Risk and reliability in geotechnical engineering / Риск и надежность в геотехническом проектировании

Risk and Reliability in Geotechnical Engineering was originally conceived as an update to our 2008 Taylor & Francis book Reliability-Based Design in Geotechnical Engineering—Computations and Applications. However, R&D in this domain has gained pace over the past 6 years and it is the collective opinion of the contributors that it is timely to write a new book. One important milestone that took place after 2008 is the recognition by the broader structural community that geotechnical reliability is fundamentally distinctive from structural reliability in various important aspects. A new Annex D on “Reliability of Geotechnical Structures” will be included in the third edition of ISO2394 (2015) to emphasize the need to be sensitive to the practical needs of geotechnical engineering in the general application reliability principles. In other words, one expects more attention to be paid on realism in research and the practice of geotechnical reliability.
There is little doubt that the evaluation of the subsurface condition (including soil/rock properties) is one key aspect that distinguishes geotechnical engineering from structural engineering practice. Soils and rocks are naturally occurring geomaterials that cannot be produced according to factory specifications. Dealing with variability is the norm, not the exception, in geotechnical engineering practice. Site investigation is mandated by building regulations in many countries, in part because it is important to appreciate variable subsurface conditions in geotechnical design. Given the diversity of site conditions and the associated diversity of local practices that evolved to deal with these site-specific conditions, it is also possible for geotechnical variability to be comparable or even larger than the variability in the loadings <...>