The shrinkage of fabric-supported reinforced geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) panels covered by a geomembrane and left exposed with no overlying soil was openly documented as a potential problem in 2005. Laboratory and field testing has been conducted in an attempt to understand this problem.   Various manufacturing, design, and construction measures have been suggested to mitigate the potential loss of GCL overlap due to shrinkage. These measures include increasing the GCL seam overlap, reducing the length of time that the geosynthetics remain uncovered by soil, use of a reflective surface on the geomembrane, supplying the GCL material with a lower initial water content, utilizing a thermally-locked scrim reinforcement, encapsulating the GCL between geomembranes, and applying a heat-tacking technique to the overlap. Ongoing studies continue to investigate the mechanisms of shrinkage so that other solutions to this problem can be confidently proposed.