Specific ecological-geological systems (EGS), which consists of abiotic and biotic components, are formed on landfill soil bodies. In Russia, the number of such EGS, most of which cause accumulated environmental damage, is quite large. However, the ecological-geological features of such systems on solid municipal waste soil bodies almost have not been studied. This article considers the general ecological-geological features of such soil bodies. It shows that the EGS of landfill soil bodies are specific formations for which their lithotopes play a decisive role, and those lithotopes are composed of municipal waste soils that are rich in organic components. This, in turn, influences on the composition and properties of technogenic soils (technogenic edaphotopes) formed on those formations and of technogenic microbiо-, phyto-, and zoocenoses.

While some engineering surveyors wait for winter to get to the Arctic sites, which cannot be reached through the marshes in summer, others, on the contrary, rush to do everything in a short short northern summer. Sergey Lan’ko, an associate professor of the Geotechnics Department at St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, narrated about field studies in the Arctic zone on his Telegram channel. The editorial staff of the “Geoinfo” journal asked him to share details about the tests of steel and composite piles with various coatings in Novy Urengoy, and also asked other experts about how engineering surveys in the Arctic differs from ones in other regions and why people take up projects on permafrost.

The BRICS summit will be held in Kazan from October 22 to October 24. In 2024, Russia preside over this association. The chairman status passes to each State in turn and means that during the year it will be responsible for events and will host the summit. At the initiative of the Russian Federation, more than 200 events, which were aimed at economic security and cooperation development were planned, including the VIII International Conference “Development of the Institute of Construction Expertise”. It took place in September in Kazan and echoed other events within the framework of the Customer Year invented by specialists of the Glavgosexperitza of the RF. The leadership of this department wants to turn the of experts’ work from routine one to interesting one. The image of an expert, who is only engaged in looking for flaws and writing comments, should remain in the past. Business partnership and expert consulting should be instead of that. One is talking not only about state expertise, but also about the market of expert services in general, about the development of the expert community and about the digitalization of document management. The conference “Development of the Institute of Construction Expertise” was attended by specialists from seven countries, such as Russia, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. This article focuses on the main points of this event, tells about the priorities of developing the institute of expertise, about the technical customer, and about new digital tools that are relevant at all the stages of the life cycle of a construction object.

In October 2024, the Institute of Environmental Design and Surveys (“IEPI” JSC) has celebrated its fifteenth anniversary. It seems to be a young age. But the organization has come up to this date having matured considerably. Today, in addition to integrated engineering surveys for construction, from which it all began, the “IEPI” JSC performs marine and satellite investigations, urban planning design, landscape design, environmental design, projects for managing ice conditions and preserving biodiversity. The first work in the field of developing and implementing climate projects has recently begun. Vladimir Slobodyan, the general director of the “IEPI” JSC, told us how they managed to achieve such a multifaceted and effective development. The example of this company can be very useful and interesting for many survey and design-survey organizations whose development is gradually stagnating or has long reached their ceilings.

The Russian government is interested in large-scale construction on the Caspian Sea coast, in creating a new resort area in Dagestan and in developing port infrastructure in the Astrakhan region. However, this largest lake-sea in the world is getting shallow. Investors and builders would like to know exactly how its level will change, but scientists are very cautious in their forecasts and prefer to talk only about the probability of changes. The Caspian Sea level is constantly fluctuating, its fall and rise can last even for tens, hundreds and thousands of years. The Caspian behaves like a sailor who left a bar: one sets the feet to the left and one gets to the right and somewhere forward. He will go away anyway, but it is unknown in which direction. This metaphor was recalled at the round table “Caspian Sea. The problem of its level fluctuations. New threats?” that was held at the geography faculty of Moscow State University. The scientists, who attended the round table, talked about past investigations, about various approaches and about mathematical modeling of various situations. In this article, we will focus on some points of that event, touch upon the current news agenda and present some engineers’ opinions.

Elena Zvonareva, an advisor to the Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities, a deputy head of the Competence Center for Digital Transformation of the Construction Industry of the Russian Federation, participates in the formation of the nationwide digital vertical of construction. The experience of Moscow serves as a guideline for the regions, but it is not applicable everywhere, because everyone has different resources, distances, climate conditions, experience, and mentality. In order to assemble all the “puzzles”, it is necessary to communicate, look for approaches constantly, and to understand that the digital vertical is an achievable goal, but its implementation cannot be very fast. Elena Zvonareva told the editorial staff of the “Geoinfo” journal how she sees the digital future of construction, what digital maturity is, why regions should learn from each other, what is the benefits of the professional community and why conservatism is an opportunity.

In October 2024, the IV International Construction Championship was held in Yekaterinburg. Within its framework, on October 4, the NOTECH association (National Association of Technical Customers) held the expert session on the topic “Development of the technical customer institute in Russia”. This event was attended by Alexandr Lomakin (the First Deputy Minister of Construction, Housing and Utilities of Russia) and Igor Manylov (the head of the Glavgosexpertiza of Russia). The speakers also were: Pavel Gusyatnikov (the director of the department for work with infrastructure enterprises of the Moscow Bank of the Sberbank PJSC), Mikhail Ermilov (the partner of the “Engineering” practice of the Strategy Partners company that is a subsidiary of the Sberbank PJSC), Husein Pliyev (the general director of the SMART ENGINEERS group of companies), Gennadiy Kirkin (the president of the IRIBIS engineering corporation), Kirill Shvets (the general director of the GRIN LLC), Konstantin Egorov (the Director of the StroyKapitalConsulting LLC). This article provides a brief overview of their speeches.