Distinguished Prof. Jie Han
Abstract: Sustainability and resilience of infrastructure have become an important topic in civil engineering and our society in recent years. The top principles for sustainable construction are to minimize resource consumption, maximize resource reuse, use renewable or recyclable resources, and protect the natural environment. Climate stressors, such as sea level rise, storm surge, flood, and extreme hot/cold, affect the performance and safety of infrastructure requiring the improvement of its resilience. This lecture will highlight recent advances in the use of geosynthetics to enhance the sustainability and resilience of infrastructure, including the use of geosynthetics with recycled aggregates for roads, wicking geotextiles for mitigation of freeze thaw problems, geosynthetic reinforced mats for stormwater drainage or erosion protection, and back to back geosynthetic reinforced soil walls for infrastructure protection from storm surge and flood.