Engineering Function of Vegetation

• Drain Function: The planting configuration of the vegetation can enhance drainage or water infiltration.
• Armor Function: the vegetation absorbs the energy of falling rain and, like a armor, protect the slope against surface erosion from both rain splash effect and runoff.
• Catch Function: Eroding material moving down a slope, as a result of gravity alone or with the aid of water, can be intercepted by stems of vegetation (grass stems and trunks) or by protruding element of the bio-engineering structure
• Support Function: Support the soil mass by buttressing and arching.
• Reinforce Function: Reinforce the soil by providing a network of roots that increases the geotechnical properties of the soils: resistance to shear, and the cohesion.
• Anchor Function: Anchor the surface material by extending roots through potential failure planes into firmer strata below. Big tap roots are good for deeper failure plane.