ABSTRACT
In the previous Chapter, we discussed the nature of uncertainty and risk and the concepts of epistemic and aleatory uncertainties, the latter being useful because they relate respectively and mainly to uncertainties before and during construction. In this Chapter, we discuss how the epistemic uncertainty (i.e., the knowledge available before construction) needs to be extracted in a coherent way, i.e., through a systems approach. A group of people working on a particular project often have a wealth of information between them, but no method of integrating this knowledge into a coherent whole. Also, when modelling and designing a rock engineering structure, it is necessary to ensure as far as practicable that the work has been done correctly; this leads to the necessity for technical auditing and a range of Protocol Sheets which are used to check the variety of detailed operations in the modelling and design work.
