David Hughes
I am a chartered civil engineer and academic based at Queen's University Belfast with consulting experience in geotechnics and pavement design on road construction projects across the globe.
Location UK
Activity
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yes - there perhaps ought to be integrated design between flood routing and embankment design in this case.
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David Hughes replied to Margaret Johnson
thanks for participating :-)
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David Hughes replied to RICHARD GETLIFFE
Yes - this was the intention - but CV19 stopped us meeting - apologies.
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David Hughes replied to Margaret Johnson
I think it already happens there.
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The chemistry of and rheology of bitumen is quite complex and outside the scope of this course. In simple terms bitumens have different rates of softening when heated (called temperature susceptibility) and this susceptibility can be reduced by the additions of polymers to the bitumen ie 'polymer modified bitumens'. You could 'google' this?
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David Hughes replied to Margaret Merry
Hi Margaret - this depends on the type of bitumen used in the road. Some bitumens can resist high temperatures better than others. Temperatures can get very high on the black surface of roads!
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David Hughes replied to Margaret Merry
Thanks Margaret - have you a link we could use to view it?
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David Hughes replied to Chenoa S
thanks - lets hope they start to recognise climate change impacts in your area soon!!
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David Hughes replied to saeed k
Thanks - you are certainly in an extreme geographical region!
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David Hughes made a comment
Great to hear from you all - hope you enjoy the course.
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thanks :-)
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David Hughes replied to Taofeek Hammed
Did you manage to get the info downloaded?
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Absolutely agree - thanks for this.
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Thanks - this is useful for those at an experienced professional engineer level who want to carry on and look at other alternative approaches in greater depth. Our aim here is to introduce the basic concepts and create an awareness of the subject.
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David Hughes replied to Peter Banda
Although this is not always possible to do.
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Yes - these low lying islands are very vulnerable.
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David Hughes replied to Renate R
Many thanks - it was an interesting course to develop!
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David Hughes replied to Kheng Leong Song
Thanks :-)
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David Hughes replied to Peter Banda
That's great news Peter - thanks.
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I agree in theory - but this doesn't always happen in practice and planning rules are often not strictly adhered to in this environment.
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David Hughes replied to K M ASHRAFUL ISLAM
Thanks - very useful!
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David Hughes replied to Musonda C. Mwale
Yes I agree - it's a very important part of the transportation network but sometimes overlooked.
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Interesting approach - although might be a bit too complicated to apply?
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Contact ReCAP directly?
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http://research4cap.org/SitePages/ASCAP.aspx see this page - ReCAP only has research ongoing in these countries.
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Nigeria is not a 'ReCAP' country - see http://research4cap.org/SitePages/AFCAP.aspx . However the learning will of course still apply to LVRR in Nigeria.
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@LornaAllen Hi Lorna - the course is aimed at low volume rural roads (LVRR) (often unsurfaced gravel roads or earth roads) in developing countries. These roads are often the only access to large rural areas. We are not really talking about country or secondary roads in the UK where we have alternative (relatively) high quality roads to service agriculture...
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David Hughes replied to Abdur Rahman
@RobelDesta Thanks - can you give us any links to the URRAP so we can see what you are doing? Sounds interesting!
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David Hughes replied to Pawan Timsina
Hard to stop some slope failures in Nepal - it must be an expensive road network to keep open when compared to the roads in the Terai!
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Thanks for this.
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Yes - terracing and planting can be a great bio-engineering solution. If done carefully it should be a positive thing - I guess the thing to look out for is to ensure you have good draining detail on the terraces.
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David Hughes made a comment
Thanks for all the contributions here - lots of great answers given. Particularly interesting is thinking about all the impacts if a route is closed and barely passable!
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@MarkHenry Thanks Mark
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David Hughes replied to Muhammad Obidur Rahman
Thanks!
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Yes - I guess it about having a plan to deal with what might happen to a route. There may be many alternate ways to repair/rehabilitate a road - or to accept that there will be times when some routes will not be passable. Hopefully the course will allow people to think of a variety of solutions.
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Pretty much :-)
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Yes - the terrain is particularly challenging in Nepal!
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Yes - rainfall patterns seem to be changing. Hard to imagine the effect of living in a community that is so isolated from transport for such long periods of time.
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I think usually these decisions will be made at government level - and as engineers we will be asked to design for a particular scenario. Nonetheless it is good to have some knowledge of the variability and uncertainty involved in taking these decisions.
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Yes - I think of this as the difference between 'weather' and 'climate'. Weather is very short term - and can be very unpredictable - climate is the longer term 'average' trends measured over decades or even centuries.
