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It is my very great pleasure and honour to welcome you to the official website of the 11th International Symposium on Field Monitoring in Geomechanics (ISFMG). As the name suggests this event is part of a series of Symposia that have been staged roughly every four years since the early 1980s. Originally titled FMGM (Field Measurements in Geomechanics) the name was recently changed when responsibility for organising the Symposia passed to the newly formed TC220 (part of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, ISSMGE). This was to avoid any conflict with the work of other technical committees that deal with in situ testing of soils and rocks. The purpose of TC220 is to address field monitoring, which is the repeated observation in time of a process or phenomenon through the measurement of one or more indicators. You will find more information at www.field-monitoring.org. 

In 1948, when addressing the 2nd International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering in Rotterdam, Karl Terzaghi wrote, “Compared to this task (of field observations) all the other types of fundamental soil mechanics research such as refinement of our theoretical methods and laboratory techniques become of secondary importance. All these and various other observations convey the impression that the properties of undisturbed clays are more complex than laboratory tests on undisturbed clay samples indicate. Hence, the further advance of our knowledge in soil mechanics depends to a large extent on the scope and the quality of our field observations.” When presenting his ideas on The Observational Method in his 1969 Rankine Lecture, Terzaghi’s friend and colleague Professor Ralph Peck said, “However the field observations are made and whether they are elaborate and precise or ‘quick and dirty,’ the results are only useful if they are displayed promptly in such a manner as to show quickly and clearly the essential features. The reports containing the results should be regarded as working documents, issued whenever the information needs to be brought up to date.” These two statements capture perfectly why field monitoring is assuming ever greater importance in many construction projects around the world. Advances in technology have made it possible to collect and present measurements very quickly, enabling decisions to be made in near real-time. This Symposium will bring together designers, suppliers, users, and researchers of field monitoring data to discuss all that is new in field instrumentation and monitoring.

All conferences and symposia should have a theme and for this one we have chosen “analysis and interpretation of field monitoring data.” In a letter I received when I accepted the role as Chair of this event, Professor Shunsuke Sakurai (Convenor of the 2nd International Symposium, Kobe Japan 1987) wrote “Field measurement data are only numbers unless they are properly interpreted. Therefore, the most important aspect of field measurements is the quantitative interpretation of measurement results.”

At the Symposium we will inaugurate the ISSMGE Dunnicliff Honour Lecture to be given by Allen Marr (CEO of Geocomp Inc.). John Dunnicliff was an inspirational leader in this subject and it is very fitting that he will be remembered and honoured in this way. There will also be presentations from across a wide range of applications including slopes, tunnels and other types of construction. We will run the now traditional Young Person’s Paper Competition and announce the venue for the next Symposium in 2026. As always the Symposium will be accompanied by an exhibition where you will get the opportunity to see all that is new in field instrumentation and catch up with representatives of the major suppliers.  We are also planning a fantastic social and accompanying persons programme.

I truly hope that you can join us and look forward to welcoming you to London in September 2022. 

Dr Andrew M. Ridley
Chair of the Local Organising Committee and TC220