**8.4. Laboratory and in situ testing**

Laboratory and in situ testing of material properties, structural stability and general performance of the structure should be carried out in accordance with the existing current relevant standards (see Section 6) and design brief [15, 16]. The quality control should ensure that due care is taken to maintain and calibrate the testing equipment on a regular basis and minimize the scatter in the test data by the use of appropriate numerical techniques, a representative number of tests is carried out for determination of each property and that the personnel performing the tests and the analysis of results are suitably qualified and skilled. The records covering the above should be kept as part of the QAM and periodically updated throughout the duration of the project.

#### **8.5. During the construction stage**

The quality control should ensure that the workmanship of the labour force is according to the design and testing assumptions. Regular periodic inspections should be carried out by a designated quality assessor or manager who will record any defects stemming from the workmanship and allow the project manager or site supervisor suitable time to correct them before proceeding. The inspection records should be kept as part of the QAM, with a special emphasis of the following defects when using inert bamboo culms:


The client should ensure that the structure will be **used and operated** in accordance with the design limit briefs. Periodic inspections and monitoring of the use of the structure and the loads experienced should be carried out and the records kept in the QAM during the lifetime of the structure. Emergency action plan should also be prepared by the designer/engineer in order to cover the mitigation measures to be put in place during or after the application of accidental loads or in the event of structural failure.

#### **8.6. Maintenance**

**8.2. Personnel**

124 Bamboo - Current and Future Prospects

**8.3. Design**

the client and the contractor.

the duration of the project.

felled culms.

in a piece of bamboo.

**8.5. During the construction stage**

**8.4. Laboratory and in situ testing**

Bamboo structure should be designed and constructed by personnel having appropriate skills and experience. Similarly, qualified and experienced personnel should carry out the supervision and quality control during construction. The expertise and skills of the personnel involved must be recorded at an early stage as part of the quality management submission of

Design tasks (e.g. load analysis, calculations, specifications, drawings, detailing) and/or modelling should be carried out as per the existing current standards (see Section 6 above) and the design brief. Here it is acknowledged that traditional experience rather than precise calculations may generally govern the detailing but the experience has to be based on evidence in form of reports on the structural damage to similar structures after they have sustained the severity of earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. as criteria for recommendations by the evaluation by competent engineer/builder with adequate experience in the field. Independent design check should be carried out in accordance with the quality management demands and methods of

Laboratory and in situ testing of material properties, structural stability and general performance of the structure should be carried out in accordance with the existing current relevant standards (see Section 6) and design brief [15, 16]. The quality control should ensure that due care is taken to maintain and calibrate the testing equipment on a regular basis and minimize the scatter in the test data by the use of appropriate numerical techniques, a representative number of tests is carried out for determination of each property and that the personnel performing the tests and the analysis of results are suitably qualified and skilled. The records covering the above should be kept as part of the QAM and periodically updated throughout

The quality control should ensure that the workmanship of the labour force is according to the design and testing assumptions. Regular periodic inspections should be carried out by a designated quality assessor or manager who will record any defects stemming from the workmanship and allow the project manager or site supervisor suitable time to correct them before proceeding. The inspection records should be kept as part of the QAM, with a special

• Damage caused by bamboo Borer/ghoon beetle (*Dinoderus* spp. *Bostrichidae*), which attacks

• Crookedness of the bamboo culms in terms of a localized deviation from the straightness

emphasis of the following defects when using inert bamboo culms:

the contractor and then updated periodically throughout the duration of the project.

The existing standards [30] specify that adequate maintenance is required for the structure without providing definition of adequacy and the quality control procedures associated with it. Knowing that one of the main characteristics of soil bioengineering works is that their full efficiency is only reached once the living plants have rooted and active growth has commenced [39], it is critically important that the maintenance is planned and controlled in order to accelerate the establishment process and shorten the time between construction and reaching full operational capacity. In this respect, the quality control should cover maintenance during the plant establishment phase (recording the percentage of ground cover, application of fertilizers and mulches, survival/failure rate of plantings/seedlings, inspection and acceptance/rejection of all live and inert plant materials), aftercare during the plant establishment phase (replacement of inadequate/dead plant material, fertilization, weeding, cultivation, mulching, irrigation, protection/preservation, staking/tying) and aftercare during development stage (periodic inspections during 2–5 years after construction and, if needed, replacement of any inadequate materials, fertilization, irrigation, ground preparation, mulching, mowing, pruning, staking/tying, pest disease control [14, 40], coppicing and pollarding).

