Site investigation process

The objectives of site investigation can generally be met by collecting and reviewing existing information (the desk study), visiting and examining the site (the walk-over survey), by carrying out fieldwork (trial pitting, drilling, sampling, monitoring, etc.) and laboratory work, and through the careful interpretation of the data revealed by this process. The details of these processes can be found in a number of textbooks (Clayton et al., 1995; Simons et al., 2002; Schnaid, 2009) and standards, and so are not discussed here. The purpose of this section is to discuss each of the activities in general, and to comment on their relative cost, reliability and effectiveness in meeting the objectives of site investigations.