This book is made up of papers presented at the 1994 conference of the Engineering Group of the Geological Society. Forty-two papers from a variety of international authors are included, divided into sections on standards and practice, site investigation, rock mass assessment, laboratory studies, and advances in the seismic refraction method.
The papers give good coverage of both design and practice and describe a wide variety of applications such as landfills and contamination studies, nuclear waste repositories and cavity and void detection. Three of the papers are reviews covering the state of geophysics in the 1990s, future developments and an overview of modern geophysics in engineering geology (the latter paper is based on conference discussion).
The volume is well-presented (up to the usual high standards of Engineering Geology Special Publications) and has a good index. It will be a useful reference volume for individuals or organizations who need to be aware of the potential methods and applications of geophysics in modern site investigation practice.
Based on the proceedings of a symposium of the East Midlands Geotechnical Group of the ICE held in September 1998, this volume contains eight papers covering recent developments in geotechnical landfill practice, design and analysis. The papers (seven from the UK and one from Germany) cover three main areas: mechanical properties of waste; design and testing of mineral liners (including bentonite enriched soils and colliery spoil); and geosynthetics in landfill design.
The well-presented and adequately illustrated volume is to be commended for its rapid publication in a constantly evolving subject area. However, the definition of the geotechnics of landfills appears to be rather narrow; problems of leachate or gas generation and control are not touched upon. Nevertheless, this book remains a useful précis of current developments in analysis of landfill liners and waste.
In the five years that have elapsed since the first edition of this very useful book was published, much has changed in the theory and practice of land reclamation. To a great extent this has been evolution of national guidance and the legislative framework, but more generally, as the authors point out, the experience and confidence of practitioners in dealing with contaminated land has increased significantly. The main thrust of this new edition has been to emphasize the need to adopt a risk assessment based approach to investigation and remediation. Past approaches of slavishly comparing measured concentrations of contaminants to guideline values should now be a thing of the past.
Much of the updating from the first edition has covered changes in national legislation, principally the UK, but also those of the USA and Netherlands. The chapters dealing with the UK are now fully up to date with detailed coverage of the 1995 Environment Act and landfill tax. It would, however, have been useful to have more background on the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations now in force in the UK and how they affect works on contaminated land. A new chapter describes the Dutch approach and use of the CSOIL model and the chapter on US legislation is completely updated. While dedicating a large proportion of a book aimed at the UK market to the approach taken overseas may seem at first glance to be of little value, it does recognize a major influence on UK practices. The attitudes of US-based funders and insurers, and in many cases the wish to see the adoption of the sometimes extremely strict Dutch guidelines, means that in the UK we need to be fully aware of the methods adopted in these countries.
Elsewhere the book has been updated to cover investigation methods in more detail. In particular, gas investigations are given greater prominence, mirroring industry's recognition that landfill sites are not the only source of groundborne gases. In looking at testing techniques it is perhaps regrettable that greater emphasis has not been placed on leachability testing. In the new era of the risk-based approach to remediation, leachability testing is now commonplace, it not routine, but the methods only get passing mention in the text.
The chapters on reclamation methods have seen little or no change from the first edition, which is not a particular problem as the methods described are still relevant today. It would, however, have been useful to have some updates with more recent case histories and the costs quoted for reclamation techniques could have done with being refreshed.
Having said this, these are rather minor niggles in what remains an excellent text for those looking for guidance on the practical approach to land reclamation. The fact that it is truly practical is the key feature and should form a basic reference for those involved in the investigation and treatment of contaminated land.
