Permafrost is widely distributed across the world and is found in Eurasia, North America, Antarctica and other regions. In China, permafrost covers approximately 2.15 million square kilometers, accounting for more than 20% of the national land area, and is mainly distributed on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Northeast China.

In recent years, remarkable achievements have been made in the construction and operation of major transportation infrastructure in seasonal frozen ground and permafrost regions, including high-speed railways, rail transit systems, expressways, urban roads, airports and ports. The theory, technology and engineering practice of transportation geotechnics in cold regions are developing rapidly.

To provide an international platform for academic exchange among researchers, engineers, designers, constructors, operators and educators in cold-region transportation geotechnical engineering, the 8th International Symposium on Transportation Soil Engineering in Cold Regions (TRANSOILCOLD 2027), as the TC202–TC216 joint conference of ISSMGE Technical Committees TC202 and TC216, will be held in Golmud, Qinghai, China, from Aug 6 to 8, 2027.

Conference Background

Seven editions of this international symposium series have been successfully held in Xining, China (2013); Siberia, Russia (2015); Guide, China (2017); Saint Petersburg, Russia (2019); Zhuhai, China (2021); Moscow, Russia (2023); and Incheon, Republic of Korea (2025). Initiated by the Qinghai Highway Society and Qinghai Polytechnic University, TRANSOILCOLD 2027 will continue the series as a TC202–TC216 Joint Conference, focusing on new scientific, technological and engineering challenges in cold-region transportation infrastructure.

Researchers, academics, engineers and professionals are invited to submit original research papers, case studies and technical contributions related to transportation soil engineering and geotechnics in cold regions. Submissions are expected to address frontier theories, innovative methods, field investigations, numerical and experimental studies, construction technologies, maintenance practices, monitoring, safety assessment and intelligent operation of transportation infrastructure in cold regions.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

• ● Climate change, permafrost degradation and adaptation strategies for cold-region transportation infrastructure.

• ● Resilient construction and sustainable development of railways, highways, airports, ports and urban transportation systems in cold regions.

• ● Mechanical, thermal and durability characteristics of embankment fills, frozen soils, improved soils and functional materials.

• ● Frost heave, thaw settlement, salt expansion, differential deformation and long-term deformation control of roadbeds and embankments.

• ● Hydro-thermal-mechanical-chemical multi-field coupling models for frozen soils and geotechnical structures.

• ● Field testing, laboratory testing, in-situ monitoring and full-scale model experiments for cold-region transportation geotechnics.

• ● Long-term service performance, performance prediction and life-cycle assessment of cold-region transportation infrastructure.

• ● Dynamic response, fatigue damage, vibration control and soil-structure interaction under traffic loading.

• ● Geotechnical problems in bridges, culverts, tunnels, underground construction and slopes under complex cold-region conditions.

• ● Nondestructive testing, remote sensing, structural health monitoring and multi-source data fusion for cold-region infrastructure.

• ● Artificial intelligence, scientific machine learning, large/foundation models and physics-informed neural networks in cold-region geotechnical engineering.

• ● Digital twins, smart operation and maintenance, risk warning and decision support for resilient transportation infrastructure.

• ● Uncertainty quantification, Bayesian methods, reliability analysis and multi-hazard risk assessment under freeze-thaw cycles and extreme climate events.

• ● Green and low-carbon materials, ecological construction technologies, carbon-footprint evaluation and environment-friendly maintenance in cold regions.

• ● Engineering standards, design methods, construction organization and operation/maintenance experience for cold-region transportation infrastructure.

• ● International case studies, cross-regional comparisons and young scholars’ innovative research in cold-region transportation geotechnics.

Sponsored by

The conference is held under the auspices of Technical Committees TC202 Transportation Geotechnics and TC216 Frost Geotechnics of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE).

Organised by

• Qinghai Highway Society

• Qinghai Polytechnic University

• Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Co-organised by

• Beijing Jiaotong University

• Sun Yat-sen University

• Qinghai Provincial Key Laboratory of Tibet Plateau Highway Construction and Maintenance Technology

• National Field Observation and Research Station (Qinghai Huashixia) for Frozen Soil Engineering of Highways

• National Field Observation and Research Station (Qinghai Beiluhe) for Plateau Frozen Soil Engineering Safety

• China Railway Qinghai-Tibet Group Co. Ltd

• Xizang Qingzang Petroleum Pipeline Co., Ltd.

• Research in Cold and Arid Regions

• Journal of Glaciology and Geocryology