Environmental Engineering
Building with plant material
THEEnvironmental Engineering It is a technical-scientific discipline that studies the ways of using, as a building material, living plant material (plants or parts of them) in combination with other inert materials non-cement such as stone, earth, wood, steel, as well as in combination with mats made of vegetable or synthetic fibres.
The historical scope of application of this discipline is the prevention of hydrogeological instability and therefore the material finds wide application in operations of consolidation, stabilization, hydraulics, drainage and renaturalization of the land with a view to protecting against erosion, development of natural environments, as well as landscape protection and mitigation of the environmental impact also for the purpose of reintegrating places and infrastructures.
When dealing with a Naturalistic Engineering operation, there are some recurring elements that are used, which differ from more traditional interventions.
It begins with the analysis of the topographic and climatic characteristics of each surface subject to intervention, then the soil is examined in relation to the chemical, physical, hydrological and geomorphological characteristics; a phase of floristic and vegetative study follows, paying attention to the possible presence of botanical species and rare seeds, and also evaluating the biotechnical characteristics of the species themselves, their capacity and speed of growth, of adaptation to the environment, and also to their possible availability on the market.
We then move on to evaluating the possible presence of existing infrastructures. After this first analysis, we arrive at the study of the use of the new materials that will be used, with the relative selection of the plant species to be used and possible transplants of turf. Then we evaluate the type of environmental and naturalistic reinsertion, trying to improve the area by masking the artificial elements of the work.
Among the advantages of the methods used by Bioengineering are…Read the full article ►
Sources and Useful Links:
http://www.isprambiente.gov.it/it
Ichthyocompatible hydraulic interventions – guidelines (25.2 Mb)
