Internet-Enabled Geotechnical Data Exchange

Abstract

Surveillance of large geotechnical projects requires autonomous collection of data from a wide range of instrument types. An equally large range of data formats are employed by these measurement systems. A data exchange protocol is needed to make field data available for interpretation on a variety of platforms. This paper presents the results of the development of a robust Internet-enabled framework for the exchange of engineering data. Internet-enabled data exchange technology provides a standard for engineering data acquired from any combination of instruments by autonomously parsing data into a searchable database for archiving and distribution. A set of strategies and software have been deployed to create layers of abstraction that allow data files from different commercial and in-house data acquisition packages to meet standards for timekeeping, archiving, and data display. The data are stored in an Internet-accessible database and distributed to stakeholders via a password-protected Web site. The data exchange abstractions in this system allow it to be employed with an extremely wide variety of sensing techniques and data types, and the storage of data in a relational database rather than flat files provides for improved scalability in the types and volumes of data to be interpreted. These technologies have been employed in the continuous remote monitoring of a number of facilities over the past seven years.