Observational approach and geotechnical instrumentation

Abstract

Engineering solutions to technical issues have traditionally been based on a single, fully established and robust design, where there is no or very limited intent to modify the designs and the objectives during the process of construction. Observational approach techniques developed to deal with uncertainties in the design process related to applied soil mechanics, and particularly instrumentation and monitoring, are widely known to geotechnical engineers. As the reliability of geotechnical instrumentation and laboratory testing techniques developed, the third design process using experimental methods became popular in optimizing designs. The geotechnical surveillance of structures is made visually through planned site inspections and using geotechnical instrumentation. In contrast, it has been demonstrated around the world that the Observational Approach can successfully be adopted and implemented to overcome difficulties or unknowns in construction. To overcome this, detailed descriptions of processes involved in OA pertaining to various geotechnical engineering projects are presented and discussed in a number of state-of-the-art publications.