Geotechnics for Sustainable Development in the Context of Climate Change

Countries across the world are grappling with the unprecedented twin challenge of providing secure energy while curbing global heating to avoid the worst eects of the current climate crisis. In parallel, on-going global warming enhances local extreme weather conditions, which in turn increases the frequency of geohazards, such as sinkholes, landslides or earthquakes. Contributing to the development of green energy sources while protecting infrastructure against the occurrence of this potentially catastrophic geohazardous events is becoming increasingly important for the built environment.

The geotechnical engineers and researchers play a central role in addressing these issues and providing novel and innovative solutions to combat and adapt to climate change whilst constructing sustainable infrastructure for the future. My research in geomechanics and soil-structure interaction is at the interface between energy and sustainable infrastructure, with the aim of developing geotechnical solutions in the context of climate change.

I focus principally on two main axes of research:

1 | The design and optimisation of foundations and support structures for wind energy applications

I have over 10 years research experience working on improving design methods and further understanding the behaviour of foundations for offshore wid turbines subjected to a range of loading conditions:

• Long-term cyclic loading (principally the HARM model)
• Monotonic ultimate limit loads (PISA method)
• Seismic excitations (in particular, the behaviour of the transition piece)
• Anchors for floating offshore wind turbines
• Knowledge transfer for optimisation of onshore wind foundations for carbon emission and cost reductions
  
  

2 | Modelling and monitoring of ground movements for climate-change induced geo-hazards

I am the academic lead for  the SINEW project, an on-going research project that aimed at developing an early-warning system for ground movement based on combined fibre optic sensing and satellite monitoring. This project is in collboration with the University of Pretoria (South Africa°, the University Federico II (Naples, Italy), the University of Cambridge (UK) and the University of Manchester (UK).

Short Biography

Dr. Christelle Abadie graduated in 2011 with a double degree from ENSTA Paris and an MSc in Advanced Structural Design. She then completed a PhD at the University of Oxford, specializing in offshore geotechnics, where she developed a novel model for monopile foundations under cyclic lateral loading. Following her PhD, Dr. Abadie continued research as the lead postdoctoral researcher on the PISA2 project at Oxford. In 2018, she became an Assistant Professor at the University of Cambridge, where she was the youngest permanent academic staff member in Engineering and the first female fellow in Engineering at Fitzwilliam College. In 2023, she joined the University Gustave Eiffel as a permanent member of the academic staff in the geotechnical centrifuge group, where she focuses on advancing next-generation offshore wind turbine foundations.

Dr. Abadie is an active member of the offshore geotechnical community, collaborating with leading offshore wind energy companies. She has served as the academic representative for the British Offshore Engineering Society and as the UK representative for the European Large Geotechnical Institutes Platform. Dr. Abadie is also a corresponding member of TC209 and contributed as lead editor and co-general secretary for the 2025 ISFOG conference. In recognition of her contributions to the field, she was awarded the 2025 Bright Spark Award in Offshore Geotechnics.