Unsaturated Soils - Advances in Geo Engineering




Preface

This volume of proceedings of the First European Conference on Unsaturated Soils is the first publication to

focus on European research developments in geo-engineering applications of unsaturated soils. The resurgence of

interest in unsaturated soil research within Europe in recent years has lead to major advances. We are fortunate

to have the latest developments reported here, in the 136 papers from leading international researchers and

practitioners. The volume contains 90 papers from 15 countries within Europe with a further 46 contributions

from 15 other countries. It hence represents European advances in geo-engineering together with an international

state-of-the-art perspective on unsaturated soils in 2008.

The volume addresses five areas: Advances in testing techniques, Engineering behaviour, Constitutive modelling,

Numerical modelling and Case histories. The areas of application include slope stability, foundations,

dams, contaminated land, landfill and nuclear waste repositories. It therefore provides a comprehensive collection

that we believe geo-engineers will come to treat as essential reference material.

Keynote papers from four international leading researchers are contained in the volume. We are grateful for

the participation of Professors Eduardo Alonso, Pierre Delage, Antonio Gens and Lyesse Laloui. There is no

doubt that these keynote papers will be seen as landmark contributions in unsaturated soil research.

The motivation for organising this First European Conference on Unsaturated Soils grew from the MUSE

project (Mechanics of Unsaturated Soils for Engineering: ) funded by the European Community.

The editors (from Durham and Glasgow Universities) would like to thank our MUSE colleagues from

Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in France; Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya in Spain; Università

degli Studi di Trento and Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II in Italy for their support, both for this

conference and our joint research activities.

We would also like to acknowledge the vital role played by the Technical Advisory Committee members who

have contributed to the very thorough reviews that have ensured the high technical quality of the papers accepted

for inclusion in these Proceedings.

We also thank the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, and in particular

Technical Committee 6 on Unsaturated Soils, for their support of the conference. Particular thanks are due

to Professor Pedro Seco e Pinto (President of ISSMGE), Professor Neil Taylor (General Secretary ISSMGE),

Professor Eduardo Alonso (Chair of TC6) and Professor Gerald Miller (Secretary TC6).

We hope that this first conference, and this volume of proceedings, will form the foundation and the impetus

for a future series of European Conferences on Unsaturated Soils. We look forward to many such successful

conferences and research collaborations in the future.

David Toll & Charles Augarde (Durham University)

Domenico Gallipoli & Simon Wheeler (University of Glasgow)



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