Establishing Baseline Practices and Identifying User Needs for Electronic Archiving and Web Dissemination of Geotechnical Data

Transcription

1 Establishing Baseline Practices and Identifying User Needs for Electronic Archiving and Web Dissemination of Geotechnical Data Geohazards in Transportation in the Appalachian Region 3 rd Annual Technical Forum August 7, 2003 Loren L. Turner, P.E. Caltrans Senior Transportation Engineer

2 Overview! Geotechnical data management.! Why use web dissemination technologies?! Pilot Virtual Data Center project! Survey of baseline practices! What next?

3 Geotechnical Data Management! Many organizations are paper-based.! Need more efficient information systems.

4 Motivation! Need access to existing data within agency. Reduce drilling expenses. Expedite project delivery.! Want access to other s data within geo-professional community.! Conduct research to advance the state-of-practice Availability of larger data sets. Facilitate data mining.

5 The Vision...! Field operations Electronic field data collection Interactive boring log development while onsite Final report products available immediately

6 The Vision...! Office operations Contract LOTBs Electronic field data collection Data Warehouse Drafter Engineer/Geologist Analysis, Visualization, & Design

7 Reporting Tools! LogPlot, gint

8 Visualization Tools! RockWorks

9 Access data from multiple providers Geotech Consultant Engineering Firms Information Gateway

10 Web Dissemination Technologies! Caltrans Cone Penetration Test (CPT) Data Contract LOTBs Electronic field data collection 3.5 Floppy Disk Drafter Engineer/Geologist Analysis, Visualization, & Design

11 Web Dissemination Technologies! Caltrans Cone Penetration Test (CPT) Data Contract LOTBs Web Server Drafter Analysis, Visualization, & Design Electronic field data collection Engineer/Geologist

12 Web Dissemination Technologies

13 Virtual Data Center (VDC) Project! Sponsored by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Lifelines Program Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) Caltrans California Energy Commission (CEC)! Partners U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) California Geological Survey (CGS)

14 Project Team! Dr. Carl Stepp (PI) Consortium of Organizations for Strong-Motion Observation Systems (COSMOS)! Dr. Jennifer Swift (Co-PI & Workgroup Leader) University of Southern California! Prof. Jean Benoit (Workgroup Leader) University of New Hampshire! Loren Turner (Workgroup Leader) California Dept. of Transportation (Caltrans)

15 Project Objectives! Develop a pilot web-based center for dissemination of geotechnical data from multiple linked geotechnical database archives.! Pilot system will link database archives of: Caltrans CGS PG&E USGS! Pilot system will be expansible to additional database archives

16 Types of Data! Project description, borehole location, drilling methods, and tools! Logging of soils and rock with depth! Lab test data! In-situ test data! Geophysical test data Environmental Engineering Practice Geotechnical Engineering Practice COSMOS Standard Regional Geologic Applications Research & Specialty Testing

17 Project Scope Task 1: Task 2: Task 3: Task 4: Define geotechnical data user scenarios for a pilot virtual data center system. Conduct an online geotechnical data user survey to assess baseline practices. Develop a data dictionary standard for the pilot system expansible to a larger system that could link multiple databases. Develop pilot system architecture based on user needs. Link CGS, Caltrans, PG&E and USGS geotechnical data sets, using Harvester Architecture. Plan and implement a workshop structured to obtain geotechnical community consensus and deliver a proceedings that will serve as an expanded implementation plan.

18 Task 1: Approach! Identify the users.! Develop a survey to establish a baseline of current practice: " Types of geotechnical data " Lifecycle of data " Patterns of use " Samples of currents products! Conduct the survey.! Identify the most relevant user scenarios.! Define desired functional requirements of system: " User interface " Method of access " Availability of data " Type and format of data

19 Online User Survey! Developed with ASP, Javascript, and Access.! 98 multiple choice questions.! Organized by topical areas of practice.

20 Online User Survey

21 Online User Survey! Marketing/Advertising Over and mail notices distributed! Contacts in every state DOT! Contacts in every state GS! USUCGER! USGEOTECH! GeoCouncil Published in EERI Notification within organizations Personal contacts

22 Online User Survey! Final results compiled for responses between July 19, 2002 and February 4, 2003.! 217 validated responses

23 Who took the survey?! Majority of responses came from government agencies (64%) and consultants (24%).! Large percentage from California (32%)

24 Who took the survey?! Geotech design (29%), regional and engineering geology (27%) practices, and EQ engineering (12%) represented the largest groups

25 Who took the survey?! Typical respondent: " Has been in practice for 2 to 5 years (72%). " Holds a professional license (60%), (i.e. PE, RG, CEG, etc.). " Has an advanced graduate degree (68%).

26 Survey results suggest! Systems and data standards development should initially focus on the data types most frequently used: " Geotechnical borehole data (88%) " Lab test data (74%) " In-situ engineering test data (69%) " Geological borehole data (56%) " Geophysical test data (49%)

27 Survey results suggest! System features and output products should be tailored initially for the most common tasks: " Site investigations to develop recommendations and/or perform geotechnical designs (71%) " Regional scale studies, hazard mapping (35%) " Calibration or validation of constitutive or predictive models (17%)

28 Current Geotechnical Data Management Practices! Organizations currently prepare, report, and archive geotechnical data in an equal mix of paper and electronic formats.! The most common format of electronic storage is a spreadsheet file (e.g. Microsoft Excel), followed by image files, database files, and rich text files (e.g. Microsoft Word).! In preparing geotechnical report products, Microsoft Word and Excel are the most widely used applications. ArcView, Microstation, and AutoCAD are also used frequently.

29 Current Geotechnical Data Management Practices! Most users find it absolutely necessary, if not important, to store geotechnical data electronically.! About half of the users consider electronic data collection important to their overall data management process.! Two out of five organizations currently have a system in place that allows access to that organization s geotechnical data in an electronic format.

30 Development of a Virtual Data Center (VDC)! The majority of users were interested in taking advantage of electronic data management systems, both within their respective organizations as well as on a larger multi-organization system.! Most expressed a willingness to contribute their data to a larger data management system for use by others.! Most felt that data should be made available freely to anyone, or at least free to the data contributors.

31 Development of a Virtual Data Center (VDC)! Required features of the Virtual Data Center: " Internet-based system using web browser. " Location and data type are the two most important search parameters. " Search results presented in summary tables and short descriptions. " Need function to preview data, text or graphical format " Need efficient download methods and formats (e.g. common spreadsheet, image file, database, and text file formats).

32 User Scenario: VDC Mock-up

33 For Additional Information.

34 Establishing Baseline Practices and Identifying User Needs for Electronic Archiving and Web Dissemination of Geotechnical Data Geohazards in Transportation in the Appalachian Region 3 rd Annual Technical Forum August 7, 2003 Loren L. Turner, P.E. Caltrans Senior Transportation Engineer