Classified Earthworks
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Classified Earthworks is a proposed field-scale architecture for turning heterogeneous soil, excavation spoil, sediments, mineral fines, and biomass into source-traceable material classes whose possible uses are bounded by sampling, testing, transformation, engineering review, and continuing evidence. It joins materials recovery to landscape water design and makes each excavation both a custody event and a potential observation of soil, geology, and hydrology. The system is not a claim that local material is safe, that firing preserves its chemistry, that infiltration is desirable at every site, or that a passport certifies performance. Source material can be heterogeneous, contaminated, unstable, saline, reactive, culturally sensitive, legally restricted, or unsuitable for reuse. Screening and separation can concentrate hazards and create wastewater, dust, emissions, or residuals. Hydrologic interventions can mobilize contamination, destabilize slopes, damage habitat, or affect downstream rights. This paper defines a batch and use-class contract, custody chain, decision outcomes, transformation boundaries, material passport, safety and professional-authority gates, data-governance model, pilot evidence ladder, and realization funnel. Its central contribution is a governed routing architecture: material is characterized and assigned only to uses supported by the evidence and jurisdiction of a declared project profile.
Author: Ableman, Adam
Language: English
Subfield: Building and Construction
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7224997272