How Climate Change is Shifting the Ground Beneath Our Feet
Talk of climate change often revolves around rising seas, melting glaciers, or soaring temperatures. But beneath the surface, quite literally, another transformation is taking place—one that poses a growing concern for engineers and builders across the globe. Soil, once considered relatively predictable, is starting to behave in ways we haven’t seen before. If you’ve been in construction or engineering long enough, you know that the stability of any structure depends on what liesbeneath it. But with changing rainfall patterns, longer dry spells, andshifting groundwater levels, even that foundation is now becoming less certain. Let’s dig into why. Dry One Day,Soaked the Next Soils don’t like extremes. When they get too dry,they shrink; when they take on too much water, they swell. Now imagine this happening again and again, every season. That’s what engineers are dealing with, especially in areas with clay-rich soils. These are the types that expand and contract like sponges depen...