ASCE Geo‐Institute: Engineering Geology and Site Characterization Committee  

Geo‐Congress 2014 Annual Meeting 

 

 

Meeting Date: Monday February 24, 2014 Meeting Time: 8:00 – 11:59 PM Meeting Location: Roswell 2

Committee Meeting Participants Xiong “Bill” Yu Case Western Reserve University xxy21@case.edu Thomas Oommen Michigan Tech toommen@mtu.edu Andrew Cho Parsons Branckerhoff choa@pbworld.com Hoyos R. Laureano University of Texas at Arlington lhoyos@uta.edu Lee Wooten GEI Consultants, Inc. lwooten@geiconsultants.com Ning Lu Colorado School of Mines ninglu@mines.edu Hani Titi University of Wisconsin Milwaukee hanititi@uwm.edu Khalid Alshibli University of Tennessee alshibli@utk.edu Nick Hudyma University of North Florida nhudyma@unf.edu Murad Abu-Farsakh Louisiana State University cefars@lsu.edu Aaron Budge Minnesota State University, Mankato aaron.budge@mnsu.edu Dave Saftner University of Minnesota, Duluth dsaftner@d.umn.edu Paola Bandini New Mexico State University paola@nmsu.edu Allen Jones South Dakota State University allen.jones@sdstate.edu Nick Sitar U C Berkeley sitar@berkeley.edu Richard Gray Digioia Gray & Associates dick@digioiagray.com Quan Guo Case Western University qxg29@case.edu Andrew Druckrey UT-Knoxville adruckre@utk.edu Mehmet Cil UT-Knoxville mcil@utk.edu Zhen Liu Michigan Tech zhenl@mtu.edu Benjamin Rivers FHWA-Resource Center benjaminrivers@dot.gov Marcelo Sanchez Texas A&M University msanchez@civil.tamu.edu Paul Mayne Georgia Tech paul.mayne@ce.gatech.edu Jeramy Ashlock Iowa State University jashlock@iastate.edu Joseph Coe Temple University joseph.coe@temple.edu Amy B. Cerato University of Oklahoma acerato@ou.edu Dante Fratta University of Wisconsin fratta@wisc.edu Scott Anderson FHWA scott.anderson@dot.gov Barry Siel FHWA barry.siel@dot.gov Jean Louis Briaud Texas A&M University briaud@tamu.edu Junliang Tao University of Akron jtao2@uakron.edu Anand J. Puppala University of Texas at Arlington anand@uta.edu

Jeff Keaton AMEC jeff.keaton@amec.com Mike Lewis Bechtel mlewis@bechtel.com Roman Hryciw University of Michigan romanh@umich.edu Donna Dickert ASCE Publications ddickert@asce.org 1. Welcome and Introductions

Meeting started at 8:00PM. Bill greeted the attendees. Attendees made self-introductions. 2. Review and approval of minutes from 2013 conference call meeting

Nick Sitar moved to approve the minutes from 2013 conference call meeting. Dick Gray seconded. Motion was passed. 3. Update from Technical Liaison (Roman Hryciw) and TCC workshop (Bill Yu)

Roman provided update from Technical Committee Chair Meeting on the following items: A. EG&SC Committee has been selected for the committee of the year award 2014. The award

comes with $2000/- and should be spent before September 2014. B. Special projects fund: Board of Governors has recommended that special projects fund

needn’t be restricted in terms of the total amount that can be requested. Example projects could include short conferences.

C. Committee special project proposal on educational videos of in-situ testing has been tentatively approved by TCC. More details about video production are needed.

D. Bill did an excellent job in presenting the committee to TCC and peer committee during committee chair workshop.

E. Conferences planned by G-I a. 2016 conference will be jointly hosted with Structure Engineering Institute (SEI).

There will be no GSP in the 2016 conference and submitting a paper will be optional. The conference attendees can submit just an abstract. However, a proposal could be submitted by a committee to have a small GSP.

