Reconciling Deterioration and Failure of Soil with Ecological Restoration

Dear Colleagues,

Land degradation, particularly through erosion and landslides, is among the most threatening natural hazards for humanity all over the world. Beside conventional engineering methods, soil bioengineering is gaining in importance to simultaneously tackle protection measures and ecological restoration, by applying particularly living as well as auxiliary material and components. With the corresponding methods, technical goals such as slope or bank erosion control and stabilisation as well as ecological goals such as restoring a fully functional plant community or controlling invasive species are sustainably achieved. Thus, soil bioengineering does not merely provide solutions for soil stabilisation and erosion control but also supports environmentally compatible renaturation and restoration in sensitive areas. The general concept of these nature-based solutions is to mimic natural structures and their development processes by taking advantage of specific plant characteristics (plant growth, root strength, competitive ability, etc.). Working on the edge of geoscience, soil mechanics, hydrology, hydraulics and ecology, it seems essential to identify and quantify the dynamic interaction processes between the biological and hydro-mechanical geosystem components in terms of slope stabilisation and erosion protection and ecological restoration measures.

This Special Issue of Sustainability solicits articles that present new concepts and methods as well as case studies in the field of soil bioengineering to shed light on topics like the influence of vegetation on the soil water erosion rate and on soil resistance to water erosion; slope and riverbank stability enhancement by root reinforcement; control of invasive species; use of soil bioengineering techniques in ecological compensation; conservation or restoration measures as well as any soil bioengineering work and innovative approaches for its qualitative or quantitative assessment. The general objective is to exchange knowledge of research and applied work from the entire field of soil bioengineering. Contributions addressing questions within the above-mentioned frame are strongly encouraged. Both practical applications of corresponding systems as well as fundamental studies are welcome.

We would like to create a forum of experts from different fields to share their experiences in the subject of soil bioengineering, to get an overview on the state of the art, and to identify future research challenges.

Prof. Dr. Johann Peter Rauch
Dr. Magdalena Von Der Thannen
Dr. Andre Evette
Dr. Frank Graf
Guest Editors

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• soil bioengineering
• nature based solutions
• slope stabilization
• riverbank
• ecological restoration