Chapter 94: Principles of geotechnical monitoring

Almost every construction project involving soil or rock runs some risk of encountering surprises, in particular ‘unforeseen ground conditions’. Compared with other branches of civil engineering where there is greater control over the materials used, monitoring is vital to the practice of geotechnical design and construction. For this reason geotechnical engineers, unlike their colleagues in many other fields, must have more than a casual knowledge of geotechnical monitoring and instrumentation: it is an essential working tool.The benefits of geotechnical monitoring are outlined in this chapter. These are followed by a systematic approach to planning monitoring programmes using geotechnical instrumentation, an example of systematic planning and general guidelines on the execution of monitoring programmes.