Many parts of the UK's rail network were constructed in the mid-19th century long before the advent of modern construction standards. A recent study conducted by Network Rail, who own the largest network of earth structures in the UK, has revealed that 50% (5000km) of their network of earthworks are considered to be in a "poor" or "marginal" condition thereby necessitating significant maintenance. With the expected changes to the UK's precipitation patterns over the next 70 years likely to have a significant effect on railway earthworks, it is crucial that appropriate approaches for assessment of their stability are developed, so that repair work can be better targeted and failures avoided wherever possible. The consequence of failures of major infrastructure elements is severe and can include loss of life, significant replacement costs, line closures and major disruption to services which can often last for several months. Advance assessment and remediation of earthworks is always significantly less costly than dealing with failures reactively. The aim of this project is to investigate the potential use of a rapid, cost effective and non-destructive approach for assessing earthworks at risk of failure. This involves an investigation into the sensitivity of a recently developed geophysical method, the Multichannel Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW), for measuring variations in fluid induced pressure changes, resulting from rainfall. This potentially provides a practical and relatively robust means of assessing the stability of earthworks. Despite the advantages that the MASW method provides, it has not been tested previously for assessing fluid induced changes in slopes or earthworks. Therefore, from the point of view of scientific timing, an opportunity currently exists to explore the novelty of this application. The importance of this opportunity is highlighted further when consideration is given to the current and future industrial needs to improve assessment of earthworks as a result of climate variability.

The UK is the world leader in offshore wind energy; almost 40% of global capacity is installed in UK waters. A new ambitious target of 40GW of wind power by 2030 aims to produce sufficient offshore wind capacity to power every home, helping to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Offshore wind turbine (OWT) foundations, which are typically steel monopiles, contribute approximately 25% to a windfarm's capital cost. The size of OWTs is increasing rapidly and continued optimisation of foundation design is paramount. Recent research has led to significant advances through theoretical developments combined with high-quality field-testing. Despite recent advances, there remains significant uncertainty in the measurement and interpretation of key soil deformation parameters that underpin new and existing design approaches. The central aim of SOURCE is to use rigorous measurement and interpretation in the field and laboratory to quantify and reduce material parameter uncertainty and minimise the impact on the predictive capability of OWT foundation design methods. Improved site characterisation will contribute to increased security in design, lowering capital costs, subsidies and carbon emissions and meeting the UK's ambitious new energy targets.