This theme paper presents a summary of the papers that are presented under the topic of sustainable infrastructure development using geosynthetics. The geosynthetic materials can be categorized into natural and polymeric. Both these materials have their own advantages and disadvantages. The natural products have limited life and their engineering properties are rather limited as compared to their polymeric counterparts. However, the natural materials have been applied successfully in several projects in innovative ways. The use of geosynthetics leads to consumption of lesser natural materials like aggregates in roads, lesser quantities of soils in steep embankments, possibility to use local materials in conjunction with geosynthetics, etc. The geosynthetics made of natural materials could be applied in less critical projects like rural roads, erosion control, etc. The processing of natural materials to produce geosynthetics is quite labour intensive which gives employment to many artisans in rural areas.
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