This website is here to promote the activities of TC 220 of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, which deals with Field Monitoring in Geomechanics.
The website takes its name from a series of international symposia entitled “Field Measurements in Geomechanics.” These symposia have been running since 1977 and deal with the use of field instrumentation by civil engineers, geotechnical engineers, mining engineers, engineering geologists and geophysicists to monitor the performance of geo-engineered structures.
"When you can measure what you are
speaking about and express it in numbers,
you know something about it”
Taken from a lecture to the Institution of
Civil Engineers on 03 May 1883.
It is well known that the real behaviour of geomechanical structures quite often differs from that predicted by numerical analyses carried out at the design stage, even though sophisticated computer programs are often used. This discrepancy may be simply because of the various uncertainties of geomaterials. In order to fill the gap between real and predicted behaviour of geomechanical structures, field measurements are carried out to verify the input data used in the original design, as well as to assess the integrity of the structures during construction. Nowadays, there are many different types of field measurements available. However, it should be noted that the field measurement data are only numbers unless they are properly interpreted. It is hoped that this website and the International Symposia will help people to use and understand the results from geotechnical and structural instrumentation.
All of these companies sponsored the creation of this website. Click on a logo to visit theirs.
The support of Marmota AZ and Solexperts, both of Switzerland, is also acknowledged.