Geosystems For Sustainable Construction?

“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect”

As Promoters/Manufacturers/Associates of some of the sustainable Geo-system providers, we enjoy supporting the protection of precious life and property from the vagaries of nature keeping in view the ever-increasing need to safeguard our earth for the future generations.

The word “sustainable solutions” is the most used(or misused?) word in all aspects of our life!

But still, the reality is that even today it is difficult to take forward such innovative ideas.

We come up with lab trials and invent a new product or technology useful for society in terms of these aspects, But The issue of taking it forward is “the” most difficult task!

Getting back! to Geosynthetics, Geosystems are used for various applications in civil, environmental, and other engineering applications. Geo-systems facilitate sustainable #construction by reducing the use of natural materials like aggregates, sands and rocks, etc.

For instance, the thickness of the aggregate layer in a typical cross-section for road construction can be reduced (by also keeping in view of the provisions in the code) so that less of quarrying is required.)

Similarly in river training works and sea wall construction the use of sand/rocks/stones/aggregates for creating protection structures or barriers could be eliminated to a major extent by making use of dredged and reclaimed materials/ locally available slurry or any such by encasing them in the suitable Geo-systems or in tube form(Geo-tubes)

Here is trying to outline some of the applications(only some!) of Geo-synthetics systems for you all.

Please do not forget that, apart from facilitating sustainable construction, Geo-systems serve the precious purpose of protecting life and property from the vagaries of nature by being part of the control systems outlined below.

This being a general platform every effort is made to make the definition of Geo-systems for various applications as simple as possible and my apologies still if some of you find some words(technical jargon) which could not be further simplified, unfortunately!

Flood control: Geo-systems for flood control

Flood control bags, Geo-tubes and other stand alone systems or combination mechanisms.(Huge woven Geo-bags for example)

Depending upon the specific condition prevailing this need to be designed taking note of the historical data available for flood occurrences previously such as HFL and other engineering considerations.

Erosion Control: Erosion control mechanism with Geo-synthetics

Systems made of Geo-textiles(Woven or non Woven)| Gabions|Grids and other products again independently or combined together as per the specific purpose for which this needs to be designed.

For example river banks, steep slopes on cuttings and beach side would require different considerations while selecting the system. Geo-tubes would be suitable for beach nourishment and prevention of erosion on the marine front. However the gabions may be more suitable if the height is more because this could be constructed as a wall by itself to protect the side slopes.

Embankment construction on soft soil: PVD’s/Geo-grids and other Geo-systems.

It could be formation for a road or a railway line and in such a cases geo-grids and high strength woven geo-textiles or other products needs to be used again as per a specific design.

In cases where the soil bearing capacity is negligible there is also a need to do ground improvement in the first place.

If it is a dredged and reclaimed area then it calls for using the vertical drains(Pvd’s) to facilitate the process of consolidation relatively easy to start constructing on a faster basis.

Sub-grade strengthening :Geo products can be made use of in strengthening applications very effectively.

In all such applications depending on the particular site specific data the geotechnical engineer and the consultant in charge of the project need to take a call on the appropriate geo-synthetic system that would bring in the desirable results.

Often Geotextiles, Geogrids and even Geo-cells would be ideally suitable for these type of applications.

River training works and Sea wall construction:

Geobags|Geotubes|Gabions are some of the systems used in this case.

There are soft solutions and hard solutions in these cases again. While mostly in river training Geobags or even Gabions could be made use(of course there are other new systems being developed).

But when it comes to sea walls the concept is different.Obviously we are tackling a big wave force in these cases and also we need solutions which will sustain even the effect of Tsunami waves if such a situation were to occur.

So seawalls are ideally made in combinations with large sized rocks/quarry stones which is used also along with appropriate Geo-systems .

These are some of the applications of Geo-systems.(In fact the applications of Geo-synthetics in civil engineering being a vast topic only an attempt to touch the very basic aspect is made here.)

Thanks for reading.

About Us: Our work is based on the philosophy that whatever we do should also be meaningful and adding value to not just the industry but to the society as well.

Disclaimer#Views expressed are my personal opinions. Any issue should be brought to the attention of the author through email id geosynthetics@bvprgj.com. Text Copyright © 2018 by Prakashan B.V,www.bvprgjconsultants.com — All Rights Reserved.

“We are not making a choice between environment and prosperity; but we are rather looking at how we combine both.”