Measuring Similarity between Site-Specific Data and Records from Other Sites

Abstract

This paper proposes a Bayesian method of measuring the similarity between a set of site-specific data and individual records in a generic geotechnical database. All data are assumed to be multivariate, uncertain, unique, sparse, and incomplete (MUSIC). A similarity measure is proposed, and the effectiveness of the proposed similarity measure is illustrated by considering a specific clay database and a specific site in Norway that is outside the database. The records are weighted by their similarity measures and combined with the limited site-specific data to construct a quasi-site-specific transformation model based on a more restricted and more relevant coverage of geotechnical characteristics relevant to the site.