Chapters authored
Durability Issue for the Emperor Fasiladas Royal Palace in Gondar (Ethiopia)
The Royal Enclosure is the remains of a fortress-city in Gondar, Ethiopia. It was founded in the 17th century by Emperor Fasiladas and was the home of Ethiopia’s emperors. Its unique architecture shows diverse influences including Nubian styles. The site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. Ghebbi is an Amharic word for a compound or enclosure. Due to climate conditions and human activities, the Royal palace is affected by severe structural damage. Presently almost some portion of the palace are under maintenance by mortar pointing to avoid negative effects of rainfall and other durability issue and temporary scaffolding to prevent from collapse of vulnerable structures. An analysis of damage of the palace is presented, based on weathering processes and structural conditions, as preliminary tool to detect and implement urgent and medium/long-term protection strategies for the conservation of the monuments. The chapter describes the major durability issue of the historical palace and determines the cause of the present durability problem and then recommends the possible remedial measure to alleviate the prolonged durability issue. The analysis was conducted by visual inspection and X-ray diffraction characterization methods. The chapter discusses the results obtained from the analysis of the mortar sample of the historical palace.
Part of the book: Engineering Failure Analysis
Environmental Impact and Sustainability of Aggregate Production in Ethiopia
The production of aggregate for the infrastructural development of the country has been increasing for the last three decades due to the high urbanization rates in the main cities of the country and the ever-growing demand for basic infrastructural facilities. The environmental impact of both fine and coarse aggregate production is now hard to ignore especially on the outskirts of the main cities. These impacts are clearly seen on the degradation of landscape and land stability, pollution of water resource, pollution of the atmosphere due to dust, and societal impacts. There are clear local and international laws that protect the environment from the negative impact of any project, whereas the observed fact from abandoned and functioning quarry sites shows these rules are not followed strictly.
Part of the book: Sandy Materials in Civil Engineering