This paper explores the feasibility of employing drinking water treatment sludge (WTS) mixed with soils, lime, or rock powder in geotechnical applications, as well as discusses the sustainability of the approach based on experimental results, aiming at the beneficial reuse of waste and the preservation of natural geomaterials. The selected materials were two soils largely used in earthworks, two WTSs, a high purity calcium hydrated lime, and rock powder from a granitic–gneissic quarry, all occurring in São Paulo State, Brazil. The mixtures were chemically, mineralogically, and geotechnically characterized, and the geotechnical properties permeability, shear strength, and deformability were investigated. Soil-WTS mixtures showed hydraulic conductivity (10⁻¹⁰–10⁻⁶ m/s, depending on soil and WTS), effective cohesion (10–30 kPa), friction angle (34°–40°), undrained strength (>50 kPa), and compression index (0.1–0.4) compatible with those of soils usually employed in earthworks. Lime:WTS and rock powder:WTS mixtures achieved 50 kPa undrained strength for WTS contents lower than 24% and 8%, respectively, and could be used as daily and intermediate covers of waste landfills, as well as in other applications with low soliciting stresses. The possibility of WTS being pumped instead of transported by trucks was analyzed in the light of results from rheological tests.

The effect of time on soil properties, noticeable in many earthworks, is recognized by geotechnicians. For example, secondary compression and aging pre-consolidation are considered in geotechnical design, and strain rate is standardized in geotechnical laboratory and field tests. Elastic-plastic models, from rigid-perfect plastic to Modified Cam Clay, which do not consider the effects of time, solve most geotechnical problems. However, solutions for prolonged settlements, landslides, debris flow and mudflow could profit from a deeper understanding of rheological models. In fact, rheological concepts, despite not always clearly stated, have been used to address some of these problems, and may also be important for using new materials in geotechnical practice (tailings, sludge, soil-polymer mixtures and other materials with water content higher than the liquid limit). This paper introduces basic concepts of rheology for geotechnicians, specially highlighting viscoelasticity under simple shear stress, which explains with reasonable accuracy well known phenomena dependent on time in soils. The objective is to bring geotechnicians to rheology and show another important tool to access geotechnical problems. On the other hand, a brief explanation of geotechnical tests is presented for rheologists not acquainted with geotechnical engineering. Geotechnical tests procedures are discussed in the light of rheology concepts, terminology is clarified, examples of application of rheology in geotechnics are presented, and determination of soil rheological parameters by traditional geotechnical tests as well as by tests on concrete is commented.

Community resilience is essential for disaster management and its measurement is necessary to support decision-making. This paper presents as first list of community resilience indicators for Brazilian municipalities, resulting from literature review, experts’ consulting and application of the Delphi method. The experts group consisted of public managers (43%) and researchers (57%). The study comprised six phases: conceptual framework selection; composition of the indicators list; elaboration of evaluation tool (Delphi method); selection and invitation to experts; evaluation of indicators; and data analysis. As a result, the importance of 101 indicators distributed in six dimensions (environmental; social; economic; institutional; infrastructure; social capital) achieved consensus among the experts after two rounds. In the first round, 98 indicators were submitted to the evaluation of 97 specialists, with the possibility of proposing new indicators, while in the second round the final list reached consensus among the 72 respondents. The Institutional and Infrastructure dimensions were predominant, evidencing the value of public policies and urban infrastructure for community resilience to disasters in the perception of Brazilian experts.

Conhecer a geração de resíduos de equipamentos elétricos e eletrônicos (REEE) é fundamental para sua gestão. O fluxo domiciliar de EEE é complexo, pois tem seu descarte associado a fatores tecnológicos, econômicos e comportamentais. O artigo apresenta método para estimativas de REEE de origem domiciliar: estoque de equipamentos em uso, armazenados e descartados, e do potencial de geração de resíduos. O método aplicado ao município de São Paulo, São Paulo, resultou em 71,9 milhões de EEE, dos quais 8,8 milhões (12,2%) fora de uso. O valor médio de EEE correspondeu a 18,2 EEE por domicílio; média per capita de 5,3 EEE por habitante. A média de descarte per capita estimada resultou em 4,8 kg.hab-¹.ano-¹. O potencial de geração de resíduos a partir dos EEE fora de uso variou entre 2,9 a 6,0 kg.hab-¹.ano-¹. O método proposto proporcionou qualidade às estimativas, resultando em importantes indicadores para a gestão.