Abstract

Geosynthetics—filter cloth, filter fabrics, geotextiles, geogrids, geonets, geomembranes, geowebs, geocomposites—exploded into geotechnical engineering in the 1970s. The North American market alone went from under 8 × 10⁶ m² (10 × 10⁶ yd²) sold in 1976 to over 500 × 10⁶ m² (600 × 10⁶ yd²) in 1992 [12.1]. The global market was estimated at approximately 2 × 10⁹ m² (2.4 × 10⁹ yd²) in 2010, and is forecast to be in excess of 5 × 10⁹ m² (6 × 10⁹ yd²) by 2018.^* The dramatic development of a market for these new products for earthworks occurred for the following reasons [12.1]:

They are products manufactured under factory conditions, including quality control

They can be installed rapidly

They generally replace or reduce the use of natural materials (aggregate, for example)

They are generally cost-competitive with the natural materials they replace