Nature Inspired Ground Engineering Solutions: Integrated Natural and Engineered Systems

Dear Colleagues,

As engineers, our relationship with the ground is usually one-way and has a single objectives: the ground exists, and we will improve it and/or exploit it to provide whatever functional service we seek; it provides a strong, stiff foundation on which to found our buildings and structures, a cutting with sufficient long-term strength to accommodate infrastructure, a source of heat, a free-draining material to enable water to pass, or an aquiclude to prevent the movement of water. In this, the ground has been historically undervalued and overexploited, degraded and blighted by this narrow-minded approach to engineering design.

Conventional ground-engineering methods and materials disrupt the soils’ biogeochemical cycles, which are reliant on soils’ intertwining pore network and driven by interaction of the living organisms—flora and fauna—a perspective commonly overlooked by engineers. In making provision for an engineered crust that satisfies the demands of cities and the built environment, whilst remaining in symbiosis with natural ground systems, this Special Issue exchanges ideas on prospects of the development and deployment of nature-inspired, less-intrusive technologies and materials. Papers will be centred around making cities more sustainable (through material, resource and life cycle management, and through a new generation of engineering interventions that view the ground as a system of systems), resilient (i.e., continuing to function in the face of change), and adaptable (e.g., by offering functions for future exploitation), all contributing to enhanced societal wellbeing.

Dr. Arya Assadi Langroudi
Prof. Dr. Fawad Inam
Guest Editors

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