Virtual soil bioengineering

摘要

Soil bioengineering (SB) consists of the application of natural materials like plants, wood and rocks on slopes and on riverbanks in order to stabilize and recover them. This discipline involves many of techniques which are integrated to produce a surrounding landscape with the minimum amount of artificial products, (concrete, steel, etc.) so that, sustainability is optimized. Dealing with natural systems, SB needs to input knowledge from several areas of science and is consequently a multidisciplinary field of study. Practitioners must possess a knowledge about such diverse areas as soil science, plant sociology, climatology and so forth. Because of this, SB interventions are still uncommon in the area of slope stabilization and there are still few practitioners trained to implement SB techniques. Accordingly, an internet Decision Supported System (DSS) is being developed to promote communications between all the people that could be involved in a SB intervention--practitioners, specialists in other areas, landlords, authorities, users, etc. Besides that, the DSS also intends to be a visualization tool, so that SB techniques can be easily discussed and disseminated. The DSS includes several databases (soil, flora, climate, costs, etc.) and a set of 3D SB techniques that were attached to a Digital Terrain Model in an online virtual world. In parallel the DSS'users are presented with a soil erosion estimation model that will help them to choose the most appropriate SB techniques.