5:15 PM - 7:15 PM
[HRE13-P04] A proposal toward for the collaboration between engineering geology and geotechnical engineering: Popularization of basic geology
Keywords:Collaboration between engineering geology and geotechnical engineering, Popularization of basic geology, Mitigation of landslide disaster caused by heavy rain fall, Geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste, A way to express of 3-D geological structures, A course to train the parataxonomist for rocks and minerals
Recently, heavy rain fall has repeatedly occurred every year associated with global warming, resulting in landslide disaster. Whereas it may be inevitable that unexpectedly high total and hourly rain fall could eventually cause flooding of rivers and debris flow, questions remain about whether construction of houses and design of roads, which was conducted in the areas of high risk of natural hazards, was reasonable. On the other hand, in the world-wide effort towards the Carbon Neutral, there is an urgent request for advancing the researches on geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) as well as those on Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS), because it is prerequisite for the nuclear power restart. Furthermore, the exploration for renewable energies such as geothermal energy and offshore wind power generation, which are alternative energies to fossil fuels, has been advancing. These natural disaster prevention, geological disposal of HLW, CCS and exploration of geothermal energy can be conducted with engineering geology as basic sciences. As mentioned above, while the demand for engineering geology has recently been increasing, human resources to solve these issues have not been developed. In this situation, the Japanese Geotechnical Society made a proposal called “Collaboration between engineering geology and geotechnical engineering -a proposal from the Japanese Geotechnical Society -” (July, 2023). Although the proposal was made from the fact that people in the field of engineering geology and geotechnical engineering have not fully collaborated with each other to mitigate ground disaster, the increase in the demand for these disciplines and the crisis of human resources mentioned above is another reason why the proposal was made.
I have been engaged with education and researches at geology department (now renamed as department of earth and planetary sciences) at plural universities for a long time. Although my researches at universities were not directly related to engineering geology but purely scientific ones, my former students acquired jobs at companies and government offices dealing with it other than academic positions in the field of geology. I myself have been also working as an advisor at a constructing and geological company after my retirement from the university. Through these experiences, I have been always thinking how we can solve the problems of deviation between the people working on engineering geology and geotechnical engineering and crisis of geology education. As a result, I have reached the conclusion that only what I can do as individuals to solve these problems is to make efforts to popularize the basic knowledge of geology. As a matter of fact, the popularization of various disciplines has a big power to improving the academic level of these among a nation. For example, in the Unites States, geology and geography are intimate subjects to the people in them, partly because magazines and TV broadcasting of the National Geographic are very influential. Similarly, the Geopark program which started in Europe in 1990’s has played a big role in popularizing geological sciences in European people.
The collaboration between the people working on engineering geology and geotechnical engineering should start from learning mutual disciplines. I have recently been conducting geological excursion in fields, sandbox experiments to lean the formation processes of reverse faults and folds and those to express 3-D geological structures on the surface of styrofoam (Takahashi, 2017) to teach geology to beginners. Furthermore, I taught a beginner course to train the parataxonomist of minerals and rocks to general citizens immediately after my retirement, where I learned that quite a many people are in fact interested in geology. Therefore, from now on, it is very important to patiently continue to teach such courses to general citizens, by which it could be possible to enhance the level of knowledges about e.g. natural disaster prevention and geological disposal of HLW.
I have been engaged with education and researches at geology department (now renamed as department of earth and planetary sciences) at plural universities for a long time. Although my researches at universities were not directly related to engineering geology but purely scientific ones, my former students acquired jobs at companies and government offices dealing with it other than academic positions in the field of geology. I myself have been also working as an advisor at a constructing and geological company after my retirement from the university. Through these experiences, I have been always thinking how we can solve the problems of deviation between the people working on engineering geology and geotechnical engineering and crisis of geology education. As a result, I have reached the conclusion that only what I can do as individuals to solve these problems is to make efforts to popularize the basic knowledge of geology. As a matter of fact, the popularization of various disciplines has a big power to improving the academic level of these among a nation. For example, in the Unites States, geology and geography are intimate subjects to the people in them, partly because magazines and TV broadcasting of the National Geographic are very influential. Similarly, the Geopark program which started in Europe in 1990’s has played a big role in popularizing geological sciences in European people.
The collaboration between the people working on engineering geology and geotechnical engineering should start from learning mutual disciplines. I have recently been conducting geological excursion in fields, sandbox experiments to lean the formation processes of reverse faults and folds and those to express 3-D geological structures on the surface of styrofoam (Takahashi, 2017) to teach geology to beginners. Furthermore, I taught a beginner course to train the parataxonomist of minerals and rocks to general citizens immediately after my retirement, where I learned that quite a many people are in fact interested in geology. Therefore, from now on, it is very important to patiently continue to teach such courses to general citizens, by which it could be possible to enhance the level of knowledges about e.g. natural disaster prevention and geological disposal of HLW.