Bill provided update from Technical Committee Chair Meeting on the following items: A. Geo-Institute’s new strategic plan:

a. Response to member needs b. Provide opportunities for CAREER development c. Partnership and Collaboration d. Define role of technical committees

i. Provide opportunity for rewarding engagement ii. The source of tech content

iii. Lead our collaboration efforts iv. Create products that are valued

B. Bill provided plaques to recognize the services of Nick Hudyma (Past chair), Aaron Budge (former secretary and current Vice Chair), Annad Puppala (past Chair of Awards Subcommittee), John McCartney (past Chair of website subcommittee), & Dante Fratta (Chair of membership subcommittee).

C. ASCE membership comes with five free webinars (many members might not be award of this)

D. Membership outreach needed to add more members, particularly young member, international member, and female members.

E. Bill will compile minutes from TCC meeting and provide to committee members. (The following are additional notes besides discussed by Roman and Bill in the previous context)

a. Rob Scheweinfurther, director of Geo-Institute, compiled a list of Geo-Institute conference under planning (A table from GeoInstitute included with the meeting minutes). Schedule for the next few years are booked. There is no opening for specialty conference until 2018 or 2019. There were discussions on a few events. For example, the issue with publishing GSP associated with the conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. The conference currently does not publish GSP. There are also plan to make the IFCEE (joint event by ADSC, DFI, and G-I) to be every three years rather than every four years.

b. Peter Nicholson discussed management of committee activity (annual report, triennial report, meeting minutes, etc.)

c. Veron Schaefer provided update from the Annual Conference Committee. The committee is being formed based on the recommendation of ad hoc committee led by Jerry Miller. There will be 9 members of the committee on rotational basis plus Rob Scheweinfurther and a liasion from TCC.

d. Ken Fishman provided update from G-I Award Committee. G-I and ASCE awards include paper awards, professional development awards, and personal achievement awards, etc. The Committee is working on website improvements to make it easier to browse such information, for example, with tables to show awards deadlines.

e. Krishna Reddy provided a quick update on the GeoChicago 2016. f. Yoga Chandran updated status with IBC code review. Responses have been received

from every committee. g. Berth Gross provided an overview about GeoStrata. G-I committees and members

are encouraged to contribute articles to the magzzine. The magazine reaches to over 25,000 members and received overwhelming responses from readers.

h. Donna Dickert and Roman provided a brief overall about ASCE publication policy, particularly the GSP. For GSP proposal to be accepted, it need to involve Technical Committee. Reviews performed by the committees need to be maintained at high standards. There is no plan to publish GSP for GeoCongress 2016 (Joint G-I SEI conference). However, G-I committees can come up proposal for publishing GSP.

i. Geo-Institute conducted a user survey and is using the feedbacks to improve the G-I websites.

j. Rob provided an updated on Data Interchange for Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Specialists (DIGGS). A special DIGGS group meeting was planned during GeoCongress 2014.

k. There were four committee presentations from Committees on Deep Foundation, Earth and Retaining Structure, Dam and Embankment, and Engineering Geology and

Site Characterization. Different strategies were used by different committees. For example, Deep Foundation has published a number of GSPs in honor of experts in foundation engineering; Dam and Embankment committee is involved in developing guidelines and specifications; Earth and Retaining Structures use bi-monthly meeting and social media to foster committee communications, etc.

l. Open Discussions: 1) Value of GSP and status of readership; 2) possibility to schedule committee meetings in day time during poster sessions (similar as TRB). 3) GeoCongress 2014 attendee is estimated to be around 1200 including students.

4. Geo-Congress 2014 summary and lessons learned (Jeff Keaton, Nick Hudyma, Scott

Anderson)

Nick mentioned that he would provide a report to the committee after the conference. 5. Committee Guest

A. ASCE Publication policy: Donna Dickert a. Donna introduced and told that ASCE publications committee is available to

help. b. Commented about the GSP program and that it is well structured and it is a

model that ASCE uses to other institutes. c. ASCE library: Virtually all books are available both in print and online. d. Roy Olson’s papers are not available because other publishers haven’t given

permission. e. Paula enquired whether the ASCE publications have any say on having a GSP

for the 2016 conference. Donna suggested that this was not a decision made by the ASCE publication and if a committee is willing to do the GSP, they would support it.

f. Khalid asked Donna about the length of review and Donna replied that it is less than 2 months.

g. Bill suggested to include on the ASCE virtual library a search option for citation to assist the determination of papers for awards and Donna agreed that she would look into it.

