In the field of long-term (and now melting) permafrost, scientific and various other interests have mixed. There is a problem, there is no catastrophe yet, but this situation is often presented as frightening.

For example, some representatives of big politics are interested in the catastrophizing. For instance, in March, the Internet was flooded with photographs of flowering cherry trees. They say that the trees bloomed too early due to the climate warming; there are too many people and equipment and they overheat the planet.

The idea of a methane catastrophe is also periodically exaggerated. They say that the organic matter accumulated in antiquity and conserved in the permafrost will begin to decompose and tons of greenhouse gases will be released into the atmosphere due to the thawing of the permafrost. But this is just a hypothesis, and probably false one. The scientists of the State Hydrological Institute of Roshydromet have repeatedly refuted it.

Now some media are "dispersing" the idea of a possible large-scale destruction of civil and industrial structures due to the thawing of the permafrost.

The editorial stuff of the Geoinfo journal became interested in this topic regarding the next questions. How do large Russian companies solve engineering problems so that the situation does not really turn into a disaster? What tasks arise when building new construction objects, reconstructing and strengthening old ones in the zone of permafrost? And who is responsible for solving those problems?

A new motor road between Moscow and Kazan is promised to be opened on the 20th of December in 2023. That highway is a part of the “Europe – Western China” federal project for the development of automobile communication.

Now everything is being done to make this event happen no matter what. All expected and unexpected obstacles are steadily eliminated, in particular karst voids encountered by the builders in the Nizhny Novgorod Region and Tatarstan.

For the sake of the construction victory, financing is promptly adjusted. Of course, something has to be sacrificed. For example, the builders do not have time to build the roadside infrastructure, to equip agricultural routes, to issue primary documentation, which is constantly pointed out to them by the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation.

The M-12 highway is the record holder in terms of speed in all respects such as in terms of cost growth (by 30% of the original figure) and in terms of putting in commission (a third ahead of schedule). In some sections of the highway, automobiles will have a velocity of up to 150 km/h, which will allow you to travel all the way from Moscow to Kazan in six hours instead of twelve hours. You won't even have to stop to pay for the fare on this autobahn because the information from transponders will be read on the go.

The correspondent of the Geoinfo journal has studied the history of the construction of the M-12 highway, has read the report of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, and has asked some experts about what happens when karst cavities are discovered, how it affects constructing roads (in particular constructing the new highway between Moscow and Kazan), what tasks to be solved by the engineers.

The ”Geoinfo” journal has already published several papers on the creation of “sponge cities” in accordance with the conceptual model of construction or modernization of cities to protect against floods and to improve the environmental friendliness of the urban environment. This model was proposed in China in the beginning of the XXI century. Some elements of it have been used in urban planning before. But the entire realization of it involves the implementation of something like the natural water cycle within a total city due to a stable comprehensive drainage system. The rainfall runoff in such a system is not discharged into watercourses, but is captured over a large area by “sponge bodies” (such as soils, plants and urban landscape reservoirs) that give this water back through evaporation in hot weather and the air becomes cooler. If possible, the rainfall run-off is accumulated, stored, purified and used for urban needs during the dry season. Of course, the preliminary reclamation of urban water bodies and the maximal increase in their ability to self-purification are needed. This model has already been adopted by some megalopolises in the world.

Today, we present an adapted and slightly abridged translation of the report “Research on sponge city construction” [1] made at the 2nd Global Conference on Ecological Environment and Civil Engineering, which was held in 2020 in the city of Guangzhou (prov. Guangdong, China). The author of this paper is Honggang Chen who is a representative of Hangzhou Urban Land Development Co. Ltd. (Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China).

This report was published in the conferences information package “Earth and Environmental Science” by the publishing company “IOP Publishing” of the British scientific society “Institute of Physics” (IOP), which is now virtually international. This is an open access paper. It is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license that allows you to translate, adapt and use it for any purpose if you give a reference to the original source and information on the types of changes. In our case, the reference [1] is given at the beginning of the list of sources. The rest of the references from the list were used by the author of the translated report.

The author of the paper [1] presented a study of the creation of an eco-friendly city and proposed a model (within the framework of a more extensive model of a “sponge city”), which integrates the reclamation of water bodies and construction of eco-friendly “gray-green” infrastructure with the lowest possible negative impacts on the environment. This model can contribute to the coordinated development of new urban construction and its healthy environment that will bring great benefits to the society.

The Rocscience company, which was founded in 1996 on the basis of the University of Toronto in Canada, is one of the world leaders in the development, improvement and distribution of 2D and 3D software for civil engineers, mining engineers, engineering geologists, and geotechnical engineers. The web-site of this company has recently published the paper “Undrained analysis of a deep excavation in clayey soils using PLAXIS Hardening Soil model in RS2” [1], which is based on a case study. We bring to the readers’ attention an adapted and slightly abridged translation of this article [1] with the involvement of information from additional sources [2, 3, 5]. Sources [4, 6] were used by the authors of the translated paper.

Some consulting assistance in the preparation of the translation was provided by employees of Advanced Survey Technologies LLC that is the official representative of Rocscience in Russia.

