Solutions for soil engineering and soil-structure interaction problems need realistic and pertinent experimental and modelling tools. In this work, extensive developments proposed by the;invited;speakers of;the Lyon International Symposium held in September 2003;are presented, including experimental investigations into deformation properties; laboratory, in-situ and field observation interpretations; behaviour characterisation and modelling; and;case histories. The contributions;include recent investigations into anisotropy and non-linearity, the effects of stress-strain-time history, ageing and time effects, yielding, failure and flow, cyclic and dynamic behaviour. In addition, advanced geotechnical testing is applied;to real engineering problems, and to ways of synthesising information from a range of sources while engaging in practical site characterisation studies.
