GIS applications in Geotechnical Engineering???
GIS applications in Geotechnical Engineering???
(OP)
Im Looking for information on GIS applications in Geotechnical Engineering. Ive seen a few papers written from engineers in India, but not very much from the U.S. Does anyone know of a Civil engineering firm that makes use of this technology on a regular basis?
Thank you.
Thank you.





RE: GIS applications in Geotechnical Engineering???
GIS applications are not-discipline specific. GIS software may be used in the context of an investigation, but is not necessarily limited to the geotechnical side of the project.
Software that I have used to assist with previous investigations include gINT, Global Mapper (unregistered version), and Trimble's GPS Pathfinder Office. These applications do not play with each other seamlessly, so data from one application was exported and massaged to a suitable import format for the next as needed.
Other handy software includes OmniFormat and MS Paint (for converting PDF images to a raster format) and A9CAD and Bentley Redline (for converting CAD files to DXF format).
gINT, Pathfinder Office and Bentley Redline are licensed commercial products. The remainder are available to be used under Windows or other "unregistered" (but crippled) licenses.
Obviously, this was very kludgy, but it did permit me to gain insights into the spatial relationships between the conditions encountered at the borings and other information such as USGS topo, air photos, planned construction etc.
Jeff
RE: GIS applications in Geotechnical Engineering???
Thanks for replying. I was begining to think no one knew what I was talking about.
My next question , or actually what I originally wanted to know was, HOW can I use GIS in Geotechnical work in all it's aspects?
Hope that makes sense.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Labgrunt
RE: GIS applications in Geotechnical Engineering???
Let your imagination be your guide. What information do you have that's relevant? How can you arrange the data spatially in order to provide you with an insight that you couldn't otherwise get? Be creative.
I would typically use several applications to obtain layout or approximate as-drilled coordinates for borings. Overlaying these locations on USGS topo maps can help you with the interpretation of what's fill/not fill, and approximating existing/historical surface elevations (boreholes are so rarely surveyed, a fact that disappoints me to no end).
Commercial-grade GIS systems (software packages designed for easy interoperability) can be very expensive, so they're generally not cost-effective for small projects and practically unheard of for large projects unless there is a deep-pocketed government agency (or mining company) involved as an owner/client or partner. Even then, the geotech largely has no experience exploiting the information.
Fortunately, many US states and federal agencies are beginning to develop good-quality datasets that are available for low or no cost. Well records for water oil ad gas, for example. Mine subsidence maps can also be had if you dig into state websites. NRCS Soil Survey information can be had using the online viewer (maybe even downloadable, too).
MS Word and Excel are very helpful at massaging data being transferred from one application to another. You may also find Surfer (surface and mesh generation) helpful, but it's also commercial.
Jeff
RE: GIS applications in Geotechnical Engineering???
My personal opinion is gINT/PLOG and a nice handheld GPS unit/computer interface program are worth the cost versus the headache of trouble shooting 2-3 different format jumps to make everything play nice with each other.
RE: GIS applications in Geotechnical Engineering???
we once kept track of the lat/longs of jobsites but that managed to get screwed up since when we have repeat clients, job info sheets for past jobs are used to quickly fill out new ones to input in to the system. quite often, the lat/long would not get changed so then you end up with 20 jobs at the same location. sort of our own fault or the people inputing the information and not defaulting the lat/longs to zero.
i think it would be awesome to some how compile all of our boring data to specific lat/long and have that information available. we drill hundreds of sites a year in this area so we have the potential to have a very "complete" database. it would be a very complex and complicated task, so i'm not sure how one would accomplish compiling such a database. if you started now going forward, it should be much easier since you could update it as you go. i'm sure someone out there like usgs would be very interested in the geological information that could be obtained.
RE: GIS applications in Geotechnical Engineering???
RE: GIS applications in Geotechnical Engineering???
Ohio DOT requires GPS survey of all test hole locations. Using a couple of hours ahead of time to setup layout waypoints is a huge time saver - especially when you're laying out hundreds of borings (we did about 390 test borings along a 22-mile segment in my last big DOT job) across corn and bean fields.
The DOT is compiling a huge library of all new test borings performed for DOT projects across the state. Northings and Eastings are reported in State Plane coordinates.
The equipment we used was a Trimble GeoXT (2003 series) handheld that permitted post-processing of collected points against CORS data for potentially submeter horizontal accuracy. Ususally this only required about 3 minutes at each boring or feature of interest.
Submeter vertical accuracy with that GPS unit takes a lot more time (by about a factor of 5 or 10) per feature, so the usual strategy is to generate a synthetic vertical ordinate based on a sitewide survey using real-time differential GPS techniques with way more expensive equipment.
The GeoXT and software cost about $4000 a few years back. I'm sure that it's fallen a bit since then with better capabilities in the newest models.
Jeff
RE: GIS applications in Geotechnical Engineering???
RE: GIS applications in Geotechnical Engineering???