Thursday, February 25 | 10 – 11:30 am CST
Filtration and Drainage Performance of Geosynthetics in Changing Climate Conditions

Organized by:


Panel Members: 
Eric Blond, Consultant, Canada (Moderator)
Pietro Rimoldi, Consultant, Italy (Moderator)
Michael Heibaum, retired, formerly Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute (BAW), Germany
Kelvin Legge (assisted by Karl Bester), Department of Water and Sanitation, South-Africa
Sam Allen, TRI Environmental, USA
Markus Wilke, Huesker, Germany

The world seems to experience more extreme weather events than what used to be considered in the past. Conditions of rainfall and drought, higher and lower temperatures, rainfall intensities are affecting the quantity of water that must be managed on any project. How will this affect the required performance of geosynthetics for filtration, drainage and erosion control?

On the other hand, the properties of geosynthetics may be subject to important variations with temperature. Should material requirements be the same in cold and hot climates? How can this be addressed at the design stage?

The panel will discuss how the design of geosynthetics may be influenced by changing weather conditions, as well as how filtration and drainage properties can change in extreme cold and hot climates.