Annette Ruehlmann’s Post

Check out the article below to learn a bit more about the challenges the geotechnical engineering industry faces, such as rapid urbanization, climate change, and the push for sustainability! Geotechs always have to have these things in mind when conducting work on a project - please click the link below to learn more!

Very informative article by Laura Spencer, Ph.D., P.E. on the key considerations in designing reinforced soil slopes. Learn more accessing the link below. Solmax #geotechnicalengineering #slopestability #erosioncontrol #reinforcedsoilslope #geosynthetics

This overview explores reinforced soil slopes, focusing on design considerations, material selection, and environmental impacts, crucial for ensuring stability and sustainability in geotechnical engineering. Learn more in this blog: https://lnkd.in/d-fq7akD #GeotechnicalEngineering #SlopeStability #ErosionControl #ReinforcedSoilSlopes

EVENT REMINDER | Green, green, grass on slopes – geotechnical aspects of slope stability and erosion protection using nature-based solutions, by Professor Slobodan Mickovski of Glasgow Caledonian University. EVENT DETAILS: 🟢 When - 05.11.2024 🟢 Time - 18:00 - 19:30 🟢 Venue - Institution of Civil Engineers, London 🟢 Cost - FREE 🟢 Attendance - An in-person event, which will also be webcast live SYNOPSIS: Vegetation has been used for slope stabilisation and erosion protection for centuries across the world. The role of vegetation in performing these engineering functions becomes more important in a changing climate where sustainability and resilience are required from the traditional geotechnical engineering solutions. The aim of this talk will be to introduce and critically review the most common nature-based solutions (NbS) that can be used for slope stability and erosion protection. Additionally, this talk will cover the inclusion of design with vegetation across the project lifetime, with a focus on risk assessment, detailed design calculations, and monitoring of the NbS. Experiences from several projects that incorporated living materials within the traditional geotechnical design will be presented together with lessons learned and recommendations for the future. To find out more, and to add the event to your calendar, visit - https://lnkd.in/e9FmvuaA #BGA #SlopeStability #Geotechnics #Event #Presentation #Meeting

My contribution to the 2024 International Student Conference of Civil Engineering in Pristina is titled "Impact of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems on Stormwater Management: A Case Study of the Mat Neighborhood in Prishtina, Kosovo." This study originated from my two-year research at the Landscape Use Improvement Department, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. The project aimed to identify and implement natural approaches in Kosovo, specifically focusing on enhancing flood resilience and addressing climate change impacts through improved construction processes and water management practices. https://lnkd.in/gds_Z-vw #climateresilience #sustainableurban

On 7th – 8th May 2024, CLARION Project was kicked off in Rotterdam and Delft, The Netherlands. Funded by the Horizon Europe Programme and coordinated by TU Delft, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, the Geotechnical Engineering Section, CLARION is dedicated to enhancing the resilience and sustainability of European ports, facing the climate-related challenges, with a total EU budget of approximately 7 million euros. Featuring the top-3 ports in Europe in terms of container throughput, namely Rotterdam, Antwerp/Bruges and Hamburg in the North Sea and the largest European port at the Black Sea, Constanta, CLARION will pursue ambitious objectives to increase the operational availability of port infrastructures during extreme events, reducing accidents caused by climate-related disruptions. “The development strategy of the port of Constanta will take climate change into account as a major factor. In order to face its effects in the future, MPAC (National Company Maritime Ports Administration SA Constanta) commits to promote innovations and modern technologies, as a relevant instrument to increase port efficiency. In this sense, the CLARION project is first of all a tool for learning the latest trends in the field of innovation applications in the sea and river ports, in order to be able to later promote and replicate them at the level of entire port community, but also with potential effects at the level of logistic chains influenced by the Port of Constanta." - Mihai Teodorescu, General Manager of Constanta Port. CLARION aligns with the European Commission's EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change and the European Green Deal, emphasizing the importance of climate-resilient infrastructure in achieving climate neutrality by 2050. By embracing these initiatives, CLARION aims to contribute to Europe's collective efforts to combat climate change and build a sustainable future. The total EU budget for the project amounts to approximately 7 million euros, spanning a 48-month duration and concluding in April 2028. CINEA - European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency

