Geotechnical Investigation and Data Gathering

The geology of a site and its surroundings have a major impact on the design and planning of civil engineering, tunneling, mining, and other similar activities in a particular area. Initial geotechnical investigations usually include surveying/scanning, assessment of rock and soil samples, and other techniques.

Depending on the situation, topography, and type of project that is planned, further geotechnical investigations may also be required. While initial surveying and testing are mostly focused on yielding a snapshot overview of site conditions, sometimes it is also necessary to perform an ongoing investigation over several days or weeks in order to gather data about movements and behaviour of rock, soil, water and other elements present at the site.

Building up a bank of data that shows how geological, topographical, hydrological, and other features behave in normal conditions and react to existing stresses can give engineers useful information that allows them to determine what normal, safe movement is for the site and also make accurate assumptions about how the site will react to extra stresses, whether they be natural or those introduced during excavation and construction of a mine or civil engineering project.

One of the ways data can be obtained for geotechnical investigation purposes is to install an array of movement, hydrological, temperature, and other sensors within the affected area.

If these instruments are connected to wireless nodes, which are in turn connected to a comprehensive data acquisition and processing system, like the LS-G6 from Loadsensing (civil and surface mining) or Newtrax systems (underground mining), building up sufficient quantities of accurate data becomes a straightforward task, This allows engineers to spend their time interpreting data and making quality decisions, rather than running around gathering information.