The XXX Italian National Conference on Geosynthetics was held on 15 October 2020 in Bologna alongside the large construction fair SAIE 2020. Despite the difficult period experienced in Italy with Covid-19, the event produced excellent results in the number attendees and in the quality of presented papers.
The conference theme was “Performance of Materials and Structures” and concerned the use of geosynthetics for civil, geotechnical, and environmental engineering applications.
The conference was organised by the Italian Geotechnical Association (AGI) and by the Italian Chapter of the International Geosynthetics Society (AGI-IGS), in partnership with BolognaFiere and SENAF, under the auspices of the National Engineers Council (CNI) and the University of Bologna.
XXX ITALIAN NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON GEOSYNTHETICS
The SAIE Exhibition provides an international reference point for all facets of construction in Italy, which enhanced the importance and impact of geosynthetics presentations in this context.
The day-long geosynthetics conference was divided into two sessions. Daniele Cazzuffi (AGI-IGS President and IGS Past President) chaired the morning session, introducing the keynote lecture and the five presentations.
The keynote was presented by Jean-Pierre Gourc (Emeritus Professor at the University Grenoble Alpes in France), who focused on the performance of “alive” earthworks with geosynthetics after several decades of service.
The other five contributions to the morning session were devoted to the performance of geosynthetics used as a barrier in dams at high elevation on the Alps and in agricultural greenhouse structures, as erosion control in slopes and embankments, as drainage systems, and as reinforcement in bituminous pavements.
Nicola Moraci (AGI President) opened the afternoon session with the presentation of the AGI-IGS Award for the best thesis on Geosynthetics Engineering discussed in the last two years in an Italian University. The winner was Emanuele Fiorenza (Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria) with a Master’s Degree thesis on the “Validation of Theoretical Models for the Evaluation of Pull-out Behaviour of Geosynthetics.”
Prossimo appuntamento: Saie Bari 21 – 23 ottobre 2021