1848
Proceedings of the 18
th
International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Paris 2013
public client organization for construction projects, provides a
pioneering role in embedding GeoRM in its entire organization.
Their recent experiences with the GeoRM implementation will
be shared.
Finally, the paper will draw some conclusions about the
main experiences within the Geo-Impuls development
programme with embedding geotechnical risk management in
organizations. Any reader is invited to reflect on these
experiences, and to use them for the benefits of his or her own
geotechnical challenges.
2 GEO-IMPULS PROGRAM
Geo-Impuls is a Dutch and industry wide geotechnical
development programme (Cools 2011). It aims to strengthen the
geotechnical community, by substantially reducing geotechnical
failures in all types of construction projects. Over 40 Dutch
organizations, including client organizations, contractors,
engineering firms and knowledge institutes, work closely
together in this programme that runs from 2009 up to 2015.
The two key objectives of the Geo-Impuls program are (1) a
completed GeoRM toolbox, including guidelines and best-
practices, and (2) a number of 100 projects that demonstrate
GeoRM adoption by 2015. This requires embedding GeoRM
principles and practices in organizations. Therefore, the
implementation of GeoRM in (project) organizations is a key
issue in the Geo-Impuls program.
During several sessions with program participants a number
of infrastructural projects were analyzed regarding their
geotechnical risks. The overall conclusion is that three top risks
can be identified, which are related to Contracts, Geo-
Engineering and Project Communication:
1. Top risk of Contracts: unforeseen soil conditions
2. Top risk of Geo-engineering: failure due to settlements
or collapse
3. Top risk of Project communication: loss of public
support
Managing these top risks involves dealing with several
dilemmas, which are related to each specific top risk:
Ad 1 Contracts:
A small or extensive scope of ground investigations
during tendering?
Do or don’t apply contractual geotechnical risk
allocation?
Ad 2 Geo-engineering:
A robust design or flexibility during construction?
Do or don’t apply on site quality measurements?
Ad 3 Project communication:
Do or don’t inform the public on risks?
Do or don’t inform the public on nuisance?
So, there are three central development themes: Contracts for
dealing with legal issues, Geo-engineering for dealing with
technical issues, and Project communication for paying
attention to the human factor. For each theme, the by the Dutch
geotechnical community perceived most important topics are
worked out in Working Groups.
Theme 1: Contracts
Geotechnical risk allocation in projects by the
geotechnical baseline approach
Risk-based soil investigation planning, including
tendering issues
Process specifications for geo-engineering in contracts
and contract management
Geotechnical risk checklists for non-geotechnical
decision makers
Theme 2: Geo-engineering
Quality control for timely tracing imperfections of
cast-in-place concrete elements
Observational Method by using risk-based scenarios in
combination with monitoring
Reliable geotechnical modelling by revealing and
presenting geological and geotechnical uncertainties
and using sensitivity analysis
Long-term geotechnical monitoring for better
understanding of time-dependent geotechnical
behaviour, by comparing monitoring results with
predictive models
Theme 3: Project communication
Communication of geotechnical risk to communities in
project environments
Closing the gap of misunderstanding between design
and construction professionals
International knowledge exchange on reduction of
geotechnical
failures
and
geotechnical
risk
management
Geotechnical risk management education and training
for students and professionals
Since 2009, an industry-wide Steering Committee takes
responsibility for the Geo-Impuls programme. The day-to-day
execution of the programme has been assigned to the Core
Team comprising the leaders of the Working Groups. The Geo-
Impuls Programme Office coordinates all administrative aspects
and a program advisor focuses specifically on GeoRM and its
implementation in (project) organizations.
3 GEO RISK MANAGEMENT
All Geo-Impuls participants embraced Geotechnical Risk
Management (GeoRM) as the leading working method to
realize projects within budget and planning, as well as
according to pre-set safety and quality standards. Before
explaining GeoRM, it helps to define the term geotechnical risk.
According to ISO31000 (2009), a risk is the effect of
uncertainty on realizing objectives.
Similarly, a geotechnical risk can be defined as the effect of
geotechnical uncertainty on realizing objectives, such as
settlements or horizontal deformations within pre-set limits.
Geotechnical uncertainty may result from randomness,
fuzziness, incompleteness or simply incorrect geotechnical
information (Van Staveren 2006). A geotechnical risk has a
probability of occurrence, one or more causes, and usually a
number of effects when happening, such as damage, cost
overruns and delay.
Geotechnical risk management or GeoRM is an explicit,
structured, communicated, and continuous way of dealing with
geotechnical risk, in order to achieve project objectives
effectively and cost-efficiently. The process of geotechnical risk
management is similar to the process of project risk
management and involves the same sequence of steps.
Therefore, GeoRM fits well in any sort of project risk
management. The difference is that GeoRM is a more detailed
and in-depth approach of project risk management, for giving
geotechnical risk the attention it requires in all phases of
engineering and construction projects. Figure 1 presents the six
GeoRM steps.
