Root Reinforcement: Measurement and Modeling is designed to equip interdisciplinary geohazard researchers with the tools and confidence needed to effectively incorporate vegetation into engineering designs. By offering clear guidance on quantifying root reinforcement, the book emphasizes both practical measurement techniques and the interpretation of data for predicting changes in soil properties. It addresses the complexities inherent in soil-plant interactions, ensuring that readers can collect reliable data and apply modeling principles. This resource serves as a bridge for those newer to the field, promoting collaboration and fostering standardized approaches across diverse research backgrounds.
The book systematically reviews predictive models developed over the past five decades, offering executable code to facilitate hands-on application for both researchers and practitioners. The text highlights the multi-scale, multi-agent nature of vegetation’s role in slope stability and underscores the need for interdisciplinary collaboration. By exposing gaps in standardization and classification, the book advocates for greater consistency in research methods, making it a valuable reference for advancing the field.
Part I: Introduction
1. Introduction Relevance and a brief history of research on root
reinforcement, structure of the book, access to online supplementary
material, e.g. code snippets, Python packages
2. An overview of soil mechanics Important concepts in soil mechanics, i.e.
stress, displacement, strength, and flow
3. Soil-root interaction Physical mechanisms of soil-root interaction at
individual roots, root-soil bonding, root-soil composite will be explained.
This key chapter will form how the next parts are organized
Part II: Measurement
4. Individual roots Tests and measurements conducted on individual roots or
groups of roots. Root tensile tests, bending tests, biotic parameters
5. Root-soil bonding Experiments, under laboratory or field conditions, to
determine the strength of the root-soil bonding. Slippage and breakage
mechanisms
6. Root-soil composite Experiments, under laboratory or field conditions, to
determine the strength of the root-soil composite, e.g. direct shear,
triaxial, centrifuge testing, as well as tests and monitoring of hydrological
regime of root-permeated soils
Part III: Modelling
7. Individual roots Biomechanics, variability, multi-tissue models, single
root in direct shear, bending reinforcement
8. Root-soil bonding Root pull-out, transverse loading
9. Root-soil composite hydrological models Permeability, infiltration, soil
water retention, root water uptake, soil suction
10. Root-soil composite analytical mechanical models Fibre bundle models,
Root bundle models, Dundee root anaytical model
11. Root-soil composite constitutive models Phase relationships, single
constitutive models for rooted soil, composite models, coupling
12. Root system Root distributions with depth, root distributions with
distance to plant stem
13. Slope stability Infinite slope, Bishop circles, limit state analysis,
SOSlope, finite element analysis.
14. Catchment Large-scale landslide risk assessment, TRIGRS, SlideforMap
Anil Yildiz works as a lecturer at the chair of Methods of Model-based Development in Computational Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Germany, and he is leading the research group Engineering Climate Change Response. He earned his BSc. and MSc. degrees in Civil Engineering at Bogazici University, and obtained his Dr. sc. in Civil Engineering from ETH Zurich in 2018. He has been awarded the Culmann Prize 2019 for an outstanding thesis on the quantification of biological effects on soil stability. His research focusses mainly on geohazards, covering a wide range of topics, such as shallow landslides, root reinforcement, soil-plant-atmosphere interactions, and methods, such as complex laboratory and field testing as well as computational and surrogate modelling. Gerrit Meijer is a lecturer in geotechnical engineering at the University of Bath. He has a BSc., MSc. (both Delft University of Technology) and PhD (University of Dundee, 2016) degree in Civil Engineering. With over a decade of experience with field test, laboratory tests and modelling of root-reinforced soil, he aims streamline the integration of nature-based solutions into engineering design by developing innovative measurement techniques (e.g., corkscrew testing) and practical, physics-based models (e.g., DRAM, generic fibre bundle models).
