Solidification and stabilisation for sustainable management of problematic soils – GeoStab

With the rapid economic and social development in the industrialised and developing countries, these communities are increasingly at the forefront of most pressing challenges. Along with the many social and economic benefits of urbanisation comes a plethora of construction and environmental problems, some of staggering proportion. One of these problems results from the evolution of the development strategies of urban areas. Indeed, contrary to what has been done for decades, there is a tendency to increase housing density in urban areas and in certain neighbourhoods. This would led to a reduction of car travel, a better use of public transportation, and thus to a reduction of pollution. In this context, one strategy is to use former industrial areas abandoned during the last 20 years to develop new housings / commercial zones. Most of these abandoned areas are situated at the edges of existing cities. Nevertheless, there are a number of issues that need to be addressed. These soils can be considered as problematic soils from a geotechnical point of view (clay, organic soils, and sediments). There is also a major environmental issue related to the quality of the subsurface environment that is being adversely affected by former industrial, municipal, mining and agricultural activities. Therefore, there is a need to develop innovative integrated and collective multidisciplinary approaches to deal with these issues at the European level, from geotechnical and geoenvironmental points of view. This will then permit a more efficient management of problematic areas both from the geoenvironmental and geotechnical points of view. The proposed research program will bring together expertise in civil engineering, geochemistry and geoenvironmental engineering to achieve these objectives. The combination of these approaches may decrease material inputs, reduce energy consumption and emissions, recover valuable by-products and minimise wastes.
Therefore, there is a need to develop innovative integrated and collective multidisciplinary approaches to deal with these issues at the European level, from geotechnical and geoenvironmental points of view. The proposed research network GeoStab will bring together expertise in civil engineering, geochemistry and geoenvironmental engineering to achieve these objectives. The main objective associated to this ANR project is to foster the creation of the GeoStab network. The present members of the network established some research priorities and actions to be undertaken. To carry out its research program, the network will apply for funding at the EU level. The network will apply for an “Innovative Training Network” program (Marie Curie Action) for the call of 2015 under the coordination of Université de Lorraine. The intended form of the ITN will be a European Training Network (ETN).
The creation of this research network is in line with the first societal challenges identified within the call for proposal Strategic Agenda “Efficient resource management and adaptation to climate change” and within the European Research Programme “Horizon 2020” challenge “Climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials”. This project will contribute to development of solutions for better use of raw materials from construction and demolition waste. The research will promote a network of partners in the area of soil stabilisation / solidification with a focus on sustainable methods. It would also foster the protection and sustainable management of natural resources for construction. The involvement of private partners reflects their will to increase competitiveness of soil-construction-waste treatment-related industries.