The use of bio-engineering methods for soil erosion protection and slope stabilization has a long tradition. Old methods with rocks and plants, structures of timber have been used over the past centuries. Recently these old soil conservation and stabilization techniques have been rediscovered and improved. Biotechnical engineering methods have become part of geotechnical and hydraulic engineering and have helped bridge the gap between classical engineering disciplines, land use management, landscape architecture and biological sciences. In this paper the different uses of plants in hydraulic and geotechnical engineering design are presented. The core of this study is a comprehensive overview of the most important biotechnical construction methods used for soil erosion protection and slope stabilization. Methods, construction procedure, and the major advantages and disadvantages of these biotechnical methods are discussed. Considerations about construction and maintenance costs conclude in this paper.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by European Regional Science Association in its series ERSA conference papers with number
ersa06p927.