The Politics of Emergency Response and Recovery : Preliminary Observations on Taiwan's 921 Earthquake

On september 21, 1999 the 921 or Chi Chi earthquake struck the centre of Taiwan. The earthquake's magnitude was ML 7.3, and MW 7.7 and the epicentre depth was 8 km. The earthquake hit at 1:47 am, and left about 2,471 dead 11305 and seriously injured. Over 10,000 buildings collapsed and direct losses were estimated at US$14 billion. This paper describes some of our preliminary findings on a National Science Foundation project conceived in order to study the organisational and institutional response to 921, concentrating on linkages between organisations and different levels of goverment. The study area covered the two most affected countries, two smaller towns and Taipei. Data were gathered from interviews, government documents, and media reports. Our research questions centred on the agenda status of earthqueke preparedness, the role of the military in disaster response and recovery, the role of the private sector in disaster response and recovery, and the effects of local government capacity on disaster response and recovery. The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the American National Science Foundation (CMS 0085056) and assume sole responsibility for all statements and conclusions. (AU)

Bridge planning, design philosophy and expectations in the Taiwan Area National Expressway

Transportation is a long-range program. Success in building a bridge depends on achieving a perfect balance between intricate planning, optimum design and skillful construction. This article presents a brief general introduction to the bridge planning concept, design considerations, construction methods, and expected development of the Taiwan Area National Expressway.(AU)

The design of the bridge near 18-ancient-tomb at tai-2 route

The bridge near 18-ancient-tomb at tai-2 route is a three-span continuous orthotropic steel deck box girder structure. The total length is 350 meters with two 100 meter long side spans and one 150 meter long center span. The center span crosses the outlet of the nuclear power plant of Taiwan Power Company. So as not to interfer with the discharge, the free stresses and the stability of the structure at each construction stage are also taken into consideration in the design. In this project, special bearings at the center piers are used to reduce the reactions induced by the variation in temperature. In addition, the asphalt produced by Chinese Petroleum Co. is adopted as the base material for pavement.(AU)

Newly developed cable - stressed steel bridges in the U.S. and Taiwan

Recent application of cable stressing for steel bridge structures which reduces cost of materials, eliminates cracks on concrete steel structures, minimizes fatigue in the steel structures and increases system redundancy, is gaining recognition in the U.S. Similar application of the cable-stressed steel design was adapted on Taiwan projects. This paper outlines the sdvantages of the cable-stressed steel structure, and the cable stressing theory and details. The benefits of using the developed method on actual project are explained.(AU)

Monitoring and analysis of the dynamic and static characteristics of Yuan-Shan Bridge System

The Yuan-Shan Bridge System is one of the major projects currently under construction in this country. This system, when completed, is expected to alleviate drastically the traffic congestion around the Yuan-Shan area. Because of the great variation in the geometry of the system, a five-year research project has been issued by the freeway authority, Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau, Ministry of Transportation and Communications, to the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) for the investigation of the static and dynamic behaviors of the bridge system. In this short article, a brief presentation will be made of the research topics that are currently undertaken or to be undertaken by the researchers in the monitoring and analysis of the static and dynamic behaviors of the Yuan-Shan Bridge System.(AU)

Installation of seismometers for Taipei-Tamshui line rapid transit system

Seismometers, strain meters and pore water pressuremeters along with data recording systems are scheduled to be mounted on selected structures and free field of Taipei - Tamshui Line Rapid Transit System. Dynamic response data will be collected and analyzed to provide information for aseismic design, code revision and safety assessment of structures.(AU)

Development of a static and dynamic monitoring system for Bi-Tan Bridge

Bi-Tan Bridge of the Northern-Second Freeway adopts new methodologies and ideas in design and construction. Due to the importance and may special features of this bridge, parameters such as the efficiency and distribution of the prestress, the effect of creep and shrinkage on the long-term bridge behavior, and the dynamic effects due to traffic and earthquake loading, etc., become very important. This paper summarizes the progress on the development of a static and dynamic monitoring system for this bridge.(AU)

A knowledge - based design system for the design of freeway and highway bridges in Taiwan

Bridge design and construction are two of the most time consuming and expensive tasks of the Six-Year National Development Plan in Taiwan. Bridge construction engineering is the critical control job in freeway and highway construction. Reducing the design labor and time in the preliminary bridge design stage is important to ensure that the project is completed on time for freeway and highway construction and renovation. A related computer-aided design system called TBDS for freeway and highway bridges in Taiwan is introduced for this purpose. Both the domain experts' and knowledge engineers' experiences during the development of TBDS are described. Finally, the future directions of this research will be discussed.(AU)

Structure of a prefrontal convective rainband in Northern Taiwan determined from Dual-Doppler data

In this study, structural features of a subtropical prefrontal rainband associated with the MeiYub front on 25 June 1987 over northwestern Taiwan are investigated. Dual-Doppler data collected during the Taiwan Area Mesoscale Experiment (TAMEX) were employed to derive fields of reflectivity, system-relative wind and vertical velocity in a horizontal domain of 36 by 40 km using a 1km grid spacing. There were ten analysis levels in the vertical ranging from 0.4 to 8.8 km. Vertical velocities were calculated from the anelastic continuity equation by integrating downward with variational adjustment. Results show that the low-level jet (LLJ) in the boundary layer provides large vertical shear ahead of the front. The southwest monsoon flow at low-levels carries high-0e environmental air northeastward meeting with the northwesterly flow from northern China to form a distinct wind-shift line. This windshift line corresponds well to the position of the Mei-Yu front. Along the wind-shift line, the low-level convergence enhances lifting resulting in a narrow band of convection on the warm side of the front. There are many cells embedded within the rainband. Each cell is accompanied by the moderate convective updraft and weak downdraft. The precipitation is deep but not intense ahead of the front, while the precipitation behind the front is weak and shallow. Because the system traveled very slowly, up to 200 mm of rainfall in 24 hours occurred on the west coast of central Taiwan causing a flash flood over that region.(AU)

Seismic hazard analysis in Taiwan Region - Uncertainty analysis

The objetives of this paper are (1) to evaluate the seismic hazard in the taiwan Region, and (2) to obtain estimates on the effect on uncertainities of the hazard model. Uncertainty abalysis of model parameters in hazard analysis are concentrated on the analysis is dispersion of PGA and the probabilistic modeling of stationary and nonstationary Poisson model of occurrences. The estimation of b- value in the region is also presented in terms of an iso - acceleration map. The overall results are considered to be conservative since for most uncertainty analysis results the more conservative values are used (AU)