FUTURE DIRECTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENGINEERING GEOLOGY

Environmental and engineering are two applied branches of geology. Engineering geology was developed with a two-fold purpose: to apply geologic principles and engineering concepts for the construction of critical projects, such as dams, tunnels, and other subsurface structures; and to mitigate the effects of hazardous earth processes, such as floods, landslides, earthquakes, and coastal erosion on engineered systems. Later, when environmental concerns became critical, engineering geology broadened its scope to utilize geological principles and engineering concepts to address environmental challenges.

The UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs predicts that the world population will reach 8.6 billion in 2030 and 9.8 billion in 2050. They also indicate that the rise in the population and higher standards of living will increase the use of natural resources, environmental pollution, and land use changes like urbanization. This, coupled with the climate change predictions, highlights the critical role that environmental and engineering geology must play in the future for sustainable development. All UN member states adopted the 17 sustainability development goals in 2015. Evaluating these goals shows that environmental and engineering geologists have a crucial role in achieving sustainable development globally, primarily through infrastructure development, building resilience and disaster risk reduction, and environmental protection.

In this era of data-driven science and decision-making, environmental and engineering geologists must embrace new technologies, tools, data, collaborators, and colleagues to address sustainable development challenges. To communicate the significance of ever-increasing amounts of earth data, we must fully utilize the power of earth observations, numerical simulations, and artificial intelligence; quantify the uncertainty associated with our data and analysis; develop a more robust interpretation of the data, and incorporate geo-information into decision support methods.