This award supports a workshop, organized in conjunction with the 6th International Congress on Environmental Geotechnics (6ICEG) to be held during November 2010 in India. Because many of the greatest Geoenvironmental challenges over the next century will arise in developing nations, it is imperative for researchers and professionals in both India and the US to collaborate and develop an understanding of the issues and needs of the developing world. Moreover, by combining the respective Geoenvironmental expertise and resources in India and the US, researchers and professionals will have an increased ability to meet these challenges and mitigate the global effects of these challenges. The workshop will be aimed to: (1) To facilitate exchange of information on the current state-of-the-art and the state-of-practice of Geoenvironmental Engineering and identify the emerging global Geoenvironmental Engineering challenges; (2) To prioritize research opportunities that will be of mutual interest to US and Indian researchers. The following broad technical areas are expected to be included: (a) sustainable waste management, (b) green and sustainable remediation, (c) renewable and alternative energy, (d) global climate change impacts, and (e) mitigation of greenhouse gases, among others; (3) To identify the individuals and organizations in the US and India that can make intellectual contributions, maintain useful facilities, and form collaborative partnerships to address specific projects in a strategic and complementing fashion; (4) To prepare and submit higher quality and higher impact collaborative research proposals to the funding agencies in the US and India, including the US National Science Foundation and India's Department of Science & Technology; and (5) To facilitate and reaffirm a research agenda and foster continued collaboration among US and India researchers through periodic workshops and conferences.
Participants will include an appropriate balance of senior level leaders in the field, junior faculty, graduate students, and participants from diverse background, including minorities and underrepresented groups. Additionally, particular attention will be focused on the participant's willingness to collaborate on a variety of topics across international boundaries. Extensive information exchange among the selected participants will occur prior to the Workshop. The workshop program will focus on confirming the research priorities and identifying specific research projects that can be pursued immediately and forming partnerships to pursue specific research projects and prepare collaborative research proposals.
The workshop will identify US-India research priorities to address a wide range of issues dealing with global sustainable development. Specific high quality and high impact research projects will be identified. Collaborative partnerships will be formed that can exploit combined expertise and resources to pursue the identified projects. After the workshop, the key discussions and outcomes (research priorities and collaborative partnerships) will be posted on the workshop website and published as a Geotechnical Special Publication (GSP) by ASCE/GI, which will be available for world-wide distribution.
On November 7, 2010, the first US-India Workshop on Global Geoenvironmental Engineering Challenges was held in New Delhi, India. The Workshop was held in conjunction with the 6th International Congress on Environmental Geotechnics (6ICEG), a conference held every four years under the sponsorship of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). The workshop was the first event organized under the 2008 cooperative agreement between the Geo-Institute (GI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Indian Geotechnical Society (IGS). A total of 17 U.S.-based participants, including leaders from academia and practice, met with their 20 Indian counterparts for the one-day workshop. After a preliminary introductory session where participants discussed their research interests and expertise, several key research initiatives were addressed, including sustainable waste management, green and sustainable remediation, renewable/alternative energy, and global climate change and greenhouse gases. These topics were discussed with respect to the respective points of view from the U.S. and Indian participants. Although the participants held a wide range of areas of interest and, at times, divergent perspectives regarding what research initiatives should be pursued, several specialized research topics were agreed upon in "breakout sessions". Research teams were formed, and procedures and timelines were also discussed regarding the pursuit and progress of the research proposals; including reporting expectations, facilities and field sites available for laboratory work and pilot testing, and the protocols to solicit funding from appropriate governmental and non-governmental agencies in both the United States and India. Formal research proposals are expected to be prepared during the coming year. Following a session in which these research partnerships were discussed and finalized, the participants took a field trip to the Okhla landfill. This uncontrolled landfill located in the midst of a residential neighborhood, which first began to receive waste in the middle 1990s, exhibits several operational challenges or deficiencies not commonly seen in the west. Some of these include the absence of a leachate collection system, a methane/landfill gas collection system, or the use of daily cover. Additionally, no operational provisions are in place for waste diversion or segregation. Virtually all of the workshop participants agreed that the field trip provided an important context of the Geoenvironmental issues faced in India and other places in the developing world. The Workshop was especially important and productive because of the unique perspectives of the two participating countries on the current state of Geoenvironmental Engineering practice. As the global technological and economic leader, the United States has established many state-of-the-art practices and technologies across the field of Geoenvironmental Engineering. Yet, many of these practices may not be directly transferrable or applicable to the needs of developing countries. As in many developing nations, Geoenvironmental researchers and professionals in India have developed practices and solutions to meet the unique Geoenvironmental challenges faced in India. Many of these practices will be very useful to meet the needs and challenges of other developing nations. By combining the perspectives of participants from both countries, researchers and professionals can collaborate and develop an understanding of the Geoenvironmental challenges and needs of the developing world. Through combined efforts, researchers and professionals will have an increased ability to meet these challenges and mitigate the global effects of these challenges.
