The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Invited Workshop on Archiving and Web Dissemination of Geotechnical Data, 4 and 5 October 2001, Richmond, California [proceedings]

Swift, Jennifer N.; Stepp, J. Carl; Roblee, Clifford J.; Turner, Loren L.; Real, Charles R.; Savage, William U.

PEER-2002/04, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 2002-09-01, 248 pages (400/P33/2002-04)

This workshop provided a forum for presenting a number of ongoing efforts aimed at developing databases for archiving and potentially disseminating geotechnical data through the Internet. It was organized by the Consortium of Organizations for Strong-Motion Observation Systems (COSMOS) and the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) Lifelines Program. The projects described are the NGES Experimental Database; the California Division of Mines and Geology Geotechnical Database; the Federal Highway Administration Deep Foundation Load Test Database; the U.S. Geological Survey's Los Angeles Basin Deep Drilling Project Database; the ROSRINE Project Database; the Geotechnical Database for the San Francisco-Oakland Seismic Safety Project; the Turkey Ground Failure Database; the Kobe Jibankun Geotechnical Database; the California Department of Transportation's geotechnical database implementation plan; and the COSMOS seismic data dictionary and format requirements. While these data collection projects continue to go forward, there remain significant barriers to broadly accessing the data. One problem is that, although the data are collected according to contemporary professional practices, in general, consistent standards and quality practices have not been followed and the quality of the data is unknown. Additional roadblocks include the lack of common data formatting standards and compatible data archiving and dissemination methods. This workshop was organized to address the vital need that important geotechnical data are readily available and accessible by the broad user community. The workshop agenda includes state-of-the-art discussion papers on such relevant topics as (1) life cycle development and case studies of existing and ongoing database development activities; (2) data dictionary and data formatting standards needs; (3) data integration architecture; and (4) data quality assessment criteria and needs. In addition to describing the state of practice, papers identify specific areas of research and development and then recommend priorities. Finally, discussion sessions focus on defining development needs for archiving and web dissemination of data, address implementation strategies and develop an implementation action plan, and develop strategies for long-term sustained funding. The workshop's primary goals were to develop consensus recommendations for classifying, archiving, and web dissemination of the various types of geotechnical data. The discussion papers and workshop recommendations are abstracted and cited from COSMOS Publication CP-2001/03, EERC Library Call No. 400/C67/2001/03.

Available online: http://peer.berkeley.edu/publications/peer_reports/reports_2002/0204.pdf