The general features of ecological-geological systems (EGS) of rock massifs are determined as objects of geoecological research and engineering and environmental surveys. Ecological and geological systems include abiotic (lithotope, edaphotope) and biotic (microbocenosis, phytocenosis, zoocenosis) components. The characteristic features of the ecological and geological systems of natural rock masses are revealed on the example of the EGS of cemented carbonate and chalk soils and their weathering zones in the Southern Urals, Crimea, Belgorod region, Altai and Sikhote-Alin. On the example of karst caves in the Southern Urals, a characteristic is given of the geological processes of carbonate soil massifs and their microbial communities. The geological features of the development of soil covers on massifs of rocky cemented carbonate soils of the Crimea are described. The features of arthropod habitation on the Cretaceous rock massifs of the Belgorod region are revealed. Using the example of the Sikhote-Alin volcanic belt (rhyolitic tuffs) and the Teletskaya fault zone (silty-argillaceous formations of weathered gneisses and shales), the importance of biomineral complexes in the life of ungulates is shown.

We are continuing to familiarize the readers with the use of software products of the South Korean company “MIDAS IT” founded in 2000 in Seoul. The programs developed in this company are used in 136 countries of the world for modeling, integrated design and analysis in the field of transport, geotechnical, industrial and civil construction. They ensure the safety, efficiency and competitiveness of engineering projects. Among other things, the famous Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai (UAE) and the beautiful threekilometer cable-stayed Russian Bridge in Russian Vladivostok were designed with the help of MIDAS IT products. In 2013, the Russian representative office of this company was opened (LLC ”MIDAS”). Three MIDAS IT finite element software products adapted to meet the requirements of the Russian regulatory documents are currently presented in the territory of the Russian Federation. They are midas GTS NX, midas Civil, and midas FEA NX. The midas GTS NX program (midasoft.ru/products/midas-gts-nx/?utm_source= site&utm_medium=geoinfo&utm_content=article-02-2023) is designed for geotechnical calculations, modeling and analysis of the behavior of soils and their interactions with engineering structures. 

Today, we offer to the attention of the readers a slightly abridged and adapted translation (from English into Russian) of the report [1] made at the 3rd International Symposium on Architecture Research Frontiers and Ecological Environment (ARFEE 2020) that was held in December 2020 in the city of Zhangjiajie (China). The authors of this work are Quan Cao and Yu Han from the Shanghai Institute of Technology (China). In the beginning of the next year, this report appeared on the ”E3S Web of Conferences” website and “Researchgate” website. It is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license that allows it to be copied, distributed, adapted, transformed and used (including for commercial purposes) with the indication of the types of changes and reference to the original source (in our case, this is the reference [1], and the rest references were used by the authors of the translated report). 

Currently, the subway has become the main mode of transportation in metropolitan areas. Lots of people live and work in the Shanghai territory composed mainly of soft water-saturated clay soils, and subway construction is the most widespread there. But such sort of soils containing metro tunnels will settle under the impact of dynamic loads from train traffic. And that will affect the service life and safety of the structures. 

In the midas GTS NX finite element program, a 3D dynamic model was created, with the use of which the behavior of soft saturated clay and silt soils was analyzed for the normal speed of metro trains (80 km/h) and for their high speed (120 km/h). According to the research results, the higher the speed of the trains, the lower the settlements of the soil under the tunnel and the shallower in depth but wider in plan is the surface settlement trough above the tunnel. In any case, the rate of increase of the settlements above and below the tunnel gradually decreases with time (during long period of operation).

We bring to the attention of readers an adapted and slightly abridged translation of the report “Monitoring of soil structure” by Elzbieta Kokoczynska-Packet from the Opole University of Technology (Poland). It was made at the 7th World Multidisciplinary Earth Sciences Symposium (WMESS 2021, 6–10 September 2021, Prague, Czech Republic). 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, which 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.

According to the data from the Central Office of Construction Supervision, there were 5455 construction disasters in Poland between 2008 and 2019. And 4023 ones of them were caused by random events, of which 110 were caused by landslides. Most of those events took place in 2010 (there were up to 94 disaster-related landslides). The landslides have been occurring with different intensity, significantly influencing the current structure of the Earth surface.

Without human intrusion, landslides have a character of long-term processes that activate depending on the changes of natural external conditions such as ground saturation with water, area deforestation, high degradation or slopes erosion. Everyone who had contact with landslides knows that it is not a sudden phenomenon, but a process, i. e. chain of events occurring one after another and developing with time. Therefore there is the constant necessity of getting more detailed knowledge of the mechanisms and character of the processes occurring inside the slopes. That is why slope monitoring plays such an important role in understanding the mechanisms of landslides.

The Polish standards oblige the owners of embankment structures (including on slopes) to perform inspections and monitoring of ground conditions there. In accordance with the Regulation of the Ministry of Transport, Construction and Maritime Economy (2012), such types of structures belong to the second or third geotechnical category.