🚨Paper alert🚨 "𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘂𝗿𝗯𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗹𝘂𝘃𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴", has been published in the Urban Water Journal, Taylor & Francis Group. The article collects a comprehensive review of approaches, challenges and opportunities in the field of pluvial flood modelling. Great collaborations between the researchers from the Universidade da Coruña (the excellences of CITEEC - Research & Innovation Centre on Civil Engineering and Building) and RSS-Hydro 🇪🇸 🤝🇱🇺 🌐 Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/dCwP55PT #pluvial #floodmodelling #innovation

Technical paper | Rapid condition assessment of earthwork assets By Adrian White, Jonathan Chambers, Jim Whiteley, Paul Wilkinson and Jimmy Boyd, British Geological Survey; Kevin Briggs, University of Bath; Anthony Blake and Joel Smethurst, University of Southampton; Stephanie Glendinning and Ross Stirling, Newcastle University; and Sebastian Uhlemann, environmental consultant The UK has many old earth embankments, dams and cuttings, some more than 200 years old, that are still integral to our national infrastructure. These assets (earthworks) are crucial in transportation, water transport and storage, and flood prevention. Although they are often assumed to be stable, they gradually change over time through repeated use and seasonal or weather driven cyclic forcing. This cyclical forcing slowly degrades these assets through processes operating from the material scale to the slope scale, reducing their reliability and performance (Stirling et al, 2021). The changing climate is accelerating this deterioration. Anthropogenic climate change is causing more frequent and larger extreme weather events with heavier rainfall, longer droughts and rising temperatures. This will profoundly impact assets in two ways: The likelihood of failure will increase as assets experience environmental extremes they were not designed for and have never experienced. The deterioration rate will likely increase as they are exposed to more intense seasonal cycling (for example, wetting and drying), reducing the current performance and operational life (Huang et al, 2023; Postill et al, 2021). Maintaining the thousands of kilometres of assets in the UK poses a challenge for asset owners (for example the Environment Agency, Network Rail and National Highways), which, with their finite resources and carbon net zero targets, must prioritise sites for inspection, monitoring and remediation. Information on the current condition of assets is needed to prioritise assets for monitoring and remediation. Identifying, developing and employing state of the art and novel approaches to asset condition assessment has been a key consideration of the EPSRC-funded Achilles project (Blake et al, 2022). Here, a rapid asset condition assessment (Raca) framework is introduced to aid the assessment of assets and to guide the collection of new information to refine condition estimates. The Raca framework will enable improved prioritisation of maintenance and remediation for individual assets and is designed to benefit earthwork owners, consultants and contractors responsible for managing and maintaining geotechnical assets. #technicalpaper #UK #earthworks #slopes #geotechnical #assetmanagement #conditionassessment #Achilles

Combine Art and Technology for #EarlyWarningsForAll New briefing note with UCL Warning Research Centre on hybrid digital and analogue #EarlyWarningSystems, based on our work in #Tamale, #Ghana, coproducing flood warning systems with communities. Providing early warning in multiple formats makes them more accessible, actionable, and useful for more people. It increases legitimacy and trust and allows the integration of multiple forms of knowledge. Thanks to Victoria Pratt and Ilan Kelman for making this happen. Cynthia Awuni, Professor Samuel Agyei-Mensah, Annie Ockelford, Wouter Buytaert, Imperial Civil and Environmental Engineering. https://lnkd.in/eDjV9xfa

🌿 Sustainability meets resilience in geotechnical engineering A new paradigm is emerging in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering, integrating sustainability and resilience. In their insightful paper, Krishna R. Reddy, Jagadeesh Kumar Janga, and Girish Kumar present frameworks to quantify and assess both aspects: • QUALICS framework for life cycle sustainability assessment • TQUALICSR framework for integrated sustainability and resilience evaluation The authors demonstrate these frameworks through case studies on: Deep foundations Pavement design Landfills Contaminated site remediation They also highlight innovative nature-based solutions like: Green infrastructure for stormwater management Floodable parks for coastal protection Phytoremediation for soil cleanup Key takeaway: Integrating sustainability and resilience is crucial for addressing climate change impacts and creating more robust, environmentally-friendly geotechnical solutions. #Geotechnical #Sustainability #ClimateResilience #InnovativeEngineering