Sustainability benefits of geosynthetics in erosion control, drainage & soil reinforcement applications

An introduction to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is presented as a useful and effective tool for quantifying environmental sustainability in engineering designs. For typical scenarios in European projects, comparative LCA studies are performed between conventional and geosynthetic based solutions for applications such as erosion control, pavement drainage, and retaining structures. In all the cases assessed, it has been demonstrated that geosynthetic based solutions have lower environmental impacts than conventional solutions.