Photo opportunity 7.50pm, Thursday 18 July, Discovery Point, Dundee.
The effect of the new Jubilee line extension in London; whether Naples' ancient buildings can cope with an underground system; and the likelihood of a metro system under Amsterdam's apartments are being discussed by an international group of young geotechnical engineers at the University of Dundee this week.
Niklas Franzins (28) from Germany is developing models of the effect that the Jubilee line extension is having on the buildings above in London to assess whether precautionary measures to protect the buildings need to be taken in future. Engineers constructing the extension have made provision for changes to the buildings expecting tunnelling to have a major impact but Niklas' data will show that in future they may not have to put such precautions in place when tunnelling under London.
Emilio Bilotta from the University of Naples is applying the most caution as he is assessing the effects of an underground system on the ancient monuments in Naples. He is using a centrifuge to assess and record movement and the likely consequences overground of tunnelling to construct the new transport system. Esve Jacobsz is using similar techniques to study effects of tunnelling in Amsterdam.
Although not commonly heard of, these geotechnical engineers have a pivotal role to play in environmental and transport policy - contributing significantly to the debate on whether our cities should be moving to underground transport systems to cut down on pollution and whether the structure of our cities can handle this move underground.
But the conference this week at the University of Dundee is entitled "Diversity in Geotechnics and will share the whole range of fields that geotechnicians are involved in.
The Geotechnical Engineering Research Group in the School of Engineering is hosting this seventh Young Geotechnical Engineers' Symposium organised by Dr Fraser Bransby at the University's West Park Conference Centre.
Contact Professor Michael Davies 01382 348327