The role of geotechnical engineering in sustainable and resilient cities

Abstract. Geotechnical engineering is a fundamental subject in civil and environmental engineering that engineers are required to refer to when any type of retrotting, design or construction of projects and developments are encountered in a city or in a rural area. Indeed in many projects like geotechnical structures, such as earth dams, geotechnical engineering is the main subject. In this paper, the role of geotechnical engineering in sustainable and resilient cities is elaborated mainly through a series of questions and answers. Also, some related geotechnical engineering research, that is in hands in Civil Engineering Department of Sharif University, is discussed in this paper. A unique geotechnical engineering project that is designed and supervised in the city of Tehran by the author is also introduced herein to indicate how an accurate design and construction of a geotechnical structure can result in a sustainable and resilient condition. However, due to the variety of the subjects involved under the title of the paper, some of the subjects are touched brie y.