B. TC on energy geotechnics – Sanchez Castilla, Marcelo Javier a. Marcelo Javier gave an update on the formation of a technical committee 308

Energy Geotechnics within ISSGE b. A copy of the details on the objective, tasks, and leadership of the TC-308 was

provided (see appendix-B) c. An international conference on energy geotechnics is planned and the

potential venue will be either Germany, Austria, or USA. d. Nick Sitar provided feedback to include power generation as a possible task.

Sanchez agreed to consider that.

6. Committee Liaison Report

A. ISSMGE- Paul Mayne a. Paul provided a report on the list of conferences planned by ISSMGE to

the committee (see appendix-C) B. Joint CCI, EWRI, and G-I Task Force on Elk River Chemical Spill –Nick Sitar

a. Not much to report and still waiting to hear from ASCE. C. ASTM D18.26 – Richard E. Gray

a. The latest subcommittee of ASTM D18.26 will pursue an agenda that fills critical needs across all aspects of hydraulic fracturing including:

Background site investigation and permitting

Well installation and borehole integrity testing

Engineering and drilling techniques

Management and disposal of drilling fluids

Groundwater monitoring and remediation

Reinjection of produced well fluids

Permanent well abandonment and data reporting b. Committee recently met in Houston and it was well attended. c. ASCE Shale energy conference in Pittsburgh July 21-23rd, 2014. d. Dick will be organizing a 5 member panel for the SEEC conference. e. Bill said that he is also involved with the organizing of this conference and

provided an update on the current status of the conference. D. IBC Code Task Force – Hong Yang

a. Hong was not available to provide the update. E. AEG, IAEG, EEGS - Jeff Keaton

a. Jeff was not available to provide the update. But would like to discuss a new method to account for uncertainty and risk in geotechnical design. (Appendix C).

F. American GeoScience Institute - Roman Hryciw a. Roman said that he attends AGI meeting twice a year as a representative

of Geo-institute. b. It is a well-endowed organization and has strong presence in Washington

lobbying for funding in geoscience. c. Roman will prepare a minutes from that meeting and provide to the

committee. G. DIGGS - Roman Hryciw, Murad Farsakh

a. Roman had a conflict and was not able to attend the DIGGS meeting. b. Roman said that Rob from ASCE will be active for DIGGS.

7. Submitted Reports- Bill Yu

A. Annual Report: Bill told that the Annual report was submitted in time (October 1st 2013). At that time we were the only committee that submitted the report.

B. Triennial Report: Triennial report was also submitted in time. Bill thanked all the members for the input for the annual and triennial reports.

8. Committee members in the news

A. Bill said that the EG&SC committee nominated Ken Stokoe for the cross country lecturer. The nomination was initialized by Mike Lewis. Ken Stokoe’s nomination has been approved.

9. Committee members in the news

A. Committee Membership i. Bill reported that we have 46 members. Nick Sitar suggested to have a list of

members on the committee website. ii. 2 members decided to drop last year

iii. 1 new member was added iv. 30 members from academia, 16 members from industry, no from government

agencies (FHWA, DOT) v. 1 young member and 1 international member

vi. Bill said that we need to increase the young members and international members, and member from government agency

vii. ASCE guidelines on the maximum number of committee that a person can be involved is 2, although it is not enforced.

viii. Members of the committee need to attend the committee meeting at least once over three year period. It was suggested that we should check with members who have not attended meetings for a while whether they would like to continue. Dante agreed to track them down.

 

B. Sub-committee Updates i. Website Committee:

i. Bill indicated that John McCarthy will transfer the expertise to Joseph Coe. Joe said that he is in touch with John.

ii. Membership Committee: i. Dante Fratta is the chair of the subcommittee. Nick has championed

the membership drive. iii. Awards Committee:

i. Nick will be in charge of the awards committee. He will find out the deadlines and would nominate for the awards. Typical deadline is October 1st. 

iv. Committee on special projects:

i. Paul Mayne and Nick Sitar were appointed co-chairs for a committee to develop short educational videos on in-situ testing. This will start with one or two videos. Khalid indicated that LSU had put together some videos. The videos will be published on G-I youtube channel.

