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Proceedings of the International Conference on
Advances and New Challenges in Earthquake 595
Engineering Research, Hong Kong Volume
APPLYING E-MONITORING INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR
HIGHWAY BRIDGES POST-EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE
EVALUATIONS AND WARNINGS
Guan-Chyun Shiah 1 , Sheng-Fuh Perng 2
'Department of Civil Engineering, National Kaoshiung University of Applied Science
Department of Civil Engineering, National Kaoshiung University of Applied Science
ABSTRACT
An e-Monitonng information system is Remote Monitoring using Wire-less technology on the Internet
in which it utilizes the modern technology such as global positioning system (GPS), geographical
information system (CIS), wireless communication technology (WCT), and mobile displaying system
(MDS). This integrated system requires Pre-earthquake installations on the expansion joints, bridge
piers, and bridge footings. When certain scale earthquake motion are detected by strong-motion
instruments, using wireless or internet transmitting network to send out the signal to transportation
controlling system for feasible signal control actions. During the earthquake loads period, the bridge
structural crack monitoring system should according to its preset crack signal warning thresholds to
decide on emitting warning signals to bridge authorities or disaster rescue teams in the nearby.
INTRODUCTION
The objective of a remote earthquake supervisory control system for highway bridges is to let highway
transportation authority staff can immediately obtain the bridges' post-earthquake damage information
and handle a remote system in a easier way. A remote E-monitoring control system, in general, consists
of supervisory units and a central control unit. Traditional systems use private network to guarantee the
quality and performance for the communication among all units i it always results in too many cables
and great costs. ( Ref. 1 ) Also, the maintenance quality of the whole system affect the performance and
the reliability of the system. To overcome the above drawbacks, an e-Monitoring earthquake information
system in which combined GPS, GIS, WCT and MDS is proposed in this study. The proposed e-
monitoring system consists of a central control unit, a supervisory controller with a gateway to internet
or PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Networks). The central control unit issues controlling message to