Environmental Engineering

General learning outcomes The course is aimed at providing the essential elements to quantitatively evaluate the stability of natural and artificial slopes, under static, environmental and seismic conditions. It also illustrates the main stabilisation actions that can be taken, highlighting their sustainability characteristics. Specific learning outcomes Knowledge and understanding skill The teaching activity is initially aimed at classifying the slopes; this is followed by the related site investigation strategies. This allows the student to recognise and identify the engineering problem. The following steps include the analysis of the stability conditions, under static, environmental (i.e. climate change-related) and seismic conditions. The whole background is then applied to the identification, design and validation of the stabilisation strategies. Applying knowledge and understanding skill At the end of the course the student is able to identify the main features of a slope, analyse its stability conditions, also considering long-term climatic-driven modifications of the boundary conditions, and design the possibly necessary stabilisation actions keeping as a reference their sustainability. The whole process of analysis and design is developed such that the student will be able to directly apply it in his/her future professional activity. Making judgement skill The student will apply his/her judgment skill through the tutorials, which consist of the solution of applied cases. Communication skill The student will show his/her communication skills during the tutorials, their review during the teaching stage and through their discussion during the oral examination stage. Learning skill The student is asked to learn the notions with reference to a general context and apply them to a set of specific cases. This should trigger his/her capability of elaborating and consolidating the whole content of the course