ORIGINAL PAPER Prioritisation methodology for application of bridge monitoring systems for quick post-earthquake assessment Piotr Omenzetter • Poonam Mangabhai • Ravikash Singh • Rolando Orense Received: 11 November 2013 / Revised: 6 June 2014 / Accepted: 7 July 2014 / Published online: 20 August 2014 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014 Abstract To facilitate quick post-earthquake assess- ment of bridge condition, monitoring systems can be installed onto structures. However, due to high cost it is impractical to monitor all bridges within a network. Bridges which are exposed to increased hazards, are vulnerable and have high failure consequences pose the greatest risk to network functionality should they fail in a seismic event, and would therefore benefit the most from implementation of monitoring systems and quick condition assessment methodologies. This paper out- lines a methodology to prioritise bridges for monitoring and quick condition assessment based on their seismic risk. The methodology uses four factors to determine risk, i.e. seismic hazard, vulnerability, failure impact and uncertainty of available data and assessment methods. The hazard factor accounts for the seismicity levels at bridge sites and length of time of exposure to hazard. Structural and geotechnical aspects have been combined to determine the vulnerability of each bridge. Impacts quantify the consequences of bridge failure on safety and network functionality. The uncertainty premium accounts for the quality, variability and limi- tations of data and risk assessment methods used. The overall risk calculated for each bridge within a stock enables prioritisation of structures for monitoring and quick post-disaster assessment. The whole spectrum of approaches to bridge monitoring and condition evalua- tion comprises bridge specific monitoring data used for quick and accurate analyses for the most critical, high risk bridges; data sourced from wide-area strong motion arrays used for quick but less accurate assessment for medium risk structures; and traditional visual inspection based assessment of low risk bridges. A discrete scoring system was adopted and detailed tables that enable scoring the hazards, vulnerabilities, impacts and data and assessment uncertainties developed. The proposed methodology was applied to a selection of bridges from the city of Wellington, New Zealand to test its appli- cability and performance. A comparative study with another seismic risk assessment method was also con- ducted. The results showed that the methodology effectively prioritised bridges depending on seismic risk. The methodology was also able to determine if risk at a particular bridge site was predominantly rela- ted to hazard, structural vulnerability, geotechnical vulnerability or impact. The methodology is simple, quick and flexible and can be adapted based on the level of accuracy required. The uncertainty premium allows risk to be determined given variable data and assessment method quality which has the benefit of being able to tailor data collection and assessment to the needs of each network and available resources. Keywords Bridges  Condition assessment  Disaster response  Risk  Road networks  Structural health monitoring P. Omenzetter (&) The LRF Centre for Safety and Reliability Engineering, The University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK e-mail: piotr.omenzetter@abdn.ac.uk P. Mangabhai Watercare, 2 Nuffield St, Auckland 1023, New Zealand R. Singh Beca, 6 Garden Place, Hamilton 3204, New Zealand R. Orense Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand 123 J Civil Struct Health Monit (2014) 4:255–276 DOI 10.1007/s13349-014-0085-4