GIS-Based Geotechnical Database for Collaborative GIS

INDOT spends at least 8 million dollars annually on geotechnical site investigations, not including the amounts spent by contractors. The laborious and costly job of data collection in geotechnical practice requires the efficient storing and organizing of this valuable data to develop correlations and trends in spatially varying geotechnical data. INDOT currently uses gINT software for managing geotechnical data and ArcGIS for storing boring logs and geotechnical reports. The INDOT geotechnical office is pursuing means to improve the efficiency of their operations by developing a GIS-based geotechnical database for secure storage, easy retrieval, and flexible sharing of geotechnical data to enhance decision making. SPR-4616 is the first step towards the development of a geotechnical data management system in which important decisions on the components and structure of the database were made. The report presents a detailed conceptual layout for the development of a geotechnical database following an object-oriented programming approach. The report discusses in detail the geotechnical applications, the field, laboratory, and verification tests that will be included in the database. The geotechnical variables required to perform the engineering analysis in designing specific applications are logically linked with the geotechnical tests from which they are obtained. Lastly, a detailed layout of the proposed database structure and a user workflow example is provided in the report and can serve as a guide during the development of the database system

GIS-Based Geotechnical Database for Collaborative GIS

SPR-4616INDOT spends at least 8 million dollars annually on geotechnical site investigations, not including the amounts spent by contractors. The laborious and costly job of data collection in geotechnical practice requires the efficient storing and organizing of this valuable data to develop correlations and trends in spatially varying geotechnical data. INDOT currently uses gINT software for managing geotechnical data and ArcGIS for storing boring logs and geotechnical reports. The INDOT geotechnical office is pursuing means to improve the efficiency of their operations by developing a GIS-based geotechnical database for secure storage, easy retrieval, and flexible sharing of geotechnical data to enhance decision making. SPR-4616 is the first step towards the development of a geotechnical data management system in which important decisions on the components and structure of the database were made. The report presents a detailed conceptual layout for the development of a geotechnical database following an object-oriented programming approach. The report discusses in detail the geotechnical applications, the field, laboratory, and verification tests that will be included in the database. The geotechnical variables required to perform the engineering analysis in designing specific applications are logically linked with the geotechnical tests from which they are obtained. Lastly, a detailed layout of the proposed database structure and a user workflow example is provided in the report and can serve as a guide during the development of the database system