Effect of Geotechnical Works on Sustainable and Resilient Cities

The geotechnical works in the cities have great impact on life and prosperity of the people, thus greatly affecting the sustainability and resiliency of the cities. The excavation for utilities, including gas, electricity, telephone lines, fiber optic lines, sanitary and storm sewers, are usually done in separate trenches, and hinder people and traffic and are vulnerable to heavy rains, snow falls and freezing temperatures. Sustainable and resilient cities should have proper planning for unique utility tunnels with redundancy. The excavation for underground metro tunnels, freeways, new intersections and interchanges and street widening has a tremendous impact on comfort and prosperity of the people, and new insights and methods should be implemented to improve the situation for sustainable and resilient cities. The excavation for high rise buildings, which sometimes are up to ۴۰ meter deep and ۱۰۰ m by ۱۰۰ m wide with traditional methods of soil nailing and anchoring etc. are basically used to save land adjacent to neighbors and city streets and cause discomfort to the cities. Innovative methods should be applied for sustainable and resilient cities. In this paper examples of traditional and improved methods are presented and guidelines are offered so that the geotechnical works have positive outcome for sustainable and resilient cities.

Keywords:

resilient and sustainable cities , geotechnical works , utilities , infrastructure , excavation