Front matter for Geoenvironmental Engineering

Field Guide to Environmental Engineering for Development Workers: Water, Sanitation, and Indoor Air, by James R. Mihelcic, Lauren M. Fry, Elizabeth A. Myre, Linda D. Phillips, and Brian Barkdoll (ASCE Press 2009). In this complete handbook for international engineering service projects, James Mihelcic and his coauthors provide the tools necessary to implement the right technology in developing regions around the world. (ISBN 978-0-7844-0985-5)

Sustainable Solid Waste Management, edited by Jonathan W. C. Wong, Rao Y. Surampalli, Tian C. Zhang, Rajeshwar D. Tyagi, and Ammaiyappan Selvam (ASCE/EWRI 2016). This book describes basic principles and recent advances for handling solid waste in an environmentally sustainable way. (ISBN 978-0-7844-1410-1)

Water Balance Covers for Waste Containment: Principles and Practice, by William H. Albright, Craig H. Benson, and W. Joseph Waugh (ASCE Press 2010). Albright, Benson, and Waugh present the latest research regarding water balance covers for solid waste sites, along with case studies drawn from current field testing. (ISBN 978-0-7844-1070-7)

Groundwater Contamination by Organic Pollutants: Analysis and Remediation, edited by Jagath J. Kaluarachchi (ASCE/EWRI 2001). MOP 100 surveys important technologies used in the remediation of contaminated aquifers. (ISBN 978-0-7844-0527-7)

Carbon Capture and Storage: Physical, Chemical, and Biological Methods, edited by Rao Y. Surampalli, Tian C. Zhang, R. D. Tyagi, Ravi Naidu, B. R. Gurjar, C. S. P. Ojha, Song Yan, Satinder K. Brar, Anushuya Ramakrishnan, and C. M. Kao (ASCE/EWRI 2015). This book contains 18 invited chapters that provide in-depth information on the principles of carbon capture and storage technology and recent advances and future research and development in the CCS technology field. (ISBN 978-0-7844-1367-8)

(As developed by the ASCE Technical Procedures Committee, July 1930, and revised March 1935, February 1962, and April 1982)

A manual or report in this series consists of an orderly presentation of facts on a particular subject, supplemented by an analysis of limitations and applications of these facts. It contains information useful to the average engineer in his or her everyday work, rather than findings that may be useful only occasionally or rarely. It is not in any sense a “standard,” however, nor is it so elementary or so conclusive as to provide a “rule of thumb” for nonengineers.

Furthermore, material in this series, in distinction from a paper (which expresses only one person's observations or opinions), is the work of a committee or group selected to assemble and express information on a specific topic. As often as practicable, the committee is under the direction of one or more of the Technical Divisions and Councils, and the product evolved has been subjected to review by the Executive Committee of the Division or Council. As a step in the process of this review, proposed manuscripts are often brought before the members of the Technical Divisions and Councils for comment, which may serve as the basis for improvement. When published, each manual shows the names of the committees by which it was compiled and indicates clearly the several processes through which it has passed in review, so that its merit may be definitely understood.

In February 1962 (and revised in April 1982), the Board of Direction voted to establish a series titled “Manuals and Reports on Engineering Practice,” to include the manuals published and authorized to date, future Manuals of Professional Practice, and Reports on Engineering Practice. All such manual or report material of the Society would have been refereed in a manner approved by the Board Committee on Publications and would be bound, with applicable discussion, in books similar to past manuals. Numbering would be consecutive and would be a continuation of present manual numbers. In some cases of joint committee reports, bypassing of journal publications may be authorized.

A list of available Manuals of Practice can be found at https://ascelibrary.org/page/books/s-mop.

Note: Per ASCE policy, the Blue-Ribbon Panel Reviewers were not involved in any manner in the preparation of the manual. During the review process, Dr Rudoph Bonaparte contributed extensive text in the Chapter 4 on Hazardous Waste and thus an additional ad hoc Blue-Ribbon Panel member, Professor Krishna Reddy, was invited to review that specific Chapter.

The Geoenvironmental Engineering Manual of Practice represents a major effort undertaken by the Geoenvironmental Engineering Technical Committee of the Geo-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The effort started in 2016 and involved 50 authors and reviewers. The majority of the membership of the Geoenvironmental Engineering Technical Committee was engaged in this effort as well as additional leading geoenvironmental engineering professionals who were not members of the Geoenvironmental Engineering Technical Committee with expertise on the topics covered.

The manual is aimed to be a consensus document that provides concise, straight-to-the-point documentation of aspects of geoenvironmental engineering with an emphasis on engineering practice. It also outlines, when appropriate, design procedures and recommendations for use in engineering practice with the goal of developing a technical and scientific resource for geoenvironmental engineering professionals. Although the manual is a valuable technical source of information, and when necessary, appropriate references to the scientific literature are provided, it is not intended to provide an exhaustive state-of-the-art treatment of each topic or to include a comprehensive synthesis of the literature. Instead, the goal is to reflect the state of practice in the United States of America.

