id 
n 
7 
st 
n 
st 
in 
il, 
ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN IDENTIFYING ENGINEERING 
EXPANSIVE SOILS USING SATELLITE IMAGERY AND AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS 
Abdullah M. Al-garni 
Assistant Professor 
King Saud University, College of Engineering, P.O.Box 800 
Civil Engineering Department, Surveying Engineering Program 
