Geotextiles are textiles applied on soil for improvement of some of its technical characteristics. Geotextiles may be either synthetic or natural. Synthetic Geotextiles are made of synthetic fibres like polypropylene, Polyethelene and some other petrochemical derivatives. Natural Geotextiles, on the other hand, are made out of natural fibres like jute, coir, sisal and the like. Jute Geotextile is thus a variety of natural geotextiles.
Properly designed jute geotextiles are supposed to perform the following functions separately or in conjunction in the application areas related to civil engineering:

• Separation
• Filtration and drainage
• Initial reinforcement
• control of detachment surface soil
• Vegetation support
In view of the aforesaid function there are several areas of application of jute geotextile in civil engineering which have proved effective after field trials. These are:
• Surface soil erosion control
• Bank protection in rivers and waterways
• Erosion control in slopes
• Stability of embankments for highways, railways and flood-control.
• Strengthening of a road structure
• Consolidation of soft soil

JUTE GEOTEXTILES FOR BANK PROTECTION OF WATERWAYS :
Application Areas
The conventional method of river bank protection envisages laying of a permeable multi-layer granular overlay on the eroded surface with armours on top. The method is not only expensive and time-consuming, but also eludes precise placement as per the design thickness and grading. Use of a jute geotextile filter can simplify the protective construction in terms of ease of installation, economy and precision.


Technical Functions:
• Retention of fines with the tailor-made porometry (size of openings) in the jute geotextile.
• Separation of the soil surface from the armour-overlay.
• Promotion of growth of vegetation leading to natural protection.
• Prevention of development of differential pore-water over-pressure across the jute geotextile due to its site-specific permittivity (across) and transmittivity (along plane) functions.

CONSTRUCTION OF EMBANKMENT
Application Areas
• Construction of railway, road and flood embankments on soil of low bearing capacity.
• Slope protection of high embankments.
• Effective drainge system.
• Vertical drains to drain out water in the embankment during construction.


TECHNICAL FUNCTIONS
Jute Geotextile
• Check subsidence of a pavement by separating and preventing intermixing of the soft sub-grade and the harder sub-base.
• Arrests migration of soil particles and allows water to permeate across it. Also acts as a drainage layer along its plane. Can be tailor-made to cater to the requirements of porometry,premittivity and transmittivity. Enhances CBR-value at the subgrade lavel.
• Enhances strength and stability of high road embankment built with materials of uncertain behaviour like PFA (pulverised fly-ash), when interposed at appropriate levels-Also keeps lateral dispersion, subsidence and slides (slip circle failures) under check.
• Provides effective drainage system when used as peripheral cover in trench drains, specially in hilly terrains.
• Vertical fibre drains, helps drain out entrapped water from within an embankment. Useful for both surface and sub-surface drainage.
• Slopes of embankments with problematic soil may be stabilised by applying jute geotextile to help grow vegetation faster and anchor soil for a permanent solution


PROTECTION OF SLOPES
Application Areas
• Protection of slopes in road and railway embankments, bridge approaches, hills, terraces in hilly terrains.
• Stabilisation of sand-dunes, mine spoils, O B dumps in open cast mines, PFA dumps in thermal power plants, slag heaps.
• Promotion of quick vegetation in areas denuded by natural calamities like cyclones, earthquakes, landslides.
• Stabilisation of waste-dumps.


Technical Functions:
• Jute Geotextile when used on the exposed slopes and bare soil, reduces erodibility coefficient of the soil(and restrains the progressive detachment and transport of soil particles due to the rain splash and flow of water along the slope, reducing soil loss).
• Highly water absorbent; absorbs water about 5 times its weight.
• Highly drapable - drapability enhances when wet.
• Forms ''mulch'' - retains moisture and builds up a humid surrounding conducive to germination of seeds and growth of plants. Stimulates growth of vegetation - 100% coverage within 3 months on fertile topsoil.
• Helps in consolidation of waste and garbage.
• Enhances roughness of the soil surface which helps in reduction of velocity of water-flow over it and helps entrapment of eroded soil-particles.