Innovative Techniques of using Marginal Lands for Civil Infrastructure Development

利用边际土地建设民用基础设施的创新技术

• 批准号: RGPIN-2016-05337
• 负责人: Sharma, Jitendrapal
• 金额: $ 1.75万
• 依托单位: York University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=615630
• 关键词: Innovative; Techniques; using; Marginal; Lands

Over the next few decades, two-thirds of human population will be concentrated in urban communities. This will require efficient use land, water, and energy, and result in sharp increase in demand for good-quality land for new developments. Consequently, major public infrastructure, such as highways and railroads, will increasingly have to be constructed on marginal lands, such as closed landfills, saturated peat bogs, pockets of soft/loose soil, areas rehabilitated after mine closures, etc. The hundreds of municipal landfills in Canadian urban communities are often not used for high-value redevelopment after their closure. The proposed program will enable the use of waste in these landfills as a foundation material and will provide excellent opportunities to practice sustainable geotechnical engineering by constructing industrial and/or municipal infrastructure on closed landfills, thereby freeing up good-quality land for high-value developments. Canada leads the world in terms of land area covered by peat, much of it in the Northern communities in the form of permafrost. Given the push to develop the resource-rich northern areas and the shifting climatic patterns, it is anticipated that a large chunk of Canada’s infrastructure will be constructed over saturated peat since its complete removal and replacement with a competent fill material is not a viable option for linear infrastructure such as highways, railroads and pipelines. The proposed program will result in an improved understanding of the complex behaviour of saturated peat, thereby enabling its safe and efficient use as a foundation material. The proposed program is also of socioeconomic benefit for Canada’s Northern communities. Ensuring the safety and long-term serviceability of civil infrastructure in the wake of anthropogenic and climate-change-driven degrading of permafrost is vital for the viability of these communities. Given the current and planned development of Northern communities costing billions of dollars, the proposed program will result in the development of innovative mitigation strategies and new technologies to combat the effect of degrading permafrost on civil infrastructure. The seven graduate students trained in the program will gain specialized skills and experiences in advanced laboratory testing techniques and numerical modelling associated with emerging areas of waste mechanics and cold regions engineering and will be equipped for a career in academic or industrial research in response to the rapidly growing demand for HQP in the academia and the industry. The development of innovative technologies for sustainable utilization of marginal lands also presents commercialization and entrepreneurship opportunities. Overall, the proposed program will enable geotechnical engineers to manage and mitigate risks associated with constructing geotechnical structures over marginal lands.

在未来几十年里，三分之二的人口将集中在城市社区。这将需要有效利用土地、水和能源，并导致对优质土地的需求急剧增加。因此，主要的公共基础设施，如高速公路和铁路，将越来越多地被建造在边缘的土地，如封闭的垃圾填埋场，饱和泥炭沼泽，软/松散土壤的口袋，矿山关闭后恢复的地区等。拟议的计划将使这些垃圾填埋场的废物作为基础材料使用，并将通过在封闭的垃圾填埋场上建造工业和/或市政基础设施，提供实施可持续岩土工程的绝佳机会，从而为高价值的开发腾出优质土地。加拿大在泥炭覆盖的土地面积方面领先于世界，其中大部分以永久冻土的形式存在于北方社区。考虑到对资源丰富的北方地区的开发和气候模式的变化，预计加拿大的大部分基础设施将在饱和泥炭上建造，因为完全清除泥炭并用合格的填充材料替换不是线性基础设施（如高速公路，铁路和管道）的可行选择。拟议的计划将导致更好地了解饱和泥炭的复杂行为，从而使其安全有效地用作基础材料。拟议的方案也对加拿大北方社区具有社会经济效益。在人为和气候变化导致的永久冻土退化之后，确保民用基础设施的安全和长期可用性对这些社区的生存至关重要。鉴于北方社区目前和计划的发展耗资数十亿美元，拟议的计划将导致创新的缓解战略和新技术的发展，以对抗永久冻土退化对民用基础设施的影响。在该计划中接受培训的七名研究生将获得与废物机械和寒冷地区工程新兴领域相关的先进实验室测试技术和数值建模方面的专业技能和经验，并将为学术或工业研究职业生涯做好准备，以应对学术界和工业界对HQP快速增长的需求。开发可持续利用边际土地的创新技术也提供了商业化和创业机会。总的来说，拟议的计划将使岩土工程师能够管理和减轻与在边缘土地上建造岩土结构相关的风险。