Book excerpt: Reinforced soil is a composite material formed by the association of frictional soil and tension-resistant elements in the form of sheets, strips, nets or mats of metal, synthetic fabrics, or fibre reinforced plastics and arranged in the soil mass in such a way as to reduce or suppress the tensile strain that might develop under gravity and boundary forces. The variety and range of applications of reinforced soil technique are unlimited. Jones (1985) identified several field applications, viz., retaining walls, abutments, quay walls, embankments, dams, hill roads, housing, foundations, railways, industry, pipe works, waterway structures and underground structures. In several countries structures have been constructed using this technique and the concept has become very popular. The book covers all the important topics like Basic Mechanism, Strength Characteristics, Frictional Characteristics, Reinforced Soil, Wall, Wall with Reinforced Backfill, Foundation on Reinforced Soil, Soil Nailing and Randomly Distributed soil. Each chapter is supported by illustrative examples for easy understanding. In this edition, chapters on Reinforced Soil Wall, Foundation on Reinforced Soil, and Randomly distributed reinforced soil have been substantially modified making the book more useful. The book would well serve and benefit undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and professional geotechnical engineers.