Geological and Geotechnical Engineering in the New Millennium Opportunities for Research and Technological Innovation (2006) / Chapter Skim
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4 Geoengineering for Earth Systems and Sustainability
4 Geoengineering for Earth Systems and Sustainability
Pages 127-148
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From page 127... ...
For the purpose of this report, the committee has adopted the definition of sustainable development put forth by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and presented in Sidebar 1.1.
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From page 128... ...
The simultaneous optimization of these three objectives has been called the triple bottom line of sustainable development. Research in the discipline of geoengineering has already begun to broaden from its traditional emphasis on the highly focused science of the specifics of soil and rock mechanics in response to this new impera tive of sustainable development.
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From page 129... ...
Sustainable development and concern with the triple bottom line are also becoming important considerations in mining and mineral resource development. In an important two-year study commissioned by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
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From page 130... ...
The amendments override the last down-select process and anoint Yucca Mountain as the one and only site. This process created an environment and project culture, including the Yucca Mountain Project, where each of the Yucca Mountain site contractors tried to show their site was appropriate; in other words, they did not try to find out what might be wrong with the site.
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From page 131... ...
Engineers will be critical in fulfilling those demands since most of the growth will take place in large urban areas of the developing world. Today it is estimated that up to 2 billion people live in some type of city slum, and the urban share of the world's extreme poverty is about 25 percent.
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From page 132... ...
EWB-USA is also developing strong collaboration with engineering societies and organizations such as the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, National Society of Professional Engineers, World Federation of Engineering Organizations, and the Association of Soil and Foundation Engineers (ASFE)
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From page 133... ...
The Mining, Minerals, and Sustainability Project (MMSD) defines the goal of sustainable development as "integrating economic activity with environmental integrity, social concerns, and effective governance systems." The two-year research and consultation projects of MMSD identified a collection of challenges to sustainable development that the minerals sector faces that include viability of the minerals industry; control, use, and management of land; mining, minerals, and the environment; and local communities and mines.
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From page 134... ...
Breaking New Ground stresses that implementing sustainable development solutions can help reverse the minerals industry's checkered legacy, which will enable the industry to move forward with greater trust from the communities in which it operates. All parties, from consumers to business leaders, will benefit socially and economically.
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From page 135... ...
7. Synthesis and Continuous Learning (Continuous Learning and Adaptive Management)
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From page 136... ...
, as "an emerging multidisciplinary area based upon a holistic view of the interactions between natural and human systems. ESE addresses global, complex, multiscale, multicycle phenomenon, such as climate change, as well as problems of global importance such as urban design." ESE is the tool, or collection of tools, for helping to achieve sustainable development on regional and global 136
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From page 137... ...
However, traditional geotechnical engineering generally considers only the relatively local direct engineering impacts of these activities. ESE demands consideration of the impact of these activities not only on a local scale but also on regional and global scales, as well as in terms of both direct engineering consequences and indirect social and socioeconomic consequences.
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From page 138... ...
systems and their interactions with natural systems. Furthermore, the uncertainties associated with predicting the regional and global impacts of technologies mandate application of adaptive management techniques (i.e., the observational method)
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From page 139... ...
described limitations to the use of the observational method in his classic geotechnical paper on "The Role of the Calculated Risk in Earthwork Engineering." Casagrande postulated that risks inherent to geotechnical practice include engineering risks and human risks, calculated risks and unknown risks, and voluntary risks and involuntary risks. Calculated risks are risks based on uncertainties associated with engineering analyses of known phenomena.
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From page 140... ...
An ESE or GES initiative should reflect the breadth of the issues involved and · encompass efforts from the nano- and microscale behavior of geomaterials to the global scale; · include data collection, management, interpretation, analysis, and visualization; · include the development of geosystems models, place-specific mesoscale investigations (Harte et al., 2001) , and models to support policy decisions and adaptive management of environ mental problems.
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From page 141... ...
The legacy problem includes dealing with the effects of greenhouse gases that are currently in our atmosphere and will remain on the order of 100 years, even if we could stop producing greenhouse gas emissions today (IPCC, 2001)
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From page 142... ...
.) · Water supply: Extreme weather patterns due to climate change are stressing an already stressed water supply problem in the world.
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From page 143... ...
Geothermal energy is perhaps the best example of a geoengineering problem where the issues include finding new, hidden geothermal reservoirs with sufficient heat and fluid to be produced. The grand challenge, however, will be to find a way to use geothermal energy when the heat is present and when water or steam are not present to transfer the energy to the surface (called Enhanced Geothermal Systems)
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From page 144... ...
The developing world's burgeoning population also requires and desires significant improvements in their standards of living. A GES initiative should include research to develop solutions to natural hazards, environmental degradation, energy, sanitation, water supply, and trans portation problems in the developing world.
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From page 145... ...
These interactions include geochemical and biological phenomena. In fact, the committee perceives the investigation of biological interactions with soil and rock for the purpose of modification and control to be an important component of GES, with potential applications in both developed countries for infrastructure construction and rehabilitation and in the developing world as cost-effective appropriate technologies.
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From page 146... ...
Investigators should be encouraged to develop engineering models that recognize the hierarchy of interactions of the various components under different engineering design choices that can and should influence policy choices. This hierarchy must ultimately incorporate systems models at process, urban, regional, and global scales.
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From page 147... ...
In this light, the focus of an ESE or GES initiative is the eventual production of design approaches and management paradigms that address highly interactive Earth systems where anthropogenic effects play a dominant role and where the overall objective is sustainability. ESE presents a scope and complexity that has never before been addressed by engineers.
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From page 148... ...
In practice, it is extremely hard to know what to predict, what to measure, and how to compare these two types of quantities. NSF should invest in research to develop the techniques for integrating measurements with model predictions for adaptive management to update Earth systems models, especially for urban, regional, and global applications.
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