Climate-change impacts on long-term performance of slopes

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Engineering

et al. 2014

Failures of cut and embankment slopes are common and expected to increase. Conventional repair techniques include acquiring additional land, reducing the slope angle, installing drainage improvements, soil nailing and/or providing structural support. All of these methods have technical limitations and most cause considerable environmental disturbance. However, new stabilisation options that are more effective and economical than traditional approaches are becoming available, one of which is electrokinetic geosynthetic treatment of failing or failed slopes. The benefits of electrokinetic geosynthetic treatment in terms of engineering sustainability include reduced cost, reduced ‘carbon dioxide footprint’, fewer heavy goods vehicle movements, zero waste removal, minimal material import, reduced noise and vibrations, improved air quality, preservation of the seed bank and soil environment, minimal vegetation clearance with almost all trees being retained, no visual impacts, no disruption to passing motorists and less damage to root protection areas. Protection of the habitat is also beneficial to nesting birds, amphibians, dormice and reptiles. The paper provides a brief description of the electrokinetic geosynthetic treatment method and illustrates the engineering sustainability with two case histories.

“…In the future, changes in rainfall patterns as a result of climate change have the potential to increase slope instability in certain regions Kilsby et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The environmental sustainability of electrokinetic geosynthetic strengthened slopes

Jones

Lamont-Black²,

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Engineering

et al. 2014

“…In order to study the long-term behaviour of infrastructure slopes with reference to future climate scenarios for the UK (as summarised in Section 1 and detailed by Kilsby et al 3 ), it was necessary to heat and cover sections of the embankment, to control rainfall and to provide a section to represent present climatic conditions. A controlled climate needed to be provided to half of the test plots (and ambient weather Table 3.…”

Section: Climate Control Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is discussed in more detail by Kilsby et al in this issue. 3 It is therefore a reasonable assumption that the water regime within infrastructure slopes will change as a result of climate change, and so will the vegetation growing on those slopes. Given that it is anticipated that existing and new-build infrastructure embankments will be in use for at least 50 years, questions remain about how the water regime will change in these embankments and how this will affect their stability.…”

Section: Introduction/justification Of Full-scale Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Full-scale testing to assess climate effects on embankments

Hughes

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Engineering

Mendes

et al. 2009

Self Cite

A unique facility for engineering and biological research has been established with the aim of improving fundamental understanding of the effects of climate change on slopes. This paper describes the building and monitoring of a full-scale embankment representative of UK infrastructure, the planting and monitoring of representative vegetation, and the construction of a system of sprinklers and covers to control climate. A summary of the results of the first experiments simulating predicted future UK climate and the response of the embankment is also presented. The information that has begun to be gathered is providing data related to the failure modes anticipated as a result of climate change and hence on the sustainability of UK infrastructure slopes.

“…Unlike the previous projects, the methodologies and outcomes are described in detail hereafter. The first paper (Kilsby et al 1 ) introduces the topic of climate-change impacts on the long-term performance of slopes and sets the context for the numerous variables that must be considered. In this way it is demonstrated how the outputs from Betwixt have been used by Bionics.…”

Section: Biological and Engineering Impacts Of Climate Change On Slopmentioning

confidence: 99%

Editorial

Rogers

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Engineering

2009

Self Cite

Climate change is projected to have a significant impact upon buildings, infrastructure and utilities. Therefore, effective sustainable development must accommodate these impacts as well as attempting to reduce the causes of further climate change. The UK climate impacts programme (UKCIP) is ideally placed to assist in this process, UKCIP's aims being to improve knowledge and understanding of the impacts of climate change among stakeholders and to help stakeholders to be better equipped to undertake adaptation to climate change. UKCIP provides guidance and resources, including making available climate information (see below) that supports stakeholder efforts to assess vulnerabilities, impacts, risks and adaptation options.This issue of Engineering Sustainability is a special issue devoted to the outcomes of the UK biological and engineering impacts of climate change on slopes (Bionics) programme, one of the core projects of a government-funded initiative entitled Building knowledge for a changing climate (BKCC). The initiative was a collaboration between the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and UKCIP, and concerns research into the impacts of climate change on the built environment, transport and utilities. The suite of integrated research projects covered areas ranging from risk management to the impact of climate change on energy supplies, land use and historic buildings, their stated aims and objectives being listed below. Since this is an editorial, as opposed to a review article, it is considered most important to list what each consortium is, or rather was, about and allow readers to follow up on the specific outcomes. The UKCIP's role was to support the suite of projects including by making available scenarios that show how the climate might change and coordinating research on dealing with these future alternative climate predictions. Although the work under BKCC is now complete, the initiative was continued via Sustaining knowledge for a changing climate (SKCC) and now Adaptation and resilience to a changing climate (ARCC) within the context of the 'living with environment change' programme. SKCC was likewise funded by EPSRC and supported by UKCIP, and sought to preserve and extend the community of end users and researchers assembled through BKCC. In addition, SKCC has been instrumental in synthesising and disseminating the results from BKCC with the aim of maximising their impact on the end user and research community. This has been done via publication of the BKCC results, the holding of a workshop during which the results were presented and discussed, and offering visits to sites where adaptation solutions have been undertaken. Such activity complements well the formal publication of research results provided by this themed issue of Engineering Sustainability as these research programmes seek to make the impact necessary if we are to bring about a change in the way we operate. ARCC is the current focus of the EPSRC-UKCIP collaboration within the built environment, including r...