The manual preparation process was the following: Each chapter was led by an invited lead author who prepared the main content of a chapter. Subsequently, a minimum of two additional reviewers, or contributors, critically reviewed and provided edits and amendments to the document. Because the goal of the manual is to provide a consensus on each treated topic, the reviewers/contributors were not anonymous, but worked synergistically with the lead author to make amendments. For each chapter, there were at least two rounds of review, although commonly, several more rounds of review were conducted, until reviewers and contributors concurred on the content of each chapter. For some chapters, depending on their contributions and the lead chapter author's decision, reviewers became coauthors. A minimum of one practitioner served as a reviewer/contributor to each chapter to ensure that the topic is presented in a manner that serves the professional community. During and following the completion of the reviews by all reviewers, the Editor also reviewed and provided edits for each chapter to ensure consistency throughout the manual. The entire manual was then submitted to a Blue-Ribbon Review Panel that consisted of leading geoenvironmental engineers in the field, who provided feedback and comments on the entire manual. These comments were addressed by the lead authors, and a revised document, along with responses to the review comments, was prepared and resubmitted to the Blue-Ribbon Panel Review that consisted of Prof. James K. Mitchell, Prof. Craig Benson, and Dr. Rudolph Bonaparte. Because Dr. Rudoph Bonaparte contributed extensive text in the chapter on Hazardous Waste, an additional ad hoc Blue-Ribbon Review Panel member, Prof. Krishna Reddy, re-reviewed that specific chapter.

The Geoenvironmental Engineering Manual of Practice covers a wide range of geoenvironmental engineering practice, including contaminant transport and fate, geomechanical and geochemical characterization, waste material characterization and properties, design of base and cover containment systems, static and seismic slope stability of waste containment systems, and permeable and impermeable (cutoff) barriers, as well as topics related to excavation, ground improvement, remediation, and mine waste geotechnics. Despite the breadth of content included in the manual, this manual does not exhaust the entire geoenvironmental engineering practice. In some cases, such as geoenvironmental remediation, we felt that extensive literature and manuals by the Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and others existed that treated these topics, whereas other topics were not completed during the manual preparation process. In the end, the Editor decided that additional chapters can be included in potential future revisions of the manual, and that the professional community would be better served by the publication of this first edition of the manual of geoenvironmental engineering practice rather than delay further publication of the important content that has been generated already.

Chapter 1 was authored under the leadership of J. Scalia and C. Shackelford. Subsequently, K. Sample-Lord and E. Ghazanfari reviewed the manuscript independently and contributed to the topic.

Chapter 2 was authored under the leadership of N. Matasovic. Subsequently, A. Witthoeft, R. Thiel, A. De, R. Jeffrey, X. Fei, and T. Hadj-Hamou reviewed the manuscript independently and contributed to the topic.

Chapter 3 was authored under the leadership of M. Chrysochoou and N. Bompoti. Subsequently, J. Eun and A. Palomino reviewed the manuscript independently and contributed to the topic.

Chapter 4 was authored under the leadership of P. K. Kolay and R. Bonaparte. Subsequently, A. Rahmani and M. Azizul reviewed the manuscript independently and contributed to the topic.

Chapter 5 was authored under the leadership of D. Zekkos. Subsequently, X. Qian, J. Fassett, and C. Bareither reviewed the manuscript independently, contributed to the topic, and are listed as coauthors.

Chapter 6 was authored under the leadership of P. K. Kolay. Subsequently, B. Cetin and L. Li reviewed the manuscript independently, contributed to the topic, and are listed as coauthors.

Chapter 7 was authored under the leadership of S. E. Burns, N. N. N. Yeboah, and X. Wirth. Subsequently, J. Daniels and P. Kolay reviewed the manuscript independently and contributed to the topic.

Chapter 8 was authored under the leadership of J. S. McCartney. Subsequently, M. Malusis and S. Iravani reviewed the manuscript independently, contributed to the topic, and are listed as coauthors.

Chapter 9 was authored under the leadership of R. Thiel. Subsequently, J. Scalia and N. Yesiller reviewed the manuscript independently, contributed to the topic, and are listed as coauthors.

Chapter 10 was authored under the leadership of K. Foye. Subsequently, J. Evans and F. Settepani reviewed the manuscript independently and contributed to the topic.

Chapter 11 was authored under the leadership of E. Kavazanjian, Jr. Subsequently, D. Zekkos and G. Zalachoris reviewed the manuscript independently, contributed to the topic, and are listed as coauthors.

Chapter 12 was authored under the leadership of C. A. Bareither. Subsequently, L. de Mello and R. Gupta reviewed the manuscript independently and contributed to the topic.

Chapter 13 was authored under the leadership of C. H. Floess. Subsequently, B. Bate and R. Gupta reviewed the manuscript independently and contributed to the topic.

Chapter 14 was authored under the leadership of A. Farid. Subsequently, J. Wang and S. Pamucku reviewed the manuscript independently and contributed to the topic.

Chapter 15 was authored under the leadership of A. De. Subsequently, C. Woods and M. Flanagan reviewed the manuscript independently and contributed to the topic.

Chapter 16 was authored under the leadership of J. C. Evans and. K. M. Sample-Lord. Subsequently, A. Idil and G. Bonhoff reviewed the manuscript independently and contributed to the topic.

Chapter 17 was authored under the leadership of A. Przepiora and C. F. Wildman. Subsequently, M. Hart reviewed the manuscript independently, contributed to the topic, and is listed as coauthor. L. Li reviewed the manuscript independently and contributed to the topic.