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Geotechnical News • September 2014
21
GEOTECHNICAL INSTRUMENTATION NEWS
Introduction by John Dunnicliff, Editor
This is the seventy-ninth episode of GIN. One article this time.
The first GIN was in the September
1994 issue of this magazine. If you’re
wondering why this isn’t the 81
st
epi-
sode, keep wondering (I don’t know!).
In that first GIN, when my introduc-
tion was called a ‘column’, I wrote:
This is the first episode of what
may become an ongoing saga in
Geotechnical News. Its purpose
is to share useful information
relating to geotechnical
instrumentation. Each part will
be brief, and I intend to focus on
performance of instruments. As a
practitioner, I know how difficult
it is to be confident that such-and-
such an instrument will work well,
and it seems to me that if we share
performance information with
each other, we will make this less
difficult.
This is therefore not “my
column”, but “our column” …
Whether or not this idea stays
alive will depend on you (as
Stephen King says: “constant
reader”) than me.
The content has broadened from the
originally intended focus on perfor-
mance of instruments, and I have no
problem with that. But what I DO
have a problem with is my regular
need to ask, as I did yet again in the
previous GIN,
“Is anybody there?”
and
“Do you want GIN to con-
tinue?”
If you DO want it to continue,
I need articles from
YOU
.
Resolving unexpected
monitoring results
The article by Glenn Tofani is just the
kind of contribution that I like to have
in GIN—clear and useful to others. It
presents two case histories with unex-
pected monitoring results. The focus
is on the importance of developing an
analytical model, or an understanding
of the underlying processes, in order
to understand the monitoring data.
International Course on
Geotechnical and Structural
Monitoring in Italy
Our first international course in Tus-
cany, Italy in the 10th century Poppi
castle is now history. The course
attracted some 100 participants from
27 countries with 18 different lan-
guages. In general it seems to have
been a success, but of course we’ll
make some changes to improve the
next one in June 2105. We intend that
this will become an annual event.
My primary memories of the course
are:
• The outstanding organization by
my Italian colleagues (far better
than any other courses that I’ve
been involved in).
• The beauty, culture and warm hos-
pitality of Tuscany.
• The close interactions among us
all. The town of Poppi was so
small that at the end of every day
we sat together at the outdoor bar
alongside the castle (recommended
wine: Prosecco), and in the same
restaurants and, most memorably,
Poppi street party.