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The Swedish Geotechnical Institute, SGI, is a government agency. We are also a research institute. The Swedish government and parliament decide what we should work on.

One of our tasks is to reduce the risk of natural disasters such as landslides and soil erosion.

We usually say that it should be safe to live and travel in Sweden. By this, we mean that houses, bridges, roads, railways, and other things we build on the ground should not collapse and harm us.

We know a lot about soil and how to build on the ground. To find out if the ground is safe to build on, we need to know what kind of soil is at the location. The ground can be examined in different ways. Sometimes we take soil samples and analyze them in a laboratory. Sometimes we measure directly on site using different types of equipment.

Our job is to find better ways to investigate the ground. We have a laboratory where we can do different tests on soil. For example, we study what happens when the soil is under pressure or how pollutants spread in the soil.

Erosion is a natural process that we know a lot about. Erosion is the slow wearing down of nature, caused by weather and wind. The wind and waves carry away grains of soil and sand. This can be a problem, such as along the coast of Skåne. Our task is to look at different ways to reduce the damage caused by erosion.

Another task we help with is adapting Sweden to a new and warmer climate with more rain. When it rains, the amount of water in the soil and in our waterways changes. This, in turn, affects the soil and how safe it is to build on.

Many industries use different chemicals. These toxic substances can then end up in nature and harm people. We work to find new ways to make the soil free from toxins.

About 100 people work at SGI. Many of them are engineers and are called geotechnical engineers. Our main office is in Linköping. We also have offices in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö.