Basic HTML Version
26
Geotechnical News • September 2013
www.geotechnicalnews.com
GEOTECHNICAL INSTRUMENTATION NEWS
Introduction by John Dunnicliff, Editor
This is the seventy-fifth episode of GIN. Three quarters of a century!
Two articles this time:
• “Automated MEMS-based In-place
Inclinometers”. Margaret Dar-
row reports on successful use of
MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechan-
ical Systems)-based in-place
inclinometers for monitoring a
landslide in a remote location in
northern Alaska. This article adds
to our confidence in these recently
developed instruments.
• The second article, anonymous at
the author’s request, is in response
to my repeated plea, “Lessons
learned. I need you”. It provides
more lessons learned from unex-
pected events in the field.
Discussions
In my earlier pleas for contributions
to GIN I didn’t mention discussions. I
welcome discussions of articles previ-
ously published in GIN, and authors’
replies will be included in the same
episode. I have one of these in the
pipeline for December GIN.
More
please!
Continuing my plea for
contributions
If you’ve written a paper for a confer-
ence, journal or other publication that
fits within the scope of GIN, please
consider sending me a version that fits
within the GIN guidelines. See http://
www.geotechnicalnews.com/instru-
mentation_news.php, and click on
“How to submit articles …”. Mini-
mum effort for you!
Continuing education courses
In the previous GIN I said that there
will be no more of these courses in
Florida, but perhaps elsewhere. Plans
are now underway to start a new series
in beautiful Tuscany, Italy, in June
next year. The venue will be Poppi
Castle, www.castellodipoppi.it. How’s
this for a contrast to Cocoa Beach?
Good wine too! Details and a website
later.
Important new publication
about monitoring slope stability
Allen Marr of Geocomp Corporation,
Acton, MA has written an outstand-
ing state-of-the-art paper: Marr, W.A.
(2013) Instrumentation and Monitoring
of Slope Stability. Geo-Congress 2013:
pp. 2224-2245. Here’s the abstract:
Instrumentation and monitoring of
earth structures has experienced
phenomenal change and growth
since the last [ASCE] slope
stability conference some twenty
years ago. This paper gives an
overview of the current state-
of-practice of instrumentation
and monitoring for slopes
and embankments and other
structures that involve global
instability considerations.
Reasons to monitor performance,
technological revolutions in
instrumentation and monitoring
over the past 20 years and
some recommended practices
are presented and discussed.
A principal theme of this
paper is the important role of
instrumentation and monitoring
in helping to identify and manage
risk. When considered as a part of
a risk management program, the
role and value of instrumentation