnical assets and will feed into the existing GIS based risk assessment methods for their infrastructure assets. The site at Straidkilly is only one of many sections along the A2 coast road that is unstable and it is hoped that InSAR will give a much greater insight into the behaviour of a variety of geohazards that impact on the road and will inform their maintenance strategies and lead to more cost effective better targeted maintenance. TNI also are committed to having a better understanding of the mechanisms of failure on the slow moving failures on the Throne Bend in Belfast. The InSAR data will allow a much better correlation between slope movement and rainfall intensity and duration to be undertaken. InSAR data will also allow better mapping of the extent and magnitude of the instability. NIR also hope to be able to correlate the slope instability against rainfall data on the Belfast-Bangor rail line. DETI anticipate that the project will validate new methods of monitoring and provide baseline data of ground motion to form the basis of future strategic decisions in regards to geohazards. The use of InSAR at sites in Carrickfergus will potentially provide greater knowledge of extent of subsidence boundaries and provide indicators to potential catastrophic collapse by analysing SAR data against periods of known rapid collapse of ground.

In Northern Ireland, an average person does over 80% of their journeys by car. This is very high compared to other parts of the UK, where 63% of journeys are made by car, and in Ireland, where the figure is just over 50%. Belfast is also one of the most congested cities in the UK. These problems are because too many people are driving too often. Being too reliant on our cars to get around leads to many detrimental impacts. For example, we walk and cycle less, our air quality worsens, and the number of road traffic collisions increases. It is, therefore, a growing issue in public health with more and more cities looking for solutions to help reduce our reliance on cars. However, solutions to such a problem are not simple as there are many different groups involved in or affected by the transport system. If we are to find policies and programmes that help reduce car reliance long term, then these groups must work together to solve the problem. Our project aims to co-develop sustainable and scalable policies and programmes that reduce the reliance on cars in Belfast. Our project is organised into 3 workstreams: 1) understanding the multiple layers of the system that influence the reliance on cars in Belfast; 2) exploring the current evidence and knowledge of what has worked in other cities; 3) developing possible policies and programmes with key organisations to reduce car use. Our policies and programmes are aimed at citizens who use their car for work, school drop-off, leisure and other activities in Belfast. But other road users will also directly benefit from less cars on the road, through less air pollution and fewer road traffic collisions. The general population will also benefit from cleaner air, less noise, and potential positive impacts on climate change. Our research includes the following steps: 1. We will undertake a survey using a technique known as Network Analysis to help us understand the network of stakeholders involved in the development, implementation and evaluation of programmes and policies to reduce car dependency and how they might best work together. 2. We will undertake a survey with road users in Belfast to evaluate and rank the importance of influences on car dependency and on alternative travel modes, using a technique known as Discrete Choice Experiments. 3. To develop agreement among stakeholders about the nature, ordering and relationships between programmes and policies of different organisations to reduce car dependency, we will develop visual diagrams of the 'system' of the various aspects that affect car dependency, using a technique known as causal loop diagrams. 4. We will host workshops with local citizens to 'sense-check' promising intervention approaches and policies to explore and ensure the acceptability, utility, affordability, feasibility and sustainability of new initiatives. Possible policies and programmes may include, for example: improved public transport, with the introduction of a new rapid transit system; investment in urban greenways to increase walking and cycling journeys; expanding the car-free areas of the city centre; extension of 'park and ride' and 'park and stride' facilities at the edge of the city. Our work will have the following outputs: 1. Identification of stakeholders influencing car dependency in Belfast and their relationships. 2. A review of the evidence for actions to reduce car dependency, leading to identification of possible new interventions and policies to be considered by stakeholders. 3. A map identifying ongoing and planned policies and interventions and their potential interplay. 4. A suite of potential co-ordinated policies and interventions 'tested' (in terms of acceptability and feasibility) with road users and local citizens. 5. A consensual understanding of the evidence provided and implications for reducing car dependency in Belfast. 6. A roadmap for multi-sectoral action to reduce car dependency in Belfast.

The UK's transport infrastructure is one of the most heavily used in the world. The rail network takes 50% more daily traffic than the French network; the M25 between junctions 15 and 14 carries 165000 vehicles daily; London Underground is Europe's largest subway. The performance of these networks is critically dependent on the performance of cutting and embankment slopes which make up £20B of the £60B asset value of major highway infrastructure alone. Many of these slopes are old and suffering high incidents of instability (increasing with time). Our vision is to create a visualised model of transient water movement in infrastructure slopes under a range of current and future environmental scenarios, based on a fundamental understanding of earthwork material and system behaviour, which can be used to create a more reliable, cost effective, safer and more sustainable transport system. The impact of the improved slope management will be highly significant in both direct economic and indirect social and economic terms: planned maintenance costs 10 times less and reduces delays caused by slope failure. This proposal offers a unique opportunity to unite 6 academic institutions and coalesce their field, laboratory and computing facilities; with a large cohort of PhD students and experienced stakeholder community we will undertake world leading science and create a long-term legacy. Individually, the partners in this proposal, in collaboration with key infrastructure owners and engineering companies, have been responsible for the instrumentation of 15 cut slopes and embankments, the development of numerical models which couple hydrological and geotechnical effects, and the development of laboratory and filed testing to provide parameters to populate these models. These studies have helped to define the type of problem that is being faced and begin to understand some of the interactions between weather, soil and vegetation. However, further research is required in order to better understand material behaviour (particularly the composite behaviour of soil, water, air and vegetation); slope system behaviour (particularly the effects of temporal and spatial variations of material properties) and the relationships with environmental effects and engineering performance. Furthermore, the integration of the material and slope behaviour with that of the behaviour of the infrastructure network as a whole has thus far not been possible. It is important for the sustainable management of infrastructure slopes (assessment, planning, repair, maintenance and adaptation) to have models that can assess the likely engineering performance of infrastructure slopes, both now and in the future. Recent model development has started to consider the input of weather patterns, and can therefore model the potential effects of future climate. However it has become clear that these models are sensitive to the way in which a number of the physical processes and properties are incorporated, many of which are complex and difficult to quantify directly. A better understanding of the interactions between earthworks, vegetation and climate is required to formulate robust guidance on which maintenance approaches should be adopted and how they should be applied. iSMART will use a combination of field measurements, lab testing and development of conceptual and numerical models to investigate the uncertainties and knowledge gaps enumerated above and to visualise the complex interactions taking place over time and space. This knowledge will help the managers of the UK's transport infrastructure to identify problem sites, plan and prioritise maintenance activity, and develop assessment and adaptation strategies to ensure future safety and resilience of geotechnical transport infrastructure.

The focus of this collaboration is to link research groups who undertake full-scale monitoring of slopes through a range of people-based activities. These include: visits of UK researchers and academics to a number of field sites both in the UK and overseas; exchanges of young researchers between UK and overseas academic institutions; secondments of researchers to industry; a dissemination workshop and the establishment of a web portal for the storage and exchange of data and for the running of on-line meetings and seminars. Despite its main focus, the collaboration will necessarily provide links between members of the extended research teams with expertise in numerical simulation, constitutive modelling, soils testing and instrumentation. It is the intention that these activities will also be linked within the wider collaborative framework created by this funding.

SummaryThe focus of this collaboration is to link research groups who undertake full-scale monitoring of slopes through a range of people-based activities. These include: visits of UK researchers and academics to a number of field sites both in the UK and overseas; exchanges of young researchers between UK and overseas academic institutions; secondments of researchers to industry; a dissemination workshop and the establishment of a web portal for the storage and exchange of data and for the running of on-line meetings and seminars. Despite its main focus, the collaboration will necessarily provide links between members of the extended research teams with expertise in numerical simulation, constitutive modelling, soils testing and instrumentation. It is the intention that these activities will also be linked within the wider collaborative framework created by this funding.