Reuse and sustainability of existing flood defences

Started: October 2016

Supervisors: Professor Lidija Zdravkovic; Dr Katerina Tsiampousi; Dr Christian Onof

Industry Partner: Geotechnical Consulting Group

Description of Research

With the recent floods occurring in the UK, there has been an increasing demand in assessing the condition of existing flood embankments and to future-proof them in anticipation of more extreme flood events. This research aims to provide guidelines on estimating the resilience of earth embankments, taking into consideration geotechnical aspects of the embankment such as unsaturated soil behaviour and soil-plant-atmosphere interaction. Subsequently, further guidelines on raising flood embankments with regard to geometry, stability and cost will be developed, and appropriate monitoring schemes in identifying key failure mechanisms related to the anticipated climate change effects will be proposed.