Assessing the value of information to design site investigation and construction quality assurance programs - Risk and Reliability in Geotechnical Engineering - page 520

independent can be mathematically convenient, this assumption is not necessarily real-
istic and it can overstate the value of the information.
4. The value of information from site investigation data will generally depend strongly on
the geologic setting.
5. It is not reasonable to assume that probabilities can be established based entirely on
experience because that approach precludes the possibility of events beyond our expe-
rience. There is an important balance between relying entirely on experience versus
not relying on it at all.
There is ample room to improve the practicality in assessing the value of information to
design investigation and testing programs and to establish simple guidance and insights
without requiring detailed analyses.
aCknoWleDgMentS
The contents of this chapter were developed through a variety of research and consulting
projects supported by the United States National Science Foundation, the United States
Department of Interior, the State of Texas, the Center for Petroleum Asset Risk Management
at The University of Texas at Austin, and industry.
reFerenCeS
Ang, A. H.-S. and Tang, W. H. 1984, Probability Concepts in Engineering Planning and Design: Volume
2, Decision, Risk, and Reliability , John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Ang, A. H.-S. and Tang, W. H. 2007, Probability Concepts in Engineering: Emphasis on Applications in
Civil and Environmental Engineering , 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Benjamin, J. R. and Cornell, C. A. 1970, Probability, Statistics, and Decision for Civil Engineers ,
McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York.
Cheon, J. Y. and Gilbert, R. B. 2014, Modeling spatial variability in offshore geotechnical data for
reliability-based foundation design, Structural Safety , 49, 18-26.
Fisher, R. A. 1935, The Design of Experiments , The MacMillan and Co. Ltd., London, UK.
Gambino, S. J. and Gilbert, R. B. 1999, Modeling spatial variability in pile capacity for reliability-based
design, In Analysis, Design, Construction and Testing of Deep Foundations , Roesset Ed., ASCE
Geotechnical Special Publication No. 88, Reston, VA, 135-149.
Gilbert, R. B. 1997, Model to design QA/QC programs for geomembrane liner seams, Journal of
Engineering Mechanics, ASCE , 123(6), 586-595.
Gilbert, R. B. 2002, Questions for the future of risk assessment in environmental geotechnics,
Proceedings, Fourth International Congress on Environmental Geotechnics , Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, Vol. 2, 1007-1012.
Gilbert, R. B., Gambino, S. J. and Dupin, R. M. 1999a, Reliability-based approach for foundation
design without site-specific soil borings, Proceedings, Offshore Technology Conference , Houston,
Texas, OTC 10927, 631-640.
Gilbert, R. B., Habibi, M. and Min, N. 2012, Achieving reliability in the face of extreme uncer-
tainty, Keynote Paper, Proceedings, Asian Pacific Symposium on Structural Reliability and Its
Applications , Singapore.
Gilbert, R. B., Najjar, S. S., Choi, Y. J. and Gambino, S. J. 2008, Practical application of reliability-
based design in decision making, In Reliability-Based Design in Geotechnical Engineering:
Computations and Applications , Phoon Ed., Taylor & Francis Books Ltd., London.
Gilbert, R. B., Stong, T. J., Lang, J. T., Albrecht, R. S. and Dupin, R. M. 1999b, Optimizing investi-
gation programs for offshore platform foundations—Effect of geology on axial pile capacity,
Proceedings, 2nd International Conference on Seabed Geotechnics , IBC Ltd., London, UK.