alive and well - Geological Society of Australia

Special ReportEngineering geology in Australia —alive and wellIt was nice to see engineering geology get a mention in thelast issue of TAG (Engineering Geology: a loss of identity problem— by Greg McNally, TAG 163). But after reading the articlewe would, if we didn’t know any better, have come away thinkingthis was a discipline on its last legs, fixed in the past, about togo the same way as a house on quick clay. However, based onour recent experience, engineering geology is actually thriving inAustralia, and contrary to Greg’s somewhat bleak assessment, thefuture of the practice looks exceedingly bright. The underlyingacademic training on the other hand is in dire straits.In his article, Greg raises many good points. In particular weagree that the recent tendency of some government agencies towithhold geological interpretation reports from contractors andtenderers out of fear of expensive legal claims needs someattention. Geological interpretation reports are a key output ofany ground investigation, and provide the rationale for thedesign. But the inherent uncertainty in geology opens the doorto contractual claims.The advent of alliance-style contracts, which spread the risksbetween parties, provides an effective means of dealing with thisuncertainty. These contracts are increasingly used where thegeology is a major risk. What to do about the storage anddissemination of the large amount of geological information obtainedfor construction projects, currently held by consultanciesand government departments, is also a significant issue. Of issuealso is the state of training of engineering geologists, and we saymore about these below.We found much of Greg’s article underplayed many positivedevelopments in engineering geology and did not gel with ourown experience; hence we felt an expanded point of view wouldbe worth the attention of TAG readers.Australian Geomechanics SocietyGreg suggests that there is no equivalent in Australia to theEngineering Group of the Geological Society of London. However,since the early 1970s the Australian Geomechanics Society (AGS)has filled this niche.The following extract from the AGS web site helps to demonstratewhy it is relevant to engineering geologists in Australia.There is little mystery to us why it better represents our professionalinterests, and when it comes to deciding where dollars arespent on professional memberships, there is little wonder why,for some engineering geologists, the AGS wins out over the GSA.While the third author (PF) let his membership of the GSA lapseover 10 years ago, he has maintained his AGS membership.The Australian Geomechanics Society was founded in 1970.Its origins lie in the National Committee of Soil Mechanics of theInstitution of Engineers, Australia [established in 1953] and thecall for a corresponding society in rock mechanics. In 1973 thesociety was expanded to include the third discipline of engineeringgeology and has remained substantially unchanged since thatdate.The society is affiliated with:n the International Society for Soil Mechanics and GeotechnicalEngineering (ISSMGE)n the International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM)n the International Association of Engineering Geology andthe Environment (IAEG).The AGS is jointly sponsored by the Institution of EngineersAustralia and the Australasian Institute of Mining andMetallurgy. (From http://australiangeomechanics.org/overview/)Publications and dataGreg laments the lack of articles dealing with engineering geologyin AJES, stating that there has not been “more than a handful ofpapers”. Based on our experience, however, there are many morethan a handful that are of interest to engineering geologists —but perhaps our definition of engineering geology is a littlebroader, reflecting the increased diversity of tasks we do now,compared to 20 years ago. The main forum for professional andacademic papers dealing with Engineering Geology in Australiahas for some time been the AGS journal Australian Geomechanics.Most engineering geologists in Australia publish their work here.Articles of international significance tend to be published inhigher profile journals such as Engineering Geology, Bulletin ofthe International Association of Engineering Geology and EnvironmentalEarth Sciences. Australian Geomechanics regularlypublishes special interest issues with articles focusing onparticular regions or subjects. For example, the March 2012edition focused on the Illawarra region of NSW. These specialeditions have largely replaced books like the Engineering Geologyof the Sydney Region (1985), which was also published by the AGS.Greg rightly indicates that there is no obligation on the partof consultancies to share clients’ borehole data. The notion, however,that the results of such investigations are not shared, issimply not true, as many papers in Australian Geomechanicsdemonstrate. Another avenue for sharing information is themonthly AGS meetings held in all capital cities and the ANZGeomechanics Conferences held every four yearsTAG September 2012| 31