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David Hughes replied to Abdur Rahman
@AbdurRahman Yes - I've often thought about this - the more we 'develop' the more we possibly emit GHGs. I guess we have to move towards a greener economy generally, but I think we still need to provide good access to remote rural communities - for health education and for access to market.
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Hi - welcome aboard - hope there is something in the course for you - and you can contribute your knowledge to this learning community.
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Hi Daphine - welcome aboard - I'm working with UNRA and UIPE in Uganda at the moment - hope you enjoy the course.
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@MichaelMcLernon I will be asking you to respond to the difficult technical questions on moisture movement in slopes ;-) lol
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Yes - the vast majority if the road network in developing countries is unpaved - so it's a vital link from 'farm to market'.
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Hope you can pick up some useful knowledge.
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David Hughes replied to Roden Twongirwe
Kabale is a beautiful place - I've worked there a few times. Remember I needed a warm coat in the cool season :-)
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David Hughes replied to Friedrich Slabbert
Very true Friedeich - 'every day is a school day' :-
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David Hughes replied to Deborah Smith
Yes - the impacts are wide ranging although we tend just to focus on rural roads on this course.
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David Hughes replied to Md Ashraful Islam
Thanks - hope so.
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Thanks Pawan - I guess, as you say, it is not always possible to realign a road - especially in mountainous terrain.
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Thanks John
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Yes - food security is a major worry.
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It's interesting that in some cases we may have more droughts - yet moisture uptake in the atmosphere will increase. The global weather system is very complex!
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@JOHNWILLIAMS Yes - I agree - it's likely there will be a a change in habitat - lots of species will adapt by moving regions or increasing their range.
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yes - lots of secondary impacts to think about!
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yes - agree with you. Thanks
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David Hughes replied to Benji Levi
Interesting - thanks for sharing
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David Hughes replied to JOHN WILLIAMS
Thanks John
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@EdmundDebrah AfCAP project No. GHA2065B
You can find it here.
Thanks for making us aware of it.David
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@IreneMulwa Thanks for this - what country are you in?
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Interesting Santosh - hadn't really thought about Malaria!
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David Hughes replied to Edmund Debrah
Thanks Edmund - yes they look sensible :-) HAve you any insight into what is happening in your region to adapt LVRR?
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David Hughes replied to Abdur Rahman
Thanks for this!
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I guess you can do at at whatever pace and depth you like. I hope you are able to learn something on the journey.
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David Hughes replied to Edmund Debrah
@JOHNWILLIAMS Hi John - what's you're interest in Low Volume Roads? Do you work in this area?
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David Hughes replied to Edmund Debrah
Yes John - the future's looking grim if we don't reach this global targets for reducing emissions.
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@SalifuDumbuya Many thanks Salifu - it's a complex science - I hope we all have improved our understanding of it a little though the module :-)
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Thanks - the problem is very difficult to solve here without very costly flood protected infrastructure!
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Interesting - thanks
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David Hughes replied to Abdur Rahman
Yes - there is a dilemma here - more growth could mean high GHG emissions. This is just a personal opinion - but I guess we need to think of better public transport to improve access - maybe move more freight onto light rail, improved connectivity through the internet etc. It a multidimensional complex problem!!
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David Hughes replied to Edmund Debrah
Edmund - the pathway we take depends on future global GHG emissions. It's hard to predict how these will change - this depends on how active governments are in moving from fossil fuels to renewable energies - amongst other things.
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Yes interesting - I don't know the answer. The modelling of the interaction of the ocean and atmosphere is very complex!
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David Hughes made a comment
Yes it is a global issue!
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David Hughes made a comment
Yes you have unique interdisciplinary problems!
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Yes Bangladesh is very vulnerable to floods/storm surges. There is no magic pill to solve all the problems but hopefully this course will help you think about some possible economic adaptations.
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Have you a web page you can publish on your research?
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David Hughes made a comment
Good to see you all participating. I hope during this first week we can give you some food for thought on why climate change is happening and what the main drivers are. The intention is not that you become climate scientists but that you are more aware of what changes are happening and to give you some idea of the magnitude of expected changes and where to...
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Thanks for the comment and clarification on the World Bank definitions - we will tighten up the use of these terms to avoid confusion. From an engineering point of view I think we are largely talking about Adaptations.
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David Hughes made a comment
Hi Everyone - welcome to the course. I see we have a wide geographical spread of students - from the high mountainous Himalaya to low lying coastal regions. Each region will have it's own set of issues around climate change - so it will be interesting to hear of your local experiences. I look forward to moving through this introductory course with you and...
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David Hughes made a comment
I understand the lab test results are compared to a 'correct' result - thus checking the accuracy of the result. But is there also some way of making sure the laboratory test equipment is calibrated? It might be the case that the correct result is obtained but with an instrument that is not calibrated - or does not consistently give the correct reading?