#### **8.7. Monitoring of bamboo structures and applications**

As a result of working with materials possessing relatively large natural variability, the soil bioengineering design with bamboo has to account for some uncertainty. To mitigate against the uncertainties and risks, monitoring will be vital throughout the lifetime of the bamboobased structure. Current standards do not specify or regulate which monitoring should be conducted as a step-by-step engineering process starting with a definition of objectives and end with application of mitigation measures if warranted by the monitoring data [41]. A monitoring programme should be included in the design and periodically updated as part of the QAM in the project file throughout the duration of the project. The programme should detail the specification of instrumentation and methods for monitoring and should be crossreferenced to the risk assessment register of the project.

A sustainability assessment framework can be used to benchmark the sustainability performance of the bamboo-based soil bioengineering applications for the purpose of monitoring their performance. In this context, an attempt to cover the socioeconomic, environmental and engineering performance of the application can be performed, and the framework can be used as part of the existing QA/QM procedures with a number of KPIs already being measured as part of the other QA processes [43]. The advantage of such a framework would be its use to assess the performance of the application after construction. The graphical output of the assessment makes the framework easier to use also throughout each project stage as a planning and decision-making tool.

The Use of Bamboo for Erosion Control and Slope Stabilization: Soil Bioengineering Works

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75626

127

The following shows a case study conducted under a research project from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU) and the Tribhuvan University

The research work was focused on field investigations to develop technical standards of soil bioengineering systems. Among other research activities, one site in Kusunti in Kathmandu was selected for the implementation of a bamboo crib wall. A vegetated bamboo crib wall was compared with a conventional slope stabilization method (gabion) by means of different

At Kusunti site, that half portion of the site was treated with the gabion retaining wall, and the other half with the bamboo crib wall to compare two retaining wall systems from a technical as well as an economic point of view. One layer of gabion retaining wall was constructed for

The actual construction work at this site was started on November 11, 2006 and ended on November 23, 2006. A supervisor was appointed to control the quality of the work. Students from the Pulchowk Campus and one student from Switzerland (University of Applied Sciences Wädenswil (HsW)) were also directly involved in this work. The before and after construction photographs and the work evolution are shown in **Figures 6** and **7**,

From the various project activities and critical study and monitoring of project sites, the fol-

• Vegetative crib walls are comparatively cheaper than gabion or stone masonry wall (construction costs only ¼ of gabion and 1/5 of masonry wall) but provide the same technical

• Although there is more vertical settlement in the case of vegetative crib wall, compared to gabion/masonry walls, vegetative crib walls have better attachment with the slope.

• Vegetative crib walls keep minimum soil moisture, avoid cracks in soil and provide better

**9. Case studies: analysing accumulated experiences**

the whole stretch as a base. The total designed height of the wall is 3 m.

lowing general conclusions on the use of bamboo crib walls can be made:

Kathmandu, Nepal [44].

parameters.

respectively.

stability.

interception during rainfall.

The monitoring of a soil bioengineering structure can be carried out in accordance with the existing current guidelines (e.g. [42]) with an addition of monitoring of the bamboo-related parameters critical to the stability and resilience of the structure. Depending on the form of bamboo used (live or inert) in the structure, the monitoring of the following parameters should be adopted as a minimum:


A sustainability assessment framework can be used to benchmark the sustainability performance of the bamboo-based soil bioengineering applications for the purpose of monitoring their performance. In this context, an attempt to cover the socioeconomic, environmental and engineering performance of the application can be performed, and the framework can be used as part of the existing QA/QM procedures with a number of KPIs already being measured as part of the other QA processes [43]. The advantage of such a framework would be its use to assess the performance of the application after construction. The graphical output of the assessment makes the framework easier to use also throughout each project stage as a planning and decision-making tool.
