IAEG 2026 Course #2: Tales from the Swamp

This course, endorsed by the European Federation of Geologists (EFG), will be organised as part of the 2026 Congress of the International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment (IAEG 2026). The IAEG 2026 will take place in Delft (The Netherlands​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​) from 30 October to 6 November 2026.

The listed IAEG workshops on the EFG calendar are scheduled, but additional workshops may be added and/or the existing ones may be slightly modified.

IAEG 2026 Course #2: Tales from the Swamp

WHEN:

Saturday 31 October or Sunday 1 November 2026 (Day To Be Confirmed).

Full day – 9:00 to 16:00.

INSTRUCTORS:

• Arjan Venmans is an engineering geologist specializing in the design, construction, and maintenance of roads and railways on soft soil. His activities include developing and validating design methods for soil improvement, field testing of innovative construction methods and aging infrastructure, using waste as a building material, consultancy and construction supervision. As a visiting scholar, he lectures on organic soils at the Geoengineering section of Delft University of Technology.
• Sanneke van Asselen is a physical geographer with a keen interest in topics related to land subsidence in soft-soil organic sequences, delta structure and evolution, and (fluvial) geomorphology. Recent research focuses on quantifying and monitoring land subsidence due to peat compaction and oxidation in Holocene delta sequences. Her PhD research investigated how peat compaction influences delta development and fluvial morphology.
• Cor Zwanenburg is an expert in soft soil engineering. His focus is on soft soil problems associated with slopes and landfills, such as stability, settlement, consolidation, and creep. Areas of special interest are the assessment of parameters through laboratory tests or field measurements, and their relationship to calculation techniques. Between 2001 and 2005, he obtained his doctorate from Delft University of Technology with a dissertation on the consolidation behaviour of peat.

OVERVIEW:

Peat and organic soils are present in the shallow subsurface of many deltas in the world.

High compressibility, low strength and susceptibility to oxidation pose challenges to infrastructure and housing. If these challenges are not properly understood and addressed the cost to society can be huge. Peat and organic soils are not “textbook” soils in terms of their behaviour and reaction to natural and man-induced changes. The heterogeneity of the deposits poses challenges to site characterisation methods, requiring specific techniques. This workshop will familiarise the participants with characterisation, behaviour and challenges of peat and organic soils, adopting a lessons-learned approach from the Netherlands.

TARGET AUDIENCE:

Students, researchers, geologists, engineering geologists, geotechnical engineers. No prior knowledge of organic soils is required.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Participants will explore key questions about organic soils from an engineering geology perspective, such as:

• What challenges do organic soils present?
• Which factors influence their engineering behaviour?
• What problems can occur in deltaic environments?
• How to interpret subsidence time series
• How do the strengths of peats compare to clays?
• What lessons can be learned from case studies – “tales from the swamp”?
• What constitutes best practice in site investigation?

EXPECTED OUTCOMES:

After completion of the workshop, participants will:

• Know how to identify and classify peat and organic soils
• Have a conceptual idea of the stratigraphy of organic soil deposits
• Recognise factors determining the engineering behaviour of organic soils
• Understand the challenges that organic soils present to infrastructure and housing
• Know how interpret subsidence time series
• Be aware of unforeseen aspects of organic soil behaviour in practice, and of engineering solutions
• Know what is the best practice in site investigation in organic soils.

TEACHING STYLE:

Lecture, interactive exercises, quizzes, and real-world case studies.

COURSE MATERIAL PROVIDED:

Digital handouts.

EQUIPMENT REQUIRED:

Mobile phone, notebook.

REGISTRATION DETAILS:

Registration required.

Fee: 200 euros, including catering (coffee breaks and lunch).

20% discount for EurGeol title holders.

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS:

25 – 35.