Modern countries utilise buried pipelines for the long-distance transportation of water, oil, and gas due to their efficiency and continuity of delivery to receiving locations. Due to soil movements such as landslides, excessive earth pressure imposed on buried pipelines causes damage and, consequently, leaking of liquids, gases or other harmful effluents into the soil, groundwater, and atmosphere. By using a large-scale physical model, the lateral pipeline–soil interaction in sandy soil was researched. This study investigated the stress distribution on a buried pipe induced by lateral soil displacement. The external forces on the buried pipe caused by the surrounding soil motion were measured using earth pressure cells installed in the active zone along the pipeline. Additionally, visual inspection of ground deformation patterns on the surface, including tensile cracks, above a shallow-buried pipeline subjected to lateral soil movement was reported. The results revealed that lateral soil movement has a potency effect on buried pipelines. The findings also indicated that the highest stresses occur at the unstable soil boundaries prior to reaching the soil’s peak strength. After observing the soil surface’s rupture, most of the stress increments were concentrated in the middle section of the pipe.

Human-elephant conflict (HEC) poses significant challenges especially in areas impacted with land development and habitat fragmentation. Inadequate management of HEC is one of the factors affecting conservation concern in elephant range countries, including Malaysia. In addressing this issue, conflict prevention strategies methods have been widely utilized by combining multiple strategies and techniques including the establishment of protected areas, physical exclusion methods, acoustic deterrents, domestication and translocation of elephants. This paper reviews current HEC mitigation practices addressing the Asian elephant in Peninsular Malaysia with an emphasis to the physical exclusion method of constructing reinforced concrete (RC) wire rope fencing in preventing elephants from entering agricultural lands and human settlements. Presently, elephant fencing generally adapt an integration of the electrical fencing system which understandably requires periodic maintenance as well as costly. This paper discusses the various design criteria that needs to be addressed from an engineering perspective to ensure adequate performance of an unelectrified RC wire rope fencing system, thus providing a more economical approach to address HEC.