LAUSR

Environmental geotechnics is commonly confused with geoenvironmental engineering, and the two fields are often regarded as the same. The former consists of an adjective, ‘environmental’, and a noun, ‘geotechnics’. Environmental geotechnics may be defined as the application of geotechnical engineering for solving environmental problems. Geoenvironmental engineering, on the other hand, consists of a new word ‘geoenvironmental’ and is a new discipline consisting of geotechnical and environmental engineering. Not all environmental problems can be solved using geotechnical engineering. A major part of environmental geotechnics involves the disposal of wastes in the ground or on the ground (Fang and Daniels, 2006; Mitchell and Filz, 1995). Wastes can also be disposed by ejecting them into space (Coopersmith, 1999) or by discharging them into the sea or ocean (Redfield and Walford, 1951). In these instances, environmental geotechnics is not involved.