In the presented paper, the monitoring of the slope with an earth dam on the top of it, which protects the liquid waste landfill facility located at a food processing plant is analyzed. In 1997, the slope was subjected to a construction disaster because of washout by the Oder River and too high irrigation of the ground structure. The slope, embankmeeent dam and liquid waste reservoirs slid into the river and polluted it. Since the reconstruction, the slope has been subjected to constant monitoring of the external geometry and of the soil condition in the slope and in the embankment (dam) on the top of it. The paper discusses the applied monitoring methods and measurement methodology. The measured slope settlements are analyzed and compared with the results of model calculations. In conclusion, modern monitoring techniques is noted, which could be applied to this type of structures.

In order to once again remind sponsors, customers, designers and builders of the importance of proper execution of site investigations for construction all over the world, we present a slightly abridged and adapted translation of a small review paper named “Analysis of geological survey technology in building engineering” [1]. Its author is Zhou Wei who is a specialist working in the Tumen Bureau of Land and Resources of Jilin (China). This article was published in English in the World Construction journal. And it is on the ResearchGate website in open access under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license that allows it to be copied, distributed, adapted, translated, converted and used (but not for commercial purposes) when indicating types of changes and a reference to the original source. In our case, the reference [1] is provided in the list of sources at the end of the translation. The rest of the sources in the list were used by the author of the original paper [1]. The used photos are taken from an additional source (pixabay.com).

The role of site investigations is extremely important for civil engineering. A site investigation can determine the success of a relevant construction project. A scientifically based project can only be properly performed and the stability of a relevant construction object can only be ensured if the need for a site investigation is appreciated, the surveys are qualitatively, accurately and comprehensively carried out before the designing. Site investigations can not only contribute to the successful implementation of projects, but also preserve the harmony of the environment in the areas of construction sites and help further sustainable development of civil engineering. In this regard, the presented article briefly considers the site investigation technology in civil engineering.

A new ground reinforcement system named “MacRes”, which is produced by the “Maccaferri” Italian multinational company, has appeared in the Russian market of products for the construction industry. Since 1994, the “Maccaferri” company has had a division in Russia, representative offices in the rest of the CIS countries and a plant in the Moscow region.

he “MacRes” system consists of facing concrete or reinforced concrete panels and the “ParaWeb” composite geosynthetic tapes, which layer by layer reinforce the backfill soil. Those panels and tapes are mechanically bonded to each other by special connecting elements.

The “MacRes” system makes it possible to construct vertical retaining walls very quickly in restrained urban or industrial conditions. Such type of walls can last up to 120 years. It allows you to significantly reduce the costs and time for the installation. At the same time, it is possible to save on the transportation of concrete panels because the “Maccaferri” company provides metal molds for the casting of them at the concrete plant that is the closest to the construction site. In addition, when building the retaining walls on the basis of the “MacRes” system, there are no strict requirements for the backfill material, which allows you to use some inexpensive local soil. All of this makes this system convenient and cost-effective for the use in transport construction, mining industry and other areas.

This paper provides some more detailed information about the “MacRes” system.

The first issue of “Handbook of Geotechnics. Bases, Foundations and Underground Structures” was published in 2014, and within a year it was completely sold out. The high demand motivated the sellers to increase the circulation and motivated the authors to prepare a second edition in 2016.

This year there will be published the third edition that will be supplemented and revised taking into account the new building regulations, technologies, laws.

The scientific editor of this handbook is Rashid Mangushev, laureate of the Russian Government Prize in Science and Technology, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Building Sciences, head of the Geotechnics Department of the St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering. He gave an interview to the ”GeoInfo” journal and told about the collective work for the new book, and also shared his view on how much geotechnics is in demand in Russia today and what engineering-geotechnical surveys are.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (drones, copters) have long been used for civilian purposes, but they have never been in the center of public attention as much as in the last year. The federal media advertised the capabilities of such sort of flying machines in combat conditions, and many citizens had a question: what else can they do.

The editors of the GeoInfo journal asked some experts the next questions. How specialists in the field of engineering surveys have changed their attitude towards drones in the conditions of the informational agiotage. How many of them want to use copters and for what purposes.

The interviewed experts have confirmed that the popularity of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) has indeed grown, but at the same time they explained why drones have not been used as widely as we would like yet.

Design-survey and construction companies are always faced with the question of the right choice of geodetic equipment, so that it will ensure the maximal volume and quality of work at minimal cost and will pay off quickly enough, starting to generate income. Today, digital technologies are winning in the market of geodetic equipment. At the forefront of this market are total stations and geodetic GNSS receivers, which work in the mode of Real Time Kinematic (RTK) on the basis of the use of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). Modern geodetic instruments are produced by more than 50 companies in the world. The leaders among them are: Trimble (USA), Leica (Switzerland), ProMark (Germany), Geotonics (Sweden), Sersel (France), Topcon (Japan), Sokkia (Japan), etc. But Chinese manufacturers (primarily the South company, but many others, too) are already “on the heels” of them. Recently, the China Annual Exhibition of Geodetic and Mapping Information Technology and Equipment was held in Nanjing, where models developed and manufactured by Chinese companies were mainly presented. In this regard, we present a brief overview of the impressions of field geodesists who visited this exhibition.