research. Kim et al. [1] have concluded that the instrumentation
data should be the best ‘text book’ to evaluate the interaction between
tunneling and ground settlement which is one of the most important
safety indicators.
Suwansawat [12] developed an Earth Pressure Balance (EPB)
tunneling database which contained all shield operational records, instrumentation
data and geological information. It was used to identify
factors which had an impact on ground settlement and showed the
correlations among these factors. The system was established by
implementing an entity-relationship (ER) data model. However,
Corral et al. proved that the dimensional model, commonly used in
data warehouse (DW), was much easily understood than the ER
model [5]. DW was more flexible in information retrieval, and it
could easily integrate various perspectives in data analysis. As a result,
one could reduce reliance on IT professionals for data manipulation.
In this paper, a safety-oriented geotechnical instrumentation data
warehouse is built to facilitate the data analysis process for safety
decisions. Some applications of DW in civil engineering are reviewed
in Section 2. The multidimensional data model of the proposed DW
is discussed in Section 3. The benefit of implementing the DW is demonstrated
through a multidimensional analysis of ground settlement
in Section 4. Finally, the findings of this study are summarized in
Section 5.