10. Committee Future Plans:

A. Geocongress 2015 (IFCEE 2015) a. 3 sessions on CPT have been approved from our committee b. Bill said that instructors were not getting paid so the short course proposal

from the committee were withdrawn. Committee asked Bill to find out more details on this and update the committee by email.   The following is the citation from a message from Billy Camp, chair of this conference: “With  respect  to  the  short  course proposal,  the 2105  conference will 

not  include any revenue sharing with the short course  instructors.  I  informed Barry 

Christopher of this policy and he said that he and the other instructors would not be 

interested in teaching the course for free (which is understandable).  The course was 

therefore withdrawn from our consideration.  “ – Billy Camp 

 

B. Geo-congress 2016 A few members volunteered for this conference: (Nicholas Sitar, Joseph Coe, Andrew Cho, and Xiong (Bill) Yu) 

C. Special project on educational videos (proposal submitted and under review by TCC)  Preliminary feedbacks are the proposal has been approved. But need to revise to include more details. 

D. Strategy to improve interactions with Engineering Geology committees (AEG, IAEG, Canada and Mexico) 

a. Jean Louis Briaud said that he can put the committee in touch with the IAEG president. 

b. Dick said that AEG is bidding to bring the IAEG 2018 annual conference to U.S. AEG will try for this in September at the IAEG meeting in Torino Italy. Committee suggested to let Jeff Keaton know that the EG&SC committee will be willing to support AEG in hosting the IAEG conference in 2018. 

c. Nick Sitar will continue to try to connect with the Canadian geotechnical society. In addition, Bill will also try to help with these efforts. 

d. Paul Mayne is meeting with the members of the Mexico geotechnical society to see for opportunities to collaborate.  

E. Committee Specialty conference a. Two strategies were discussed for specialty conference. 

i. Either propose a congress ii. Connect with AEG and IAEG to host 2018 conference jointly

b. Bill will develop a draft proposal for these two strategies. 

 

F. Webinar, GeoStrata special issue, etc. a. Paul indicated that he would need permission from Georgia Tech to provide

webinar. Committee suggested that Bill might send out a call seeking volunteers to provide webinar. 

b. Barry said that NCHRP 1988 manual on subsurface investigation as a need to be revised. This is going to be an 18-months project.   

11. Other Business: A. Conference call meeting: The next conference call meeting will be held in

September. 

12. Meeting adjourned: Nick (Sitar) proposed motion to adjourn the meeting. Aaron seconded it. The meeting ended at around 10:20PM. Committee social hours followed.

List of Appendices A. Conferences planned by G-I – Rob Scheweinfurther

B. Information on TC on Energy Geotechnics- Sanchez Castilla, Marcelo Javier C. ISSMGE activities - Paul Mayne D. ASTM D18.26 minutes – Dick Gray

E. A new method for incorporate uncertain and risk in geotechnical design and risk management - Jeff Keaton

F. Current EG&SC membership roster – Xiong (Bill) Yu

G. Presentation at the Committee Chair workshop – Xiong (Bill) Yu

 

Activity/Event Theme Year Date Location

IFCEE 2015 ADSC/PDCA/DFI 2015 March 17‐21 San Antonio, TX

G‐I/SEI Congress SEI/CI 2016 February 14‐17 Tent Phoenix Tent

Geo‐Chicago 2016:  

Specialty Conf: Sustainability , Energy & the Geoenvironment

2016 August 14‐18, 2016 Chicago, IL

CECAR7Specialty Conf: CE Conf in the Asian Region

2016 August 30 ‐ Sept 2 Honolulu, Hawaii

Grouting Conference

Specialty Conf 2017 International Event

Geo‐Frontiers 2017Geo‐syntheticsIFAI/NAGS

2017 March‐April TBD

Case Histories in Geotech Engr

Specialty ??GeoCongress??