Urbanized coastal areas are very vulnerable to the modern climate change and to the associated sea level rise. In this regard, we present to the readers an adapted and slightly abridged translation of the article “Determining the spatial vulnerability levels and typologies of coastal cities to climate change: case of Turkey” [1], which was once published in English by the WASET publisher (World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology) in the International Journal of Geological and Environmental Engineering. The authors of this paper are Mediha Burcu Silaydın Aydin and Emine Duygu Kahraman. They are specialists from the Department of City and Regional Planning of the Dokuz Eylul University (Izmir, Turkey). This article is in open access under the CC-BY-4.0 license, which allows you to copy, translate, adapt, alter and use it for any purpose (even commercial ones) provided that the types of changes are noted and the original source is referred to. In our case, the reference to the original paper [1] is given at the beginning of the list of references (sources [3–33] from that list were used by the authors of the translated article).

One of the important impacts of climate change is the sea level rise. Turkey is a peninsula, so the coastal areas of the country are threatened by the sea level rise. At the aim of enhancing spatial resilience of urbanized areas, this question arises: what should be the priority intervention subject in the urban planning process for a given city? To answer this question, by focusing on the problem of the sea level rise, this study aimed to determine spatial vulnerability typologies and levels of Turkey coastal cities based on morphological, physical and social characteristics. As a method, spatial vulnerability of the coastal cities was determined by two steps (for the level and type). Firstly, physical structure, morphological structure and social structure were examined in determining spatial vulnerability levels. By determining these levels, most vulnerable areas were revealed as a priority in adaptation studies. Secondly, all the parameters were also used to determine spatial typologies. The typologies were determined for the coastal cities in order to use as a base for urban planning studies.

The results demonstrated that the urban settlements located on the coasts of the Marmara Sea, Aegean Sea and Mediterranean Sea are more vulnerable than the cities located on the Black Sea coasts to the sea level rise.

Adaptation to the climate change is also crucial for other countries having coastal cities, so the approach used in this study could be useful for the leaders of territorial planning and urban development of these countries.

We present to the readers a slightly abridged and adapted translation of the report [1] on bibliographic studies of the influence of various erosion control products on vegetation establishment on artificial and natural slopes. Those studies were performed under a contract between the University of Milan and the Italian multinational company “Maccaferri”. The text of the report was prepared by Gian Battista Biscetti who is a professor of the University of Milan. In addition to him, other representatives of the University of Milan (DSc Andrea Andreoli, engineer Alessio Cislaghi), as well as a number engineers of the “Maccaferri” company (Nicola Mazzon, Paolo Bianchini, Paolo Di Pietro, Pietro Pezzano, Pietro Rimoldi, Marco Vicari) also took part in the studies themselves.

At the end of the description of the research results, the report gives some information on the the influence of “MacMat” geomats (produced by the “Maccaferri” company) on vegetation establishment and anti-erosion effect efficiency. (It should be noted that since 1994 the “Maccaferri” company has had a division in Russia, representative offices in other CIS countries and a factory in the Moscow region).

The reference to the original source [1] for the translation is given at the beginning of the list of references. The remaining sources from the list were used by the author of the original paper.

Some advisory assistance during the translation work was provided by Ivan Aleksandrovich Kuklo who is the marketing director of the “Maccaferri CIS” company in Moscow.

We present to the attention of the readers an adapted and slightly abridged translation of the paper “Effect of landfill leachate on engineering properties of test soil” [1], which was recently published in English in the International Journal of Geological and Environmental Engineering by the WASET publisher. The authors of this paper are Samuel Akpan Nta, Josiah Ayotamuno, and Ikpe Jimmy Udom from the Akwa Ibom State University and from the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (Nigeria). This article is in the open access (online) under the CC-BY-4.0 license, which allows it to be copied, translated, adapted, modified and used for any purpose (even commercial one) provided that the types of changes are noted and the original source is referred to. In our case, the reference to the original paper [1] is given at the beginning of the list of references (sources [2–8] from that list were used by the authors of the translated paper).

The article presents results of laboratory studies of the effects of landfill leachate on the engineering properties of the tested soil. The used soil was sandy loam that was acidic in its nature. It was collected at a depth of 0.9 m. The landfill leachate used for the laboratory studies was collected from a hole dug some meters away from a municipal solid waste landfill. Then its composition was analyzed.

The studied sandy loam was placed in a special laboratory installation. And the landfill leachate was introduced (conditionally pointwise) into this soil. Then, 50 days since the leachate application end and after 80 days since the start of the laboratory experiment, samples of the polluted soil were collected at radial distances of 0.25 and 0.50 m and at depths of 0.15, 0.30, 0.45, and 0.60 m from the application point of the landfill leachate.

Such physical and mechanical properties of the samples as particle size distribution, density, optimum moisture content, maximum dry density, unconfined compressive strength, liquid limit, plastic limit and shrinkage limit were determined. The concentrations of various chemicals at radial distances of 0.25 and 0.50 m and at depths of 0.15; 0.30; 0.45, and 0.6 m from the application point of the leachate were different.

It was founded the presence of effects of landfill leachate on the engineering properties of the tested soil. It was noted that the type of soil, chemical composition of the leachate, infiltration rate, aquifers, ground water table, etc. will have a major role in the influence zone of the pollutants from a landfill.

The article provides an overview of the most acute problems that exist in Russia today in the field of site investigations. The creation of a modern digital application (the main requirements for which are formulated in this publication) can contribute to the effective solution of each of those problems. For comparison, the paper presents an overview of digital applications (ECM systems) created by foreign companies and already used in the world practice. This article is supplemented by the opinions of experts (both theorists and practitioners) on possible directions for the development of the digital transformation of the site investigation branch and on the relevance of the introduction of digital applications that can solve the existing problems.