Geotextiles and Geomembranes xxx (2015) 1

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Geotextiles and Geomembranes

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geotexmem

Editorial

Forward
Geosynthetics have become important civil engineering materials successfully used for transportation infrastructure to provide
economical and versatile solutions for various challenges. They
have been used to improve soil strength and modulus, provide
drainage, create load transfer platforms, stabilize slopes and walls,
mitigate erosion and scour, accelerate consolidation, contain
contaminants, etc. In recent years, new products and applications
of geosynthetics have continued emerging and they have remained
an active research topic in transportation applications.
This special issue, entitled Geosynthetics for Transportation
Applications, contains nine technical papers and one technical
note which present recent advances in applications of geosynthetics in transportation-related sectors. These technical papers/
note(s) cover a variety of geosynthetics including geogrid, geocell,
geotextile, geotube, geober, and geofoam. The studied applications encompass roadway stabilization and vegetation, ballast
connement, pipeline/drainage protection, encased stone columns,
erosion mitigation, and ood control.
This special issue is compiled based on the technical papers
presented in the sessions of Ground Improvement and Geosynthetics at the GeoShanghai 2014 International Conference held in
Shanghai, China, May 26e28, 2014. Among 27 excellent papers published at this conference, authors of ten papers were invited to
contribute to this special issue based on the review results of these
conference papers. Nine authors accepted the invitation and
signicantly improved and expanded their papers by restructuring

the papers and incorporating new unpublished results. One author

presented a complete new study. All the submitted papers underwent rigorous peer review as required for any paper submitted to
Geotextiles and Geomembranes. Each paper was reviewed by at
least two experts of that topic to provide in-depth comments and
suggestions. The authors addressed all the review comments to
the satisfactory of the reviewers and/or the guest editors.
The guest editors greatly appreciate the Editor-in-Chief of
Geotextiles and Geomembranes, Prof. Kerry Rowe, for providing
the opportunity and his instructions for this special issue. The guest
editors also wish to thank the anonymous reviewers who have
done an excellent job by providing rigorous and constructive
reviews for this special issue.
Jie Huang
The University of Texas at San Antonio, USA
Jie Han*
The University of Kansas, USA
*

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jiehan@ku.edu (J. Han).
5 May 2015
Available online xxx

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geotexmem.2015.05.001
0266-1144/ 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Please cite this article in press as: Huang, J., Han, J.Forward, Geotextiles and Geomembranes (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.geotexmem.2015.05.001