2018 TBD TBD

Earthquake Engrg Specialty Conf 2018Geo‐Congress 2018 Feb‐March TBDGeo‐Congress 2019 Feb‐March TBDGeo‐Congress 2020 Feb‐March TBD

ISSMGE Events of Interest for ASCE EGSC 

Monday night: 24 Feb 2014 ‐ ASCE GeoCongress Meeting 

ISSMGE Technical Commitee on In‐Situ Testing:  www.webforum.com/tc16 

  New chair:   Antonio Viana da Fonseca, Faculty of Engineering, Univ. Porto, Portugal 

 

3rd International Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing (CPT'14);  12‐14 May ‐ Las Vegas; hosted by Peter K. Robertson and Kelly Cabal:   www.cpt14.com 

3rd International Conference on Flat Dilatometer ‐ tentatively 12‐14 June 2015 in Rome;  hosts will be Silvano Marchetti:    silvano@marchetti‐dmt.it    Paolo Monaco:  paola.monaco@univaq.it 

5th International Site Characterization (ISC‐5) in Brisbane, Australia (Sept 2016).  Hosts will be Richard Kelly (Univ. New South Wales/Coffey & Partners), Prof. Barry Lehane (Univ. Western Australia), and Allan McConnell (ISG).  Email contacts:  <Richard.Kelly@coffey.com>; <allan@insitu.com.au>; <barry.lehane@uwa.edu.au> 

 

Other activities/events: 

ISFOG 2015 ‐   NGI will host the 3rd International Symposium on Frontiers in Offshore Geotechnics in Oslo: 10‐12 June 2015:   http://www.isfog2015.no 

XVI European Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering in September 2015.  Edinburgh:  13‐17 September 2015:   http://xvi‐ecsmge‐2015.org.uk  

CALL FOR PAPERS:  Joint Conference:  XV PCSMGE + DCG + SACRM     Buenos Aires, 15‐18 Nov 2015:   

Marcos Montoro:   marcos_montoro@yahoo.com.ar 

XV Panamerican Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 

6th International Symposium on Deformation Characteristics of Geomaterials 

8th South American Congress on Rock Mechanics 

http://conferencesba2015.com.ar 

Suggested Approach for QuantifyingUncertainty and Variability in Geologyfor Reliability-Based Design Projects

Jeffrey R KeatonAMEC AmericasLos Angeles, USA

jeff.keaton@amec.com

The research that led to this poster presentation isrelated to the “actuarial initiative” of CommissionNo. 1 Engineering Geological Characterization andVisualization of the International Association forEngineering Geology and the Environment (IAEG).Jeffrey R Keaton, Chair, 2007-2014

Geotechnical “Layer” 1

Geotechnical “Layer” 3Geotechnical “Layer” 2

Layer No. 1 2 3

Geotech-nicalCOV

Mean

� (degree)� (kN/m )

3

c (kN/m )2

0 3.5 7.4

26 18 3320.05 21.47 23.35

Geol-ogicalCOV

0.037to1.0

0.2

0.10.01

PossibleTotalCOV

0.237 to 1.20.137 to 1.1

0.047 to 1.01

Nine components; Four criteria levels; Criteria scores 3, 9, 27, 81Condition scores range from (3x9) = 27 to (81x9) = 729

Define the mean of the Complexity Model as the highest possiblescore (729) and the standard deviation as the actual score.Then the coefficient of variation for the highest possible scorewould be COV = 1.0 (i.e., the mean = the standard deviation)

Therefore, the lowest possible score would have COV = 0.037

Enhancements or complications: Weighting factors for differentcomponents or categories. Is geology already weighted by havingfive components out of nine?

ReferencesFGDC, 2006, FGDC Digital Cartographic Standard for Geologic MapSymbolization. US Geological Survey Geologic Data Subcommittee,Federal Geographic Data Committee Document Number FGDC-STD-013-2006, 33 (plus 250 pages of appendices).FHWA, 2011, Subsurface Utility Engineering. Federal Highway

Administration, US Department of Transportation,<http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ programadmin/ sueindex.cfm> (13 Jun2012).

Hoek, E., 1999, Putting numbers to geology – an engineer's viewpoint(Second Glossop Lecture): Quarterly Journal of EngineeringGeology, 32: 1-19.

Keaton, J.R., 2013, Engineering Geology: Fundamental Input orRandom Variable? in Withiam, J.L, Phoon,K.K., and Hussein, M.H.,eds., Foundation engineering in the face of uncertainty: GeotechnicalSpecial Publication 229, ASCE, Reston, VA , 232-253.

Kulhawy, F.H., Phoon, K.K., & Wang, Y., 2012. Reliability-Based Designof Foundations-A Modern View. Geotech. Engr. State of the Art &Practice: Keynote Lectures from GeoCongress 2012 GeotechnicalSpecial Publication 226, ASCE, Reston, VA, 102–121.

