Earth Retaining Structures: Design and Seismic Performance

This offers a comprehensive and insightful guide to the analysis and design of earth retaining structures, with a particular focus on their behaviour under seismic loading conditions and soil and structure interaction. It combines principles with practice, and relates the behaviour of earth retaining systems to the fundamental principles of soil mechanics and the methodologies of limit states design. The design approach is modern and rigorous. The book’s innovative and original methods for seismic analysis and application to practical engineering problems satisfy the increased need for earthquake-resistant geotechnical design. This is primarily a textbook for graduate students in civil and geotechnical engineering, and also a reference for practising engineers to update and refine their design skills, particularly in relation to seismic performance and modern design standards. PowerPoint slides of the figures in the book are available for adopting course instructors.

Luigi Callisto is Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at Sapienza University of Rome, where he teaches soil mechanics and geotechnical earthquake engineering. As a member of a Eurocode 8 Project Team, he contributed to the drafting of the provisions on earth retaining structures for EC8 Part 5. He has been involved in the development of additional technical codes, including the Italian technical code for the design and maintenance of dams and the Italian National Building Code. He has advised on major engineering projects, including the assessment of the effects of excavations and tunnelling on historic monuments and buildings along Rome’s Metro Line C and the evaluation of the seismic performance of existing large earth dams. In 2026, he co-founded Interact – Geotechnical Analysis, a spin-off company of the Sapienza University specialising in advanced geotechnical engineering analysis. His research and professional activities focus on geotechnical earthquake engineering, soil-structure interaction, underground construction, and the seismic behaviour of geotechnical infrastructure.