TC Activity
TC 5: Environmental Geotechnics
Technical Committee TC-5 on Environmental Geotechnics started up in 1992, under the ISSMGE presidency of prof. Norbert R. Morgenstern, reflecting the increasing need and interest of environmental disciplines among the geotechnical engineering community. Prof. John Nelson was the first chairman, followed by prof. Hans Jessberger, prof. William Van Impe and prof. Rolf Katzenbach (co-chairs), prof. Charles Shackelford and prof. Mario Manassero (co-chairs), and prof. Manassero (current chairman).
A series of International Congresses specifically devoted to Environmental Geotechnics (ICEG) were organised, the first one in Edmonton (Canada) in 1994, followed by the 2nd ICEG in Osaka (1996), 3rd ICEG in Lisbon (1998), 4th in Rio de Janeiro (2002), 5th in Cardiff (2006). The 6th ICEG will be held in New Delhi in 2010. TC-5 offered workshops and technical sessions at several international and regional ISSMGE conferences, where TC-5 chairmen were also invited to give general or special lecture on environmental geotechnics.
There are currently 40 TC-5 members, from both academic and professional world. They are from 29 Countries of all Continents. The current TC-5 core members are: Marcio Almeida (Brasil), Abdelmalek Bouazza, (Australia), Antonio Gens (Spain), Jean-Pierre Gourc (France), Stephan Jefferis (United Kingdom), Takeshi Katsumi (Japan), Charles Shackelford (USA) and Peter Van Impe (Belgium).
The TC-5 Committee now covers a broad range of topics related to environmental geotechnics; its current terms of reference are as follows:
1. To promote co-operation and diffuse the knowledge in the area of environmental geotechnics.
2. To promote advancements in research activities, professional applications and standardization in the field of environmental geotechnics.
3. To cooperate and contribute to the organization of congresses, conferences and symposia specifically devoted to the environmental geotechnics or other venues incorporating relevant part of it.
4. To establish co-operation and exchange of knowledge with national, international, public and private institutions for increasing visibility and promoting the environmental geotechnics skills and experiences.
5. To promote environmental geotechnics skills in order to get involvement in preparation and updating of laws and regulations by government agencies and public institutions.
6. To contribute to the advancement of new technologies for alternative energy sources, pollutant control and disposals.
7. To promote sustainable environmental geo-technology applications and to share knowledge between countries. Recent Activities
One of the main and most demanding activities of the TC-5 during the last years was to prepare a TC-5 report devoted to environmental geotechnics. The report is a scientific and technical state of the art addressed to practitioners and researchers in the field of environmental geotechnics. The report was officially presented at the 5th ICEG (Cardiff, 2006). It consists of seven chapters:
1. Design basics and performance criteria; 2. Managing contaminated sites; 3. Traditional and innovative barriers technologies and materials; 4. Underwater geo-environmental issues; 5. Landfill design within seismic areas; 6. Research and education; 7. Nuclear waste disposal.
TC-5 was involved in the organisation of sessions related to environmental geotechnics at the XVI ICSMGE, Osaka (2005); a half-day workshop on Environmental Geotechnics was held at the same conference, during which a draft version of the TC5 report was presented and discussed among participants. TC-5 was also deeply involved in organising the V ICEG (Cardiff, UK, 26-30 June 2006): a Congress Advisory Committee was created to deal with the scientific program, people on the stage, paper reviewers, etc. The theme of the congress was: “Sustainable Development: Issues, Challenges, and Responsibilities of Environmental Geotechnics”. All the TC5 core-members and task-force leaders contributed as paper reviewers and some of them as speakers or lecturers.
TC-5 cooperated with IGS in organising the session “Landfill liners on slopes” at the 8th International Conference on Geosynthetics (Yokohama, Japan, 18-22 September 2006). TC-5 collaborations in organizing conferences were also given to the last Pan-American Conference of Soil Mechanics Geotechnical Engineering (Isla Margarita, Venezuela, July 2007) and to the XIV African Regional Conference (Yaoundé, Cameroon, November 2007).
The XXI Geotechnical Engineering Conference (Torino, Italy, November 2007) devoted to “Geosynthetics and Environment” and the
Touring Lecture on Environmental Geotechnics (Lagos, Nigeria, January 2008) were specifically organised by TC-5.
Current and future activities
An additional chapter to the TC-5 report on “Regulations and technical guidelines” is now in progress. It is focused on collecting, analyzing and summarizing the state of the art of the official regulations, technical recommendations and guidelines available worldwide on waste disposal and remediation of polluted soils.
Download ISSMGE Bulletin – Volume 2 Issue 1 (pp. 5-6)
PDF format
