A Whole Process Risk Management System for the Monitoring and Early Warning of Slope Hazards Affecting Gas and Oil Pipelines

Abstract

Pipelines are important methods of oil and gas transportation and are fundamental to many country’s economies. Pipeline safety is a critical issue; over 96% of pipeline accidents due to ground movement are caused by slope hazards and these can lead to serious personnel and property losses. Therefore, effective pipeline slope hazard monitoring and early warning is crucial, but there are many limitations to existing measures. The recent advance in remote sensing technologies enables the collection of slope hazards information that maps the spatial distribution of landslide. But this approach cannot provide real-time monitoring and early warning as there is a time lag due to image processing. Also, pipelines are considered separately from the slope hazard, with only slope event occurrence assessed rather than quantification of the impact of the hazard on the pipeline. Here, we report on a whole process risk management system for the pipeline slope hazard, incorporating monitoring and early warning of pipeline slope hazards. Three sites at risk of slope hazard on the Guangdong Dapeng Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Company pipeline in Guandong, South China - Zhangmutou, Huoshaogang and Dapeng New District - were selected for research and implementation of the whole process risk management, monitoring and early warning system. The system is shown to operate well and, overall, we found that the three sites are relatively stable at present. This research provides widely applicable guidance for the prevention, control, and early warning of pipeline slope hazards.