3259
Geotechnical engineering and protection of environment and sustainable
development
Engineering géotechnique, protection de l’environnement et développement durable
Vaníček M., Jirásko D., Vaníček I.
Czech Technical University in Prague
ABSTRACT: The paper highlights the positive role of geotechnical engineering for protection of environment and sustainable
development, first of all from the view of sustainable construction. The main attention is therefore focused on the problems which are
sensitive to society in general as the construction on brownfields, utilization of waste and recycled materials for new construction and
rehabilitation of territory affected by open pit mining process which is proposed as new development area. The first point is connected
with the protection of greenfields and is defining basic phases of process of rehabilitation as the significance of first phase of geo-
environmental investigation, remediation of contaminated subsoil and utilization of old foundation. The second point describes
practical experiences with utilization of large volume waste as construction and demolition waste or ash in earth structures– not only
from the view of mechanical behaviour but also from the view of potential impact on environment. The last point describes the
utilization of the surface of the mining spoil heaps for new construction together with control of long term stability of slopes even for
future expected ground water table and heavy rainfalls.
RÉSUMÉ : L’intervention souligne le rôle positif de l’engineering géotechnique dans la protection de l’environnement et le
développement durable, et ceci essentiellement du point de vue de la construction durable. Elle se concentre surtout aux problèmes
généralement perçus par la société comme sensibles : la construction sur les friches industrielles, l’utilisation de déchets et de
matériaux recyclés dans la nouvelle construction, ainsi que le réaménagement du territoire affecté par l’exploitation minière à ciel
ouvert. Le premier point est lié à la protection des greenfields et définit les phases principales du processus du réaménagement,
comme la première phase de la prospection géo-environnementale, l’assainissement du sous-sol contaminé et l’utilisation des bases
anciennes. Le deuxième point décrit des expériences pratiques avec l'utilisation des déchets volumineux comme p.ex. des déchets de
construction et de démolition ou bien des cendres dans les ouvrages en terre, non seulement du point de vue des caractéristiques
mécaniques, mais aussi de celui de l'impact potentiel sur l'environnement. Le dernier point décrit l'utilisation de la surface du terril
pour les nouvelles constructions, tout en assurant le contrôle de stabilité de long terme des pentes, même pour la nappe d’eau
souterraine attendue et les précipitations fortes.
KEYWORDS: brownfield, remediation, contaminant, waste, spoil heap, soil improvement
1
INTRODUCTION
Geotechnical Engineering is falling under the limited group of
professions, which to the high extent are able to react not only
on classical construction problems but also to new society
demands, namely with respect to:
-
Protection against natural hazards – first of all against floods,
landslides and earthquakes;
-
Energy savings – especially with respect of Geothermal
energy, as with high potential energy (from large depth) or
with low potential energy in the forms of earth aerial heat
exchanger, systems utilizing heat pumps or systems utilizing
heat reversible pumps either for heating or for cooling with
help of energy piles or diaphragm walls;
-
Raw materials savings – with high potential for waste and
recycled material utilization, especially for large volume
waste as e.g. ash, slag, construction and demolition waste etc;
-
Protection of greenfields – as GE is playing significant role in
the field of “Construction on brownfields”;
-
Environmental protection in general – e.g. from the view of
safe deposition of waste (landfills, tailing dams, spoil heaps,
underground repositories) or with respect to remediation of
old ecological burdens – decontamination of subsoil.
However in a matter of fact all above mentioned problems can
fall under the umbrella of Environmental geotechnics and are
parts of the geotechnical engineering benefit to Sustainable
Construction, (Vaníček I. 2012).
The branch of Environmental Geotechnics is now very well
established, falling under the important part of Geotechnical
Engineering which can be called Geotechnics, Geo-Technology
and represents the third column by which Geotechnical
Engineering is supported, (Vaníček, I. and Vaníček, M. 2008).
Remaining three columns are Theoretical background,
Geomechanics and Feeling for ground response, whereas the
first column Theoretical background relies on the understanding
of natural sciences such as geology, engineering geology and
hydrogeology on the one hand, and on the understanding of
mechanics, theory of elasticity on the other. The second column
relies on the application of existing findings to the behaviour of
soils and rocks under different stress - strain states – we are
speaking about support from soil and rock mechanics and
finally the fourth column relies on a certain feeling of
geological environment which Terzaghi (1959) denotes as
“capacity for judgment”, and he says that “this capacity can be
gained only by years of contact with field conditions”, (see
Figure 1), (Vaníček, I. 2010).
However with the respect of the limited range of the paper
only three problems will be discussed further.
