Bayesian Perspective on Ground Property Variability for Geotechnical Practice

Soils and rocks are natural heterogeneous geo-materials, and their properties exhibit site-specific spatial variability as an outcome of the previous geological processes that the soils and rocks in the site have undergone. Spatial variability of ground properties and other geotechnical uncertainties may be modelled probabilistically using random variables or random field. Some questions are frequently raised by practicing geotechnical engineers when they consider using probabilistic methods. For example, what is the physical meaning of failure probability and random variable or random field modeling? Is a large amount of data necessary for using probabilistic methods? This paper aims at providing answers to these questions from a Bayesian perspective. Bayesian methods and tools are also presented that were recently developed for characterization of ground property variability from sparse site investigation data.