Morgenstern, N.R. and Cruden, D.M., 1977, Description andclassification of geotechnical complexities: International Symposiumon the Geotechnics of Structurally Complex Formations. ItalianGeotechnical Society, 2, 195–204.

NRCS. (2002). Rock Material Field Classification System. USDepartment of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service,National Engineering Handbook Part 631 Geology, Chapter 12,<http://directives.sc. egov.usda.gov/viewerFS. aspx?hid=21423> (13Jun 2012).

Pierson, L.A., and van Vickle, R., 1993, Rockfall hazard rating system -participants' manual: Federal Highway Administration Publication No.FHWA-SA-93-057, Washington DC.

Quality level

D

C

B

A

Basis for location

Existing information

Field reconnaissance

Surface geophysics

Subsurfaceinvestigation

Utility location quality characteristics

Basic information for utility locations coming fromexisting utility records or verbal recollections.

The most commonly level of information usingsurveyed visible utility features (e.g., service holes, valveboxes, etc.) correlated with records of existing utilities.

Appropriate geophysical methods used to determineexistence and horizontal positions, surveyed to projectcontrol, of virtually all utilities within the project limits;addresses problems of inaccurate records, abandonedor unrecorded facilities, and lost references.

The highest level of accuracy, providing information forplan-and-profile mapping using nondestructive exposure(e.g., vacuum excavation using HDPE tubes) of utilities,surveyed to project control, to document type, size,condition, and other characteristics.

Subsurface Utility Engineering (FHWA 2011)Complexity (Morgenstern and Cruden1977) The most important contribution toincreased reliability of site characterizationof complex conditions comes from an extraeffort associated with geologic mappingwith the interpretation of the nature of thegeotechnical complexity (variability instrength, stiffness, and hydraulic conductivityof soil and rock masses because of theirpotential adverse effect on engineered works).

Outcrop Confidence (NRCS 2002)

Level

1

2

3

Confidence

High

Intermediate

Low

Rock conditions & site characteristics

Rocks are massive and homogeneous,vertically and laterally extensive. Sitehas a history of low tectonic activity.

Conditions are generally predictable, withlateral and vertical variability. Structuralfeatures produced by tectonic activitytend to have systematic orientation andspacing.

Conditions are extremely variable becauseof complex depositional or structuralhistory, mass movements, or landscapeevolution. Significant lateral and verticalchanges in characteristics are common.

Outcrop Confidence Examples

Level

1

2

3

3

3

3

Image

A

B

C

D

E

F

Brief Geologic Description

Stone Mtn; Permian quartz monzonite;essentially unjointed

Ayres Rock; Precambrian arkose; uniformlyfolded to 85° dip; unjointed

Goosenecks of San Juan River; Permianlimestone; flat-lying; regularly jointed

The Needles; Jurassic sandstone; flat-lying;pervasively jointed; linear grabens

Carbon County, WY; Cretaceous sandstoneand shale; folded and faulted

Volcanoes National Park; historical (1969-1974) lava flows and scoria with voidsburying older historical lava flows and scoria

AAmazingly unpredictable (Hawaii Volcanoes NP, USA)Highly predictable (Stone Mountain, GA, USA)Highly predictable (Stone Mountain, GA, USA) Amazingly unpredictable (Hawaii Volcanoes NP, USA)

FA

3/8/2014

1

Engineering Geology and Site Characterization committeeXiong (Bill) YuChair, EG&SC Committee

TCC Committee Chair Workshop, February 23, 2014Atlanta, GA

History of EG&SC Committee• The EGSC committee is the oldest technical committee in ASCE.

• In July 1950, US Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau) engineering geologist William R. Judd wrote a memo to R.F. Blanks, chief of the Laboratories Division of the Bureau and a member of the ASCE Soil Mechanics and Foundation Division (Division) Executive Committee recommending that the Division establish a new committee to “encompass and deal with all problems pertinent to engineering geology” (McClure et al., 1991, p. 136).

