Permanent Erosion Control Solutions: What are the Options?

Stability and erosion control using geosynthetics is critical to ensuring the long-term performance of slopes.

As Eastern Australia has seen in recent months, continued heavy rainfall can play havoc with soil stability, causing catastrophic slope failure due to increased shear stress and a multitude of other factors.

Systems that provide insurance against sliding slope failure are typically designed to reduce shear stresses and at the same time, increase the shear strength of the soil mass.

How Geosynthetics Can Help

Global Synthetics offers a range of permanent erosion control products including standard and high-performance turf reinforcement mats that deliver excellent long-term performance in the field.

These kinds of geosynthetic solutions provide a permanent erosion control barrier that is designed to support vegetation growth, combining the benefits of both natural and engineered erosion control methods.

Not only do many geosynthetic products offer a reliable way to control erosion, but they also do so in an environmentally friendly manner. Geosynthetics can contribute to reduced carbon emissions compared to traditional solutions like concrete and rock riprap. The lighter, more compact products can be transported more economically compared to multiple heavy loads of rock, resulting in reduced transport emissions as well as reduced need for quarried material.

Below are some of the key features of three of our most popular TRMs and the benefits of using these products to control erosion and prevent slope failure.

Using Pyramat® For Erosion Control

Pyramat is a High-Performance Turf Reinforcement Mat (HPTRM) that offers a permanent engineered solution against erosion. It functions by providing a layer of permanent reinforcement to the soil until vegetation is fully established.

As noted above, significant reductions in emissions can be achieved using products such as Pyramat. A cradle-to-grave carbon footprint evaluation revealed that HPTRMs require significantly less energy consumption, transportation and use of heavy machinery.

When compared to the amount of transport required for an equivalent volume of rock riprap, HPTRMs are light years ahead, with just one truckload of HPTRM providing the same long-term erosion control as 667 truck loads of rock riprap, or 417 truckloads of concrete.

This substantial reduction in CO2 emissions coupled with the reliable performance of Pyramat in challenging conditions makes it an ideal solution for large scale erosion control projects. Pyramat High-Performance Turf Reinforcement Mats have very high velocity and shear stress tolerances, long-term material longevity, and high permeability, all at a relatively low material and installation cost.

They are effective once installed because they provide a permanent mechanical solution to scour and erosion, adding stability and reinforcement to the soil and speeding up the vegetation process. They trap more seed, soil and water than traditional hard armour products, yielding faster and fuller vegetation.

This range is available in 1st or 2nd generation construction. The 1st generation product features a dense web of polypropylene fibres positioned between two biaxially oriented nets, whilst the 2nd generation variant offers a patented matrix of 3D pyramids that gridlocks soil in place under high-flow conditions.

Pyramat 75 is also available for severe applications that require outstanding strength and superior vegetation growth.

Pyramat 25: Ideal for situations where water flows are strong, soils are poor and vegetation is difficult to establish, such as moderate flow stormwater channels, banks and steep slopes.

Pyramat 75: Ideal for demanding erosion control applications, particularly in arid and semi-arid environments where soil reinforcement is needed but full vegetation is not expected.

Using Landlok For Erosion Control

Like Pyramat, Landlok is a synthetic Turf Reinforcement Mat (TRM) suitable for steep slopes where both immediate and long-term erosion control is needed. Uniquely designed for moderate-flow channels and steep slopes, it uses patented technology to reinforce vegetation with twice the erosion protection of other TRMs and erosion control blankets.

Like Pyramat, Landlok is lighter and more compact than concrete or rock armour, delivering a strong reduction in CO2 emissions for your project throughout the product lifecycle.

Landlok is also available in 1st or 2nd generation material construction, featuring either a dense web of fibres positioned between two nets or a 3-dimensional woven material construction which allows increased design life over 1st generation netted, fused, glued or stitch-bonded TRMs.

Ideal for: Moderate-flow channels and steep slopes where both immediate and long-term erosion control is needed.

Using Armormax For Erosion Control

The ArmorMax system consists of a lightweight HPTRM layer and earth percussion anchors that work together to lock soil in place. This helps to resist movement, delivering permanent erosion protection for both vegetated and unvegetated applications.

Able to withstand extreme hydraulic stresses, Armormax offers a low-impact design, excellent UV stability, and superior tensile strength. The system supports the EPA’s Green Infrastructure initiative and is a recognized stormwater Best Management Practice (BMP).

Ideal for: Non-Structural applications such as levee armouring, protection of stream, river and canal banks, and in arid/semi-arid stormwater channels. Can also be used in structural applications to provide surficial slope stabilisation to resist shallow plane instability.

Find out more about permanent erosion control solutions

Global Synthetics provides a wide range of geosynthetic products including geotextiles, geogrids, turf reinforcement mats and many other drainage and erosion control solutions.

Get in touch with our engineering team for advice and support in selecting the product that is best for your project and best for the environment.