MAJOR ENGINEERING-GEOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS IN CHINA IN 21ST CENTURY

It is pointed that large scale construction in China in the 21th century will lead to a lot of engineering geological and environmental problems inevitably; Engineering geology of the 21th century is in China. In the 21 century, the major engineering geological problems in the mountain areas of western China are: dynamic stability of rock soil mass in tectonically active region, strain energy storage and behavior of rock mass under high stress, scale effect of deformation of high steep slope and its dynamic stability, temperature and pressure of rock mass at the location of deeply buried long tunnels, rock mass structure detection and advanced geological prediction for construction of deeply buried tunnel, interaction of deformation and stability of large and complex excavation group, freeze and thaw deformation, stability of frozen earth and their treatment, karst distribution regularities and use of weak solution rock mass, treatment and utilization of thick overburden on river bed. etc. Engineering geological subjects in the eastern China and the coastal region are, deformation and stability of soft foundation and its treatment in construction of high speed traffic network, large scale deformation and its treatment of deeply mining tunnel in soft rock, foundation deformation and stability of large bridge piers in thick loose deposits, engineering geological and hydro geological problems of submarine tunnel, engineering geological problems of underground space development in urban area. Besides, major environmental problems are: water loss and soil frosion and regional desertization in northern China, suspended river in lower Yellow River and bank caving and stability in lower Yangtse River, environmental problem caused by cut off of lower Yellow River, short of water resource in dry climate region of northern China, environmental deteriortion pollution control in process of urbanization. Chinese engineering geologists should promote the theoretical research on the following aspects and develop the Chinese engineering geology: structural soil mechanics and structural mechanics of rock mass, fundamental principles of engineering geology and engineering geological dynamics, mechanism of inter action between human being and the earth and environmental engineering geology, theory, methodology,and techniques of geological engineering.