GEOSTRATA Magazine

It took me many years to realize and implement, in both my professional and personal lives, the principle of carpe diem, a Latin phrase that means “seize the day.” During the March 2023 Geo-Congress in Los Angeles, I found myself enjoying the gathering of our community, talking to G-I members, and especially students, learning so much from attending talks and brainstorming, and sharing in the joy of our awardees. I took in these moments focusing on the uniqueness and value of this event in my life during the year that I'm having the honor of serving as president of the G-I.

Coastal infrastructure is susceptible to damage during large storm events, where storm surge and waves can erode the soil and undermine highways, utilities, and supporting infrastructure. Preventing the erosion of the supporting soils and adjacent slopes can reduce damage to coastal highways and other nearby civil works infrastructure, and help maintain open and connected routes and lifelines during the recovery period after major coastal storms.

The potential for earthquake-induced soil liquefaction at the Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub in Portland has a major influence on the seismic resilience of the state of Oregon. The CEI Hub, which houses more than 300 fuel storage tanks, fuel transmission pipelines, natural gas pipelines and storage facilities, port terminals, and high-voltage electric substations and transmission lines, encompasses a 6-mi-long stretch along the Willamette River in northwest Portland. Because Oregon does not have oil refineries, almost all of its refined petroleum products are imported from Washington state via pipelines and marine vessels and then stored and handled in the facilities in the CEI Hub. The majority of the storage tanks were built before 1960, and thus before the seismic risks associated with the Cascadia Subduction Zone, or CSZ, were known. Based on the most recent seismic research, there's a 37 percent likelihood of a magnitude 8 or 9 megathrust earthquake from the CSZ hitting the Pacific Northwest within the next 50 years. Such an earthquake would cause significant ground shaking and extensive soil liquefaction in the CEI Hub.

Geotechnical engineers successfully design and construct anchorage and foundation elements that can readily support dead loads as well as seismic, environmental, and other live loads. These anchorage and foundation elements support key infrastructure, such as bridges that are part of the transportation network, provide safety by stabilizing land masses, and allow for construction in urban areas by providing excavation support and foundations for buildings. Our profession has clearly demonstrated that safe and resilient structures can be built at most sites. However, going forward there will be an increased need to reduce the carbon footprint and material use while maintaining, if not exceeding, the same performance levels. This need to build more efficiently will likely be the next paradigm in many areas of geotechnical and civil engineering.

Biogeotechnics, specifically bio-mediated and bio-inspired geotechnical engineering, has matured rapidly over the past two decades, becoming one of the fastest growing subdisciplines within geotechnical engineering. As is typical in most science and engineering fields, biogeotechnics relies on data from physical experiments and field observations to advance emerging technologies. Obtaining field data to drive advancement can pose unique challenges, and in many cases may be cost- or logistically prohibitive. Physical experiments or models are often preferable and may offer the sole feasible pathway for technology development and upscaling. Hypergravity scaled modeling using centrifuges has been instrumental in biogeotechnics development to support the building of basic science knowledge, the validation of computational and theoretical models, and the advancement of emerging technologies toward field implementation.

Biogeotechnics is a research area that provides an exciting new way to look at geotechnical solutions. From a materials perspective, instead of borrowing from the structural field and using concrete and steel, in biogeotechnics, engineers look to nature to find alternative ways to meet the needs of the facilities our designs support. One way to do this is with the bio-mediated process of Enzyme-induced Carbonate Precipitation, or EICP. This method, similar to its Microbially Induced Carbonate Precipitation counterpart, is a way to use a product from nature to control the process of strengthening soil.