Abstract
The interaction of water and soil has been both a blessing and a curse in all times within living memory. Water is the origin of life but is also threatening life when appearing unboundedly. Therefore mankind has always worked hard to benefit from water resources on one hand and to deal with the threat of flooding on the other hand. For both, to protect the land and to allow for beneficial uses like irrigation or navigation, often special measures are necessary to keep the water within certain bounds. Structures to achieve a permanently stable situation like irrigation and navigational canals, river training or flood protection measures need suitable material, carefully thought out design and accurate execution. Often a decision has to be made among competitive approaches to optimize such structures. In many cases, geosynthetics can support or improve the functionality and sometimes only with geosynthetics the desired result can be achieved.Geosynthetics can provide strength and flexibility, imperviousness and drainage, durability and robustness or controlled degradation. All these properties can be of use to handle the many occurrences of interaction of water and soil. Surface water has to be guided or to be kept off; percolating water should be controlled to avoid internal erosion effects should be restrained by appropriate filtration. To guarantee well functioning in general, also chemical and biological aspects have to be considered like ochre formation, root penetration and population by any kind of species. The German Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute (BAW) has gathered experience with geosynthetics in hydraulic applications since more than 40 years. These years revealed the capabilities of geosynthetic solutions and simultaneously emphasized the need of careful selection, design and execution.A large variety of geosynthetic fabric and structures is available. To control the interaction of water and soil many different attributes are required, e.g. membranes for impervious lining, filter sheets for erosion control, different kinds of mattresses or wrap-around structures, voluminous elements from sandbags to mega containers for protection, training or immediate repair. In many cases geosynthetics can be designed to control the interaction of water and soil according to the individual and local requirements to allow for an excellent execution of waterways and flood protection structures.
Highlights
We all remember the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011
Geosynthetic clay liners - or according to EN ISO 10318 “clay geosynthetic barrier (GBR-C)” - have been installed in many applications, predominantly as impervious linings of landfill covers and for groundwater protection purposes in road and runway construction.In hydraulic applications it can be found as lining of irrigation and retention ponds, canals and dikes
The effects can be brought under control with the help of geosynthetic separation, filter or drainage elements
Summary
We all remember the Great East Japan (undersea) Earthquake in March 2011. The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves thatreached heights of up to 40.5 m and which, in the Sendai area, travelled up to 10 km inland. We remembera similar event, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, triggered again by an undersea megathrust earthquake that hit several countries With these and similar hazards, nature demonstrates the power of water. In any respect of human living - housing, farming, traveling and leisure - it is desirable to have water and ground in balance. Heibaum: Geosynthetics for waterways and flood protection structures - Controlling the interaction of water and soil. Borders of surface water are the coast, river banks, canal embankments or dikes - so most confinement of water is made of soil and rock. The village Fudai in Japan was saved because a mayor ignored criticism and spent a lot of money on a gargantuan floodgate (Hosaka, 2011) In this manner, possibilities to control the interaction of water and soil can be found in many cases. We only can hope to get enough information to plan countermeasures
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