Geotechnical News • December 2015
55
GEOSYNTHETICS
Jonathan Fannin, Editor
Professor of Civil Engineering, University of British Columbia
In gathering my thoughts for the
content of this column, it is a pleasure
to reflect on the steady progress of the
Technical Committees of the Inter-
national Geosynthetics Society (IGS
TC). The IGS is a learned-society ded-
icated to the scientific and engineering
development of geosynthetics, with
over 3,000 individual members and
more than 150 corporate members. In
reflecting on the role of such a learned
society, I am reminded of the words of
John F. Kennedy who, in a speech at
Harvard University in 1956, observed
it to be a place
“whose whole pur-
pose is dedicated to the advancement
of knowledge and dissemination of
truth”
. Learned societies, like the
IGS, can and indeed should aspire to a
similar purpose.
The IGS technical committees were
created under the leadership of Jorge
Zornberg as IGS President, at the 9
th
International Conference on Geo-
sythetics, in 2010. They were created
to improve communication amongst
members with specific technical
interests and, in so doing, build upon
the generally high level of techni-
cal excellence that is evident in the
IGS-sponsored conferences proceed-
ings, short courses and journals. The
mandate is to address technical issues
on which progress can be made, and
findings disseminated, through the
collaboration of an international group
of researchers and practitioners. In
principle, they operate by facilitating
communication between members and
with the geosynthetics community
at-large.
IGS Technical committees
The technical committees provide a
forum for refinement and exchange of
knowledge in each of the following
applications:
• Technical Committee on Barrier
Systems (TC-B), which was tasked
initially with centralizing a number
of activities in the subject of waste
and liquid impoundments
• Technical Committee on Filtra-
tion (TC-F), first conceived with a
focus on filtration, in recognition
of the very successful series of
Geofilters conferences that were
organized in the period 1992 to
2004
• Technical Committee on Soil
Reinforcement (TC-R), originally
intended to build on the success-
ful activities of the former TC9 of
the International Society of Soil
Mechanics and Geotechnical Engi-
neering (ISSMGE)
A fourth committee has been newly-
created:
• Technical Committee on Hydrau-
lic Applications (TC-H), with
interests that encompass drainage,
erosion control, and coastal protec-
tion.
Three of the committees convened
recently at the XVI European Confer-
ence on Soil Mechanics and Geo-
technical Engineering that was held
at Edinburgh in September 2015. I
take this opportunity to report on the
activities of those committees at the
conference.
Please share this
article with
colleagues and
professional
contacts using
geosynthetics, who
may wish to
contribute to the
success of the IGS
Technical
Committees.
The TC-B is chaired by Kent von
Mauberge (Austria). A growing focus
of the committee is to disseminate
information to government agencies
and regulators, and the committee is
developing a strategy to distribute
published conference papers of inter-
est through the IGS and its respective
chapters. These efforts are being made
in tandem with promoting technical
sessions on the subject of barrier sys-
tems at upcoming conferences, at both
the national and international level.
The TC-B is currently developing an
Jonathan Fannin
