Soil stabilisation using native vegetation

Civil engineering is in the challenging situation of trying to discover cost effective, reliable, and sustainable methods for ground improvement to meet the current demands needed for infrastructure facilities. The concepts of green corridors or vegetation induced ground improvement are more effective techniques than other ground improvement methods because trees increase the matric suction of the soil subgrade beneath the substructure via root water uptake in conjunction with the evapo-transpiration of their canopy. Moreover, the root network of trees provides a significant mechanical reinforcement as well as an additional cohesive incre-ment as their hair roots generate osmotic suction. This paper presents the requirement of an advanced shear strength model that captures and combines the effect of root reinforcement with osmotic and matric suction components generated in the soil via the naturally coupled osmotic evapo-transpiration phenomenon.