Reliability and Resilience � Essential Ingredients of Sustainable Geotechnics

by Dipanjan Basu, CEng., Ph.D., (M.ASCE), Assistant Professor; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada, dipanjan.basu@uwaterloo.ca,


Serial Information: Geo-Strata —Geo Institute of ASCE, 2014, Vol. 18, Issue 1, Pg. 36-39


Document Type: Feature article

Abstract:

Sustainability of a system is its ability to survive and retain its functionality over time. In very simple terms, sustainability deals with the capacities (resistances) and demands (loads) in a system. As long as supply is greater than demand, the system is sustainable. When put in a global perspective, sustainability deals with the fundamental questions related to the survivability and functionality of the physical world; it is therefore inextricably connected to social, environmental, economic, and engineered systems.

Subject Headings: Sustainable development | System reliability | Social factors | Load factors | Load bearing capacity | Load and resistance factor design | Geotechnical engineering

 

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