Geotechnical Engineering for the Preservation of Monuments and Historic Sites (2013)

Uploaded At: 01 May 2024

The Technical Committee on Preservation of Monuments and Historic Sites was established by the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering in 1981 with the mark TC19. It was renamed TC301 in 2010, and it is the first of a group of Technical Committees related to the impact of Geotechnical Engineering on society.

TC301 is intended to provide a forum for interchange of ideas and discussion, to collect case histories and to promote and diffuse the culture of conservation within the geotechnical community. More specifically, it focuses on geotechnical factors affecting historic sites, monuments and cities. TC301 searches for design criteria and construction methods of our ancestors, and reports on specific techniques adopted to preserve ancient sites and constructions. TC301 should also select special requirements and constraints to be considered in any rehabilitation intervention on monuments in order to preserve their cultural and historical integrity.

The Committee is supported by the Italian Geotechnical Society (AGI); it has been chaired in the past by Jean Kerisel (France, 1981–1984), Arrigo Croce (Italy, 1985–1989), Ruggiero Jappelli (Italy, 1990– 1994), Carlo Viggiani (Italy, 1995–2003; 2009 to present). Yoshimori Iwasaki, Japan, acts as vice chairman and Alessandro Flora, Italy, is the secretary.

Among its terms of reference for the period 2010–2013, the Committee included the production of guidelines and a theme Conference to share experiences and research on the Preservation of Monuments and Historic Sites.

Conservation is actually one of the most challenging problems facing modern civilization. It involves a number of factors belonging to different fields (cultural, humanistic, social, technical, economical and administrative), intertwining in inextricable patterns. The complexity of the topic is such that it is difficult to imagine guidelines or recommendations summarizing what should be done and prescribing activities to carry on, intervention techniques, design approaches. Instead of this ambitious undertaking, the Committee resolved to produce a volume, Geotechnics and Heritage, collecting a number of relevant case histories of the role of Geotechnical Engineering in the preservation of monuments and historic sites. It is offered as a collection of paradigmatic examples which may inspire the geotechnical engineer dealing with monuments and historic sites, suggesting an approach rather than a solution. The volume is now available at Taylor & Francis.

The final decision to organize the theme conference was taken in Rome in May 2011, during a meeting of TC301. It was agreed to hold it in Napoli (Italy) where a first conference on the same topic, dedicated to the memory of Arrigo Croce, had already been held in 1997.

After a process of peer reviewing, more than 80 papers have been accepted, reporting experiences on some of the most famous monuments and historic sites of the world. This volume contains all of them, and includes also the special and keynote lectures presented in Napoli.

The Symposium has been organized to report on the progress of our community in the development of a culture of conservation and preservation of heritage. It has shown that, in a period in which future seems to absorb all the efforts and resources of the mankind, there are people who do care about our past and its preservation. This confirms the statement by Edmund Burke (1790), in his famous “Reflection on the revolution in France”: “People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors”.

New ideas and fruitful discussion have come up. For instance, since many relevant sites are located in highly seismic areas, the issue of the seismic risk mitigation has been clearly put forward.

The Symposium would not have been possible without the hard work of the Scientific and Organizing Committees, as well as of Claudio Soccodato, secretary of AGI. The contribution of all people involved is gratefully acknowledged.

Geotechnical Engineering for the Preservation of Monuments and Historic Sites