Soil in Cambodia is highly erosive, and its landscape is constantly changing due to natural and man-made causes. Soil material of good quality for embankment construction is mostly unavailable throughout the country. Soil bioengineering is a widely accepted method for erosion control. In this method, appropriate grass is used for strengthening the soil or slope structure.

Soil Bioengineering for Infrastructure Development in Cambodia: A Study on Vetiver Grass and Liquid Soil Catalysts for Road Projects is based on the VetiverBased Bioengineered Slope Protection and Liquid Soil Catalyst Agents to Improve Soil-Bearing Capacity project funded by the ADB under the Technical Assistance 9631: Southeast Asia Transport Project Preparatory Facility—Integrated Road Network Improvement Project Preparation. The study proposes to evaluate the effectiveness of a combination of bioengineered slope protection and liquid soil catalyst for embankment protection of National Road 23 (NR23) and Provincial Road 312 (PR312) in Cambodia.

The study focuses on two areas: (i) protection of side slopes of embankments using Vetiver grass-based bioengineering method and (ii) improvement of soilbearing capacity using a liquid soil catalyst agent.