A group of five experts and scholars from the Key Laboratory of Geotechnical Mechanics and Engineering of MWR participated in the 7th National Conference on Geosynthetics and the 4th Asian Regional Conference on Geosynthetics (Geosynthetics Asia 2008) held from 17th  to 20th  June 2008 at the Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai, China.

The conference was sponsored by the Chinese Chapter of the International Geosynthetics Society（CCIGS）and the Chinese Technical Association on Geosynthetics (CTAG), 189 scholars from 28 countries and regions such as China, Japan, America, Canada, Britain and Australia attended the conference. Mr. F.Tatsuoka, chairman of the International Geosynthetics Society and professor of Tokyo University of Science made a keynote lecture titled "Geosynthetics Engineering Combining Two Engineering Disciplines with Particular Reference to Geosynthetic-reinforced Soil Retaining Walls". The chairmen of regional branches and the famous experts from different fields gave keynote or invited reports. Prof. Bao Cheng-gang from CRSRI gave an invited report on the "Application of Geosynthetics in South-to-North Water Transfer Project” and was awarded the "Special Achievment Award", "IGS Award" and "Service Award for Excellence ". Mr. Tong Jun from Environmental Geotechnical Engineering Department of the Key Laboratory made a speech in the hydraulic session.

The theme of the conference focused on the application of geosynthetics in civil and environmental engineering, for this purpose, a special forum on the “Application of Geosynthetics in Landfill Project” was held at the closing ceremony. The specially invited representatives from France, Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Brazil and America introduced the status quo of landfill projects of their own countries respectively, and a heated discussion was set off among participants. 157 papers submitted will be published by Springer Press and Zhejiang Univ.

The 5th Asian Regional Conference on Geosynthetics will be held in Sept. 2010 in Thailand and the 9th International Conference on Geosynthetics will be held from May 23 to 27 in 2010 in Brazil.

This conference provides an international communication platform for scholars at home and abroad in the field of geosynthetics and its application, and the achievements in geosynthetics of CRSRI have been publicized and the influence of CRSRI in this field has been enhanced.