Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability means enabling the earth to continue supporting human life. Among the strain being placed on the earth, the increasing exploitation of natural resources is certainly included. Nowadays, the availability of natural high-quality soil to be used as construction materials is fully limited; soils are nonrenewable resources and, as such, the challenge of reusing whatever soils, in nature and geomechanical characteristics, involved within the earthwork site projects should be faced by sustainable civil engineering. Moreover, soil stabilization technologies ought to be applied in such a way that they do not induce an adverse environmental effect. By fulfilling this requirement, the reuse of geowaste material or the introduction of industrial by-products as stabilizers may be considered, as well.

This Special Issue seeks contributions in the field of Geotechnical Engineering in selecting ways to reuse soil and aims to discuss the possible reuse/recycling actions to obtain material to be reused in the production cycle starting from the unsuitable, low-quality excavated soil. In general, the studies that will be selected for publication in this Special Issue, following a rigorous peer-review process, could address all kinds of non-renewable soil resources, including stabilization techniques.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Advanced geotechnical characterization of soil as nonrenewable resources;
• Stabilization of excavated soil or solid waste materials (by selected binders, addition of production scraps, geogrids, geofiber and so on);
• Micro- and macroscale characterization of the changes induced by stabilization;
• Use of mechanically stabilized soils in earthmoving works;
• Reuse of polluted or contaminated soil;
• Improvement strategies for problematic soils (e.g., soils susceptible of liquefaction, quick/sensitive clays, expansive soils);
• Field-monitoring of stabilized constructions (embankments and earthworks in general) during installation or operation stages;
• Case histories of integrated systems of soil management (e.g., infrastructure projects, landfills construction…);
• Life cycle analysis and assessment for civil construction considering soil reuse.

Dr. Marco Rosone
Dr. Marta Di Sante
Prof. Clara Celauro
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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• Nonrenewable soil resource
• Mechanical stabilization of soils
• Recycling materials
• Testing materials
• Microstructural and chemical changes
• Field-monitoring
• Environmental assessment