URBANA – A University of Illinois engineering professor leaves for Haiti today to assess earthquake damage.

Scott Olson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, is the UI representative on a nationwide team that will examine ports and other infrastructure in Port-au-Prince.

The weeklong study, funded by the National Science Foundation and National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program, "was organized to examine damage related to fault displacement, liquefaction, landslides and other ground failures," Olson said.

"These failures can involve port structures, buildings and their foundations, levees, dams, slopes, storage tanks, tunnels and other geostructures. For example, the tremendous damage at the port facilities at Port-au-Prince was related largely to liquefaction of the reclaimed land used to construct the port facilities."

Olson said research is still being done on the history of the land reclamation, but it appears sand was simply dumped into the water until it broke above the sea. He said that it was a common practice in coastlines all over the world.

There are two main docks. The team is among engineers working on the south port; no work has yet been done on the north port.

Olson's team will sleep in tents. "We don't know if there will be power," he said.

The tools he is taking are those he can carry in a bag.

"From available aerial photography, we have identified a significant number of landslides and other ground failures," he said. "Understanding these failures will help us to develop engineering procedures and designs intended to prevent (or at least reduce) infrastructure damage and loss of life during future events."