International Good Practices of Embankment Upgrading with Limited Footprint Increase

Abstract

This report investigates how embankments in Bangladesh could be upgraded with no or limited footprint increase. Many Bangladesh embankments need to be upgraded to improve flood protection. Traditionally, embankments are upgraded by adding more soil, heightening the crests while simultaneously widening the embankment maintain slope stability.
However, in many cases there is insufficient space for embankment widening. Case studies show that in Bangladesh, private assets often directly border embankments at both the landward and seaward side. Also land is scarce in general and the land directly adjacent to embankments is often in use by the communities. For traditional embankment heightening and widening, these buildings need to be (re)moved. So owners of private assets and land need to be identified and compensated and the land must be acquired leading additional project costs and delays.
This problem could be mitigated by using embankment upgrade techniques with a limited footprint increase. This requires knowledge of the available techniques and their suitability in the Bangladesh situation. Therefore, this study aims to provide an inventory of low-footprint embankment up-grade techniques used around the world, their (dis)advantages in terms of land use, risks, costs and O&M aspects, and their suit-ability for the situation in Bangladesh.