• The Executive Committee of the Division appointed an ad hoc committee to organize the new committee consisting of the following individuals:

• A.E. Cummings, Raymond Concrete Pile Company (Chair)• R.F. Blanks, US Bureau of Reclamation• E.B. Burwell, US Army Corps of Engineers• S. Paige, Columbia University• K. Terzaghi, Harvard University

• Ad hoc committee recommended to “improve cooperation between engineers and geologists by means of a joint committee composed of engineers interested in geology and geologists interested in engineering”

Cont.• The ad hoc committee recommended that the joint committee be formed of

• Three administrative members from ASCE Soil Mechanics and Foundation Division• Two from the Engineering Geology Division of the Geological Society of America

(GSA‐EGD)• An ASCE member as chair.

• On March 3, 1952, the committee was approved by ASCE as an activity of the Division with the following members:

• K. Terzaghi, Harvard University (Chair)• R. Rhoades, US Bureau of Reclamation (Secretary)• E.B. Burwell, US Army Corps of Engineers• H.O. Ireland, University of Illinois• R.W. Spencer, Southern California Edison• W.R. Judd, US Bureau of Reclamation (nonvoting member)

• The management board of the GSA‐EGD and the Association of Engineering Geologists (AEG) in 1974 requested expansion of the joint committee to include representatives of AEG. • The executive committee of the ASCE Geotechnical Engineering Division approved

the request and the GSA Council ratified the expansion. In 1975, the joint committee became the ASCE‐GSA‐AEG Committee on Engineering Geology. The committee name was changed to Engineering Geology and Site Characterization

Current Committee Organizing Structure

• Chair: Xiong (Bill) Yu

• Vice Chair: Aaron Budge

• Secretary: Thomas Oommen

• Awards subcommittee chair: Nick Hudyma (past chair)

• Website subcommittee chair: Joseph Coe

• Special project subcommittee chair: Nicholas Sitar

• Committee TCC Liaison: Roman Hryciw

Committee Membership

• 46 members (increased from 30 over three year period)

• 31 academia

• 15 industry

• 2 young members

• 1 international member

• 1 active emeritus member

Committee Sponsored Conference Sessions

• Geo-Frontiers 2011: 5 sessions

• GeoRisk 2011: 2 sessions

• GeoCongress 2012: 5 Sessions and 1 SOA presenter

• GeoCongress 2013: 3 Sessions (6 proposed), 1 keynote speaker

• GeoCongress 2014: 11 sessions, 1 panel session, 1 keynote speaker, 1 panelist for a special panel

• IFCEE 2015: 3 sessions

3/8/2014

2

Publications• Anand Puppala, Paula Bandini, Thomas Clair Sheahan,

Keynote papers for 2014 GeoCongress Geo-Characterization and Modeling for Sustainability, Geotechnical Special Publication, Atlanta, Georgia, February 23-26, 2014

• Murad Abu-Farsakh, Xiong (Bill) Yu, Laureano Hoyos, 2014 GEO-CONGRESS Geo-Characterization and Modeling for Sustainability, Proceeding of GeoCongress2014, Geotechnical Special Publication, Atlanta, Georgia, February 23-26, 2014

• Xiong (Bill) Yu, 2012, Proceedings of the 17th Great Lakes Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Conference, Cleveland, OH, May 24, 2012

Short Courses

• GeoCongress 2013, San Diego, CA, Short Course on Site Characterization, Don DeGroot and Jason DeJong

• GeoCongress 2014, Atlanta, GA, Short Course on Site Characterization, Don DeGroot and Jason DeJong

• IFCEE 2015, San Antonio, TX, Geotechnical Instrumentation Performance Monitoring for Construction (proposed) by W. Allen Marr, Barry Christopher, Rob Nyren, and Malay Ghose-Hajra

Conference Organizing• GeoRisk 2011

• Organizing committee - Xiong (Bill) Yu, Anand Puppala

• GeoCongress 2014• Conference Chairs - Jeffrey R. Keaton, Nick W. Hudyma, Scott A. Anderson• Technical Program Chairs - Anand Puppala, Paola Bandini, Thomas Sheahan• Technical Publication Committee - Murad Y. Abu-Farsakh, Xiong (Bill) Yu, Laureano R.

