New theories and testing techniques related with Unsaturated Soil Mechanics have proven to be valuable tools to study a broad spectrum of geo-materials which includes rocks, rock fills, frozen soils and domiciliary solid wastes. These new theories and testing techniques have permitted the analysis of several traditional problems from a new perspective (e.g., swelling or collapsible soils and compacted soils or pavements materials), and they have also shown their efficiency to study new energy-related problems like CO2 sequestration and nuclear waste disposal. Advances in Unsaturated Soils is a collection of papers from the 1st Pan-American Conference on Unsaturated Soils organized in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, in February 2013. The volume includes 76 research papers coming for all over the world, as well as 7 keynotes papers by well known international researchers. The contributions present a variety of topics including: * Advances in testing techniques * Unsaturated soil behavior * Constitutive modeling and microstructure * Numerical modeling * Geotechnical problems Advances in Unsaturated Soils is expected to become a useful reference to academics and professionals involved in Unsaturated Soil Mechanics.

This book presents the collection of technical papers which includes research on two important topics in geotechnical engineering; the characterization of unsaturated soils. The papers in this collection are representative of local challenges facing geotechnical engineers in the Middle East, but their contributions can also be extended to other regions of the world.