Vision ahead for environmental geotechnics

The emergence of ‘environmental geotechnics’ or ‘geoenvironmental engineering’ as potential research and academic focus in the last few decades is the result of strong realisation on the severe degradation of atmosphere, hydrosphere and geosphere. Such degradation not only has direct short-term adverse impacts on living things and natural resources but also results in an indirect long-term socio-economic crisis for the government to handle. The exponential growth of urbanisation and industrialisation, unmindful of the environment, has already done damages to the geosphere (soil, rock and water), which showcases rich non-renewable and renewable resources. Therefore, the two-fold role of geoenvironmental engineers is to ‘revive and prevent’ degradation to geo-biosphere. Any holistic solution in this direction calls for an interdisciplinary approach wherein there is an inadvertent amalgamation of pure science into engineering. Finding optimal, cost-effective and sustainable solutions to the geoenvironmental problems through an unconventional approach of integrating different branches of science and engineering is the environmental geotechnics’ vision and commitment to society for the well-being of future generations.