The Association of Geohazard Professionals (AGHP) is a new professional association that has emerged to serve and promote an engineering sector that has been largely unsupported in the United States. With a steadily growing membership base, the association has now advanced to opening geohazard committees for member participation.
Current committees and chairs include:
Education Committee – Chaired by William F. Kane (Kane GeoTech)- Rope Access Training Committee – Chaired by John Duffy (California DOT)
- Standards and Specifications Committee – Chaired by Ghislain Brunet (Maccaferri)
- Rockfall Barrier Post Support Committee – Chaired by Tim Shevlin (Geobrugg)
- Anchor Testing Committee – Chaired by Dane Wagner (HI-TECH Rockfall)
More about committee participation and general AGHP membership can be found on the association website: www.geohazardassociation.org
Geosynthetics & Geohazards
Geohazard technologies, such as rockfall mitigation measures, have enjoyed strong regulatory and professional support around the world, but in North America consistency and awareness has been lacking.
Geosynthetic and affiliated geotechnical professionals are strongly encouraged to take part in AGHP. Geohazards and measures to mitigate, respond to, or prevent them have a number of strong ties to geosynthetics. Geogrids and geotextiles are used in combination with gabions, rockfall netting, and other steel/metal mesh technologies. Geosynthetics and standard geohazard technologies are used jointly for seismic zone engineering, erosion and landslide prevention, roadway protection and rebuilds, sinkhole response, steep slope stabilization, etc.
Learn more: www.geohazardassociation.org/membership
Opportunities to Interact
Two key events are coming up at which the shared community of geohazards and geosynthetics professionals will interact:
- Geohazards 6 – The Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS) will convene the 6th Canadian Geohazards Conference 15 – 18 June 2014at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Queen’s is renowned for its geotechnical engineering expertise, including geosynthetics field luminaries Dr. Richard Bathurst and Dr. Kerry Rowe.
- 65th Highway Geology Symposium – The HGS, which provided the formation meetings for AGHP last year, will be held 7 – 10 July 2014 in Laramie, Wyoming. Of note for this year’s HGS, a special Transportation Research Board (TRB) symposium on “Geosynthetics in Roadway Design” will be held on the opening day.
