Loess is a product of aeolian deposition during the Quaternary glaciation cycles and covers approximately 6% of the Earth’s land. The Loess Plateau of China, which is home to a population of nearly three hundred million, has the thickest and most complete loess strata, where loess geohazards occur most frequently due to the weak geoenvironment and dense human activities. In recent years, the engineering geological characteristics of loess and geohazards in loess areas have gradually received increasing attention from academic researchers. This book reviews an informative collection of up-to-date literature in this field. It presents the unique features of loess and loess geohazards, and provides a strong foundation for future study via eight systematically structured chapters, e.g., origin and spatial distribution, loess landforms, microstructure, physical properties, permeability, shear strength, tensile strength, and loess geohazard. It can serve as a principal reference for researchers, practical engineers and technicians who are engaged in loess geology and surface processes, and is suitable especially for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the field of loess engineering geology.

Loess is a product of aeolian deposition during the Quaternary glaciation cycles and covers approximately 6% of the Earth’s land. The Loess Plateau of China, which is home to a population of nearly three hundred million, has the thickest and most complete loess strata, where loess geohazards occur most frequently due to the weak geoenvironment and dense human activities. In recent years, the engineering geological characteristics of loess and geohazards in loess areas have gradually received increasing attention from academic researchers. This book reviews an informative collection of up-to-date literature in this field. It presents the unique features of loess and loess geohazards, and provides a strong foundation for future study via eight systematically structured chapters, e.g., origin and spatial distribution, loess landforms, microstructure, physical properties, permeability, shear strength, tensile strength, and loess geohazard. It can serve as a principal reference for researchers, practical engineers and technicians who are engaged in loess geology and surface processes, and is suitable especially for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the field of loess engineering geology.

The distribution, deposition, composition and texture of loess in China is studied. Based on on-the-spot investigations, Loess and the Environment supplies information on: the loess-paleosol time sequence, loess fabric, and geological events derived from studying biological relics. Proceeding from the loess environmental system, the climatic fluctuation sequence of different scales has been reconstructed, and the whole process of eolian loess accumulation and its relationship with modern silt dust, water and soil conservation, engineering geology, agricultural soil as well as local diseases are discussed.

This edited volume contains the best papers in the geo-engineering field accepted for presentation at the 1st Springer Conference of the Arabian Journal of Geosciences, Tunisia 2018. In addition, it includes 3 keynotes by international experts on the following topics: 1. A new three-dimensional rock mass strength criterion 2. New tools and techniques of remote sensing for geologic hazard assessment 3. Land subsidence induced by the engineering-environmental effects in Shanghai China The book is useful for readers who would like to get a broad coverage in geo-engineering. It contains 11 chapters covering the following main areas: (a) Applications in geo-environmental engineering including soil remediation, (b) Characterization of geo-materials using geological, geotechnical and geophysical techniques, (c) Soil improvement applications, (d) Soil behaviour under dynamic loading, (e) Recent studies on expansive soils, (f) Analytical and numerical modelling of various geo-structures, (g) Slope stability, (h) Landslides, (i) Subsidence studies and (j) Recent studies on various other types of geo-hazards.

This book is the first to systematically explore experimental erosion by integrating theory, erosion observations, and conservation applications. Although numerous books have been published on soil erosion both in English and in Chinese, none has concentrated on experimental studies on the Loess Plateau of China, in an attempt to establish a new sub-discipline: experimental erosion. One main objective of this book is to highlight monitoring and modeling methods for soil scientists who design and conduct experimental studies on soil loss. Another objective, and the most important one, is to make the results of these experiments more generally available. Accordingly, we have gathered and integrated a broad range of experimental results, both published and unpublished. In-depth discussions of the experimental data and new data processing methods are also included. The work covered here represents exemplary studies in the field of soil erosion and conservation, while the new methods and findings presented will provide practical guidance for controlling soil erosion. Hence the book offers a valuable resource for graduate students, soil erosion scientists and engineers, and soil and water conservationists.

A lavishly illustrated study of landslides and debris flows on theLoess Plateau of north-central China where dense rural populationand human activity has greatly increased landslide hazard. The Loess Plateau lies in the middle reaches of the Yellow Riverand there are a number of cities housing more than a millionpeople. Landslides are triggered by heavy rainstorms andearthquakes have been a recurrent hazard in the loess terrain forover two millennia. The contributors to this book set out with a number of goalsincluding: * establishing the role of bedrock relief in landsliding * studying the nature of the hydrological system within the loessslopes * characterising the modes of failure of the loess fabric * producing a dynamically-based classification of loesslandslides * 'ultimately' establishing criteria for a simple warning systemfor loess slope failure, together with an advisory scheme for localpopulation response to landslide warnings. This book includes over forty colour maps unique in their contentand coverage, showing for the first time the detailed distributionof landslides in the thick loess terrain of eastern Gansu Province,North China.