Introduction

Engineering geology section, under the Geo-science Division of the Department of Mines and Geology is responsible for conducting various geological exploration works inside the country that directly links the geology with the engineering practices. This section works in a regular basis to prepare engineering and environmental geological maps of various cities and various other engineering geological investigations results of which can be very useful not only for geoscientists and geo-professionals working in this field, but also for planners and engineers for designing the geologically favorable engineering structures.

The Geotechnical Laboratory, under the Geo-science Division of the Department of Mines and Geology, is a well-equipped laboratory that provides a facility for analyzing various geotechnical properties of soil and rock material. Analyzing the systematically collected rock and soil samples following standard testing methodologies, this laboratory aims to provide the most accurate and most close to the ground, quantitative data on the various geotechnical parameters of soil and rock masses that may be helpful for one or many engineering purposes.

Staff

According to the current approved organizational structure of the Department of Mines and Geology, There are altogether three permanent staff in this section. Among them, two are geologists (Gazetted third class officer) who work under the Head of the section who is a Senior Divisional Geologist (Gazetted second class officer).

Responsibility of this section

To prepare engineering geological maps of different parts of the country, especially the urban areas and some rapidly developing cities

Publications

Engineering and Environmental geological maps

This section works to publish engineering geological maps of different parts of the country on a regular basis. This section has worked so far to publish engineering and environmental geological map of six different fast-growing cities of Nepal and eight such other maps are in the process of being published. These maps reconcile the maximum available information on the engineering geology of the studied areas like distribution of soil and hard rock formations, bearing capacity of the ground, earthquake-sensitive areas including liquefaction hazard maps, mass movement, flooding, and erosion activities, information on groundwater, existing and potential landfill sites within the cities, etc. in the form of a single integrated map. These maps are useful not only for geoscientists but also for planners and engineers of various governmental and non-governmental sectors for geologically favorable urban planning of potential new cities and for designing the geologically favorable engineering structures inside the mapped areas.

Anyone interested can get these maps from this department by paying the royalty to the Department of Mines and Geology. Digital data of these maps can also be obtained from the department by paying the royalty as specified by the department.

View Maps

Lists of published Engineering and Environmental geological maps