Dr. Giroud became interested in canals in 1973, when he provided assistance to SOGREAH, a well-known design firm for irrigation projects, for the design and specifications for the Esfahan Canals in Iran, constructed in 1975. These were the first large canals lined with a permanent geosynthetic liner system. In fact, the Esfahan Canals were, for several years, the largest project in the world for the quantity of geotextiles and geomembranes used.
Then, Dr. Giroud was contacted by the World Bank, in Washington D.C. to provide design assistance for the Balikh Canal in Syria, and to participate in a World Bank mission in Syria. On that occasion, in 1979, Dr. Giroud was invited to present a seminar to the World Bank on geosynthetic liner systems and in particular their application to canals.
In 2012, Dr. Giroud played a key role in the design of the rehabilitation of Tekapo Canal, a large hydroelectric canal in New Zealand. He performed an analysis of the behavior of candidate geomembrane liners during the opening of a crack, in case of an earthquake. Also, he performed an analysis of the geomembrane uplift by the dynamic pressure of the water flowing in the canal and the design of the required anchorage of the geomembrane liner.
In 2012, Dr. Giroud provided technical assistance for the Vilavilani Canal in Peru: analysis of flow in the canal and geomembrane seaming.
In 2012-2015, Dr. Giroud provided design assistance for the Water Savings Basins of the Panama Canal Locks, including: geomembrane specifications, geomembrane service life evaluation, geomembrane liner resistance to wind uplift, and geomembrane ability to bridge irregularities of the supporting material.
In 2015, Dr. Giroud did geomembrane uplift calculations for the Larona Canal in Indonesia.
In 2004, Dr. Giroud wrote the prologue of the manual on canal liners of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) titled “Applications of Geosynthetics in Irrigation and Drainage Projects”.
In 2007, Dr. Giroud presented a short course on geosynthetic liners in canals, in Lisbon, Portugal. To prepare for this short course, Dr. Giroud reviewed a significant amount of information and case histories from many countries on the use of geosynthetics in canals.
Dr. Giroud has outstanding experience with geosynthetic liners (see his Statement of Qualifications (SOQ) on Liner Systems), in particular in landfills, liquid reservoirs and dams. This experience can be used readily for liner systems used in canals. This experience is both in design and in field activities, such as construction quality assurance; and Dr. Giroud has worked with all types of geomembrane liners, for example, polymeric geomembranes, such as HDPE, LLDPE, PVC, CSPE (Hypalon) and polypropylene geomembranes, and bituminous geomembranes.