Hoyos• Short Courses/Workshops Co-Chairs - Andrew Kyuho Cho, Ranjiv Gupta• Local Liaison Chair - Paul W. Mayne• Poster Session Chair - Ning Lu• Young Geotechnical Engineers - Amy Beth Cerato• Exhibits and Sponsorships Chair - J. David Frost, Andrew Robert Shinnefield• International Liaison Chair - Ian Jefferson• Student Paper Competition Chair - John Scott McCartney• Student Design Competition Chair - Richard A. Coffman

• 2014 ASCE Shale Energy Engineering Conference• Organizing committee – Xiong (Bill) Yu

• 2016 Geo-Structures - 2016 JOINT G-I/SEI Conference• Nicholas Sitar, Joseph Coe, Andrew Cho, and Xiong (Bill) Yu volunteered

Committee Special Project• Committee special project to develop educational

materials on insitu testing methods (proposal being evaluated by TCC)• Educational materials on insitu testing methods

• Work with experts and industry support

• A subcommittee on education will be formed Nick Sitar as chair

• G-I Youtube Channel, USUCGER, etc. for dissemination

Committee Volunteer for G-I Activities• A few committee members (Roman Hryciw, Nick

Hudyma, and Murad Abu-Farsakh) volunteered to involve in the Transfer DIGGS to the Geo-Institute.

• Joint CCI, EWRI, and G-I task force for the Elk River chemical spill in West Virginia (Nick Sitar, members nominated through EG&SC Committee (PremadasaAttanayake, Jim Hunt ))

• Cross Country Lecturer Nomination (initialized by Mike Lewis, facilitated by Xiong (Bill) Yu)

Strength• Committee has established a good operational structure.

• Committee size increased to 46 members from 30 members.

• Committee has built a supportive environment.

• Members of EG&SC, particularly, the core members of the committee are very active in supporting committee activities as well as the service request by the Geo-Institute.

• EG&SC actively responses to the request by Geo-Institute and ASCE.

• The committee actively interacts with other committees, particularly, Unsaturated Soils committee, Soil Properties and Modeling committee, Geophysical Engineering, and Rock Mechanics committee.

• Committee actively co-sponsored conference sessions which engaged a larger body of researchers and practitioners to participate in technical conferences.

• The committee has established a good liaison structure with numerous affiliated organizations (i.e., ISSMGE – Paul Mayne; ASTM D18.26 – Richard E. Gray; IBC Code Task Force – Hong Yang; AEG, IAEG, EEGS - Jeff Keaton; American GeoScience Institute - Roman Hryciw, ISGE – Ian Jefferson).

3/8/2014

3

Weakness• The challenge facing the EG&SC committee is to maintain

the active status of committee.

• The committee needs to implement strategies to encourage continued committee member engagement.

• Further enhance the partnership and liaison with relevant professional organizations.

Plan for Future Activities• Restructure standing subcommittees in light of member's

evolving commitments and availability. • This task has been partially accomplished.

• Increase the number and activities for young members• Increase the recruitment and engagement of international

member• Implement committee special project• Develop a EG&SC specialty conference proposal, possibly in

collaboration with other national and international organizations• Implement strategy to partner with associations including

ISSMGE committees, EEGS, AEG, IAEG, CGS, American GeoSciences Institute, etc.• Explore opportunities to co-organize/co-sponsor conferences,

workshops, and student activities.

Action Plan

Immediate Plans:• Continue the membership drive started during the

previous period. • Sustaining and gaining additional active members

• Refining membership structure. • Implement strategies to increase the number, activities and support for

young members.

• Implement strategies to the recruitment and engagement of international members

• Engage active emeritus members

• Engage more active members from practice industry.

• Implement reward mechanism for committee volunteers.

Action Plan (cont.)

Short Term Plans:• Ensure the active status of subcommittees: awards,

website, education, and membership. • Award subcommittee

• The committee has not been very successful in nominating paper and other awards. Strategy will be implemented to encourage the nomination activities.

• Implement the committee special project• Develop a few modules and use feedbacks to refine

• Develop webinars in conjunction with the committee special project.

• Contribute to a GeoStrata special issue on EG&SC.• Start to plan a specialty conference.

Action Plan (cont.)

Long Term Goals:• Improve the visibility of EG&SC.

• Website, video, photos of committee activities, etc.

• Develop strong liaisons with relevant national and international organizations.

• Link activities of EG&SC to emerging sustainability and energy mission.

• Organize a specialty conference.

Thank you!