Code : 2021004
Event Name : Standardization of underground utility survey methods and associated HOKLAS accreditation
CPD Code : Formal Events
Speaker : Ir Dr. Wallace LAI,
BSc, PhD, MHKIE
Associate Professor, LSGI, PolyU
Lab in-charge, Underground Utility Survey Laboratory, PolyU

Dr. Lai is specialized in teaching, research and consultancy of nondestructive testing, survey and evaluation to investigate unseen underground utility and engineering structures with technologies like ground penetrating radar, infrared thermography and acoustic methods. As a material engineer, he has been working on nondestructive testing and near-surface geophysics for imaging and diagnosing invisible members and hazards in underground utility networks, concrete/fibre reinforced infrastructures, or simply ‘SEEING THE UNSEEN’ in construction, and especially the underground mysterious world. Dr. Lai has been serving as a guest scientist at the Federal Institute of Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in Berlin, Germany since 2010. He organized and chaired 16th Ground Penetrating Radar Conference in Hong Kong, and designed, built and now operate the first underground utility survey lab in the world. Recently, he is also designing an outdoor 1900 sq.m. training centre of leak detection and diagnosis in Tsing Yi for Water Supplies Department of HKSARG. Also, over the years, he has been working with psychologist for measuring human cognitive biases during geophysical data collection & processing, and imaging & interpretation to improve the team decision making process for diagnosis of underground problems such as pipe leak and road subsidence. He chairs various committees and working groups for establishing a set of six utility survey specifications for Government’s accreditation since 2017. He is also a technical assessor for the Hong Kong Accreditation Services, Innovation and Technology Commission of the HKSAR Government.
Event Date : 2021-01-14
Event Time : 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Registration Closing Date : 2021-01-13
CPD Hour(s) : 1.5
Divisional PQSL Hour(s) : 1.5
Venue : By online media – ZOOM
Division : LSD
Organizer : Land Surveying Division
Fee : HK$ 150 for members; HK$ 180 for non-members
Priority : First-come-first-served
Language : Cantonese supplemented by English
Details :

Underground pipe burst? Pipe leak? How often are these problems heard in the spider-web underground in Hong Kong? In first half 2018, there are 13 cases reported in public media, those not appeared in public media are estimated many times more. The project “Development of Specifications and Standards for Underground Utility (UU) Survey based on Nondestructive Testing, Surveying, Imaging and Diagnostic (NDTSID) Approaches” was funded by Innovation Technology Fund (ITF) on 2018. It represents an effort of knowledge transfer from basic/applied research to practical use in Hong Kong and elsewhere. In the past 2 years, LSGI has been taking the lead and conducted six rounds of consultation and meetings with various Government’s Works Department and the industry. We managed to reach consensus of the 4M1E (manpower, methods, machines, materials, environment) specifications for procurement and accreditation. By the end of the project, six NDTSID approaches will become accreditable by Hong Kong Accreditation Services under the Hong Kong Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (HOKLAS) of the Government, the first attempt and showcase to the world. It is believed that the deliverables will benchmark the expected and practically viable standards of the NDTSID technologies in underground utility sector. The six NDTSID methods include electromagnetic pipe cable locating, ground penetrating radar, laser scanning, visual inspection by robotic CCTV/manhole survey, leak detection by acoustic methods, and flow survey & monitoring. Specifications are open access and downloadable for free in https://www.polyu.edu.hk/lsgi/uusspec/en/publications/

Remarks :

The event will be conducted online via ZOOM. Successful registrants will be notified separately via email with the web link in due course to the online event .

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Payment : HKD 150
Face-to-Face/Zoom : Please refer to the remarks