Liners
Water conservation is more important than ever before. Reservoirs, canals, and other water-retaining ground structures need reliable protection from leakage and have been employing liners more often as an additional measure to improve the performance of the structure. Traditionally, clay and other materials were used to line the bottom and sides of many reservoirs thanks to their ability to resist leakage once a certain water threshold is reached. Shortly after World War II when many Water Resources projects began to take form, scientists tested and found that soil-cement had a much lower average seepage loss than some clay reservoirs, prompting further testing and studies to take place. Nowadays liners can be made similar to before with compacted soil-cement, or with deep-soil mixing to seal and voids in the earth below. For more severe applications, we can turn to conventional concrete or RCC for a more long-term solution.
Today we see liners employed in a wide variety of applications. Ponds, reservoirs, landfills, canals, facings for dams and spillways, even used for protective barriers beneath streets, buildings, or on the surface of reservoirs to protect from pollution. More studies being conducted even today will help to improve existing structures and find new and effective solutions to problems facing us today.