GEOLOGY FOR ENGINEERING AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: A Practical Guide to Site Characterization, Slope Stability, and Subsurface Risk

A factor of safety is only as trustworthy as the ground model behind it.

Most engineers and environmental scientists meet geology only briefly, in a single course or a short site report. Then they face real ground that changes over short distances and can be sampled at only a tiny fraction of the points that matter. When geology is treated as background description, the link between what is seen in the field and the numbers used in design is left unexplained.

This practical guide closes that gap by treating geological reasoning and quantitative analysis together. Fourteen complete chapters build each concept from fundamentals, with every assumption stated and no previous study of geology assumed. You learn how minerals, rocks, structures, soils and water become the data, boundary conditions and uncertainty behind real decisions about foundations, slopes, excavations, tunnels, dams and contaminated land.

What you will gain

• Understand how earth materials and geologic structure control the behavior of soil and rock in engineering works.
• Follow 116 worked examples that carry their units through every step, so you can check your own calculations.
• Analyze slope stability, groundwater flow, bearing pressure, settlement and earth pressure with clearly stated assumptions.
• Plan and interpret site investigations, from drilling and sampling to in situ testing and geophysical surveys.
• Evaluate earthquake, landslide, flood, karst and subsidence hazards and the risk they pose to a project.
• Recognize how contaminants move through the ground and how geology shapes remediation options.
• Practice with graded problems in every chapter, with an answer key, glossary and reference appendices.

Inside the book: Earth materials, minerals and rocks; geologic maps, cross-sections and stereographic projection; weathering and soil classification; rock mass characterization; stress, strength and deformation; groundwater and hydrogeology; mass movements; geohazards; site investigation; foundations, excavations, tunnels and dams; contaminant transport; and geotechnical risk and reporting.

Who it is for: Upper-level undergraduate students, instructors, and practicing civil, geotechnical and environmental engineers, as well as environmental scientists who work with ground, groundwater or contaminated land. Basic physics, calculus and elementary mechanics are assumed, and each chapter can be read on its own. The book teaches principles and methods; it does not replace site-specific investigation, current design codes or qualified professional judgment.

Get your copy and begin building the ground understanding that sound engineering and environmental decisions depend on.