Programmatic Approaches to Assessing and Mitigating Risk to Pipelines from Geohazards

Many gas and liquid pipelines traverse unstable landscapes, such as waterways, floodplains, and steep terrain. These unstable landscapes often pose threats to pipeline stability and integrity. A variety of approaches are available to better understand and predict the magnitude and frequency of natural forces (geohazards) that threaten pipeline integrity. Risks of pipeline failures from these threats are of high concern to the industry, and the risks escalate significantly in high consequence areas. One approach is to prioritize vulnerable pipelines by assessing and prioritizing them through a combination of publicly available data, operator knowledge, and site-specific information (e.g., pipeline characteristics, recent survey data, etc.). The objective is for hydrologists, geologists, engineers, and environmental scientists to evaluate potential failure risk for those pipelines for which a refined understanding of vulnerability is desired. Depending on the results/outputs of a pipeline natural forces assessment, it may then be critical to understand requirements to permit, design, and implement recommended actions to minimize potential risk at pipeline segments of concern—through monitoring plans, operational controls, and/or engineering controls.