The environmental impact cause by the human being action, together with the goal of not increasing more than 2 ° C the global average temperature for 2100 is the biggest challenge that humanity has faced, we as civil engineers must generate works and projects that protect and guarantee environmental sustainability while meeting the needs of society. In Colombia, due to the construction of a hydroelectric plant on the Sogamoso river in the state of Santander, the ecosystems located downstream of it would suffer serious environmental damage due to the decrease in river levels, for avoid this a series of dikes and hydraulics structures were built to safeguard the levels of the Llanito and San Silvestre swamp, ecosystems very rich in Biodiversity that harbored endangered species such as the Antillean Manatee, and on which a fishing community of around 1000 families depended, the construction of these dikes involved a technical and environmental challenge that conventional construction methodologies wasn´t enough, through the Geosynthetics technology, the construction of these works was achieved without major environmental impact, accomplishing the installation of around 12,000 Geobags filled with sandy material from the area and covered with a flexible framework system which protected the structure from possible attacks or deterioration, the construction of these works meant the increase of the level of the swamp by more than 40 cm, achieving the sustainability of these ecosystems and the community.
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