Project description
Engineering soil slopes for eco-friendly transport infrastructure
Current transport infrastructure is heavily dependent on cutting and embankment slopes most of which were built over 100 years ago. They were not designed for today’s vehicle speed, frequency, and weather conditions. A low-carbon and sustainable engineering solution is needed to boost resilience and protect vital transport earthworks while reducing the impact on ecosystems and restoring soil organic carbon loss caused by human activities. The EU-funded BALANCE project will advance slope bioengineering methods by leveraging traditional soil mechanics with soil science. It will carry out numerical modelling, UQ analysis, laboratory, and field tests to find an eco-friendly alternative to traditional engineering methods.
Objective
"Safe, efficient and secure transport infrastructure is a fundamental requirement to facilitate and encourage the movement of goods and people throughout not only the EU, but the whole world. The performance of these networks is critically dependent on the function of cutting and embankment slopes. Many of these transport earthworks in Europe were constructed over 100 years ago and are not designed for today’s vehicle speed, frequency and weather conditions. The long-term intensive dynamic loads generated from the moving vehicles combined with the severe wet-dry weather conditions induced by climate change, increase the likelihood of transport infrastructure earthwork failures. Subsequently, leading to costly disruption of road and rail journeys, with risk to life and property. The EU’s leading position in achieving the 2030 goal for sustainable development emphasises the urgency to develop a low-carbon, and sustainable engineering solution that not only can increase resilience and protect vital transport earthworks, but also to reduce the impact on ecosystems and restore soil organic carbon loss caused by human activities. The conventional engineering orientated solution alone is insufficient to solve the problem. Therefore, this fellowship leverages traditional soil mechanics with soil science through new insightful numerical modelling, UQ analysis, laboratory and field tests to advance slope bioengineering methods (SBMs) by utilising biopolymer and vegetation together for the reinforcement. This technique is an aesthetically-pleasing, environmentally and ecologically-friendly alternative to traditional ""hard"" engineering methods, providing the additional environmental and societal benefits of carbon fixation, enhanced biodiversity and ecosystem restoration within the built environment. The knowledge and tools from this project can potentially be utilized in other areas, e.g. river bank, sand dunes, flood embankments management and agricultural and amenity systems."
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences soil sciences
- engineering and technology civil engineering transportation engineering
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- social sciences social geography transport
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
CV4 8UW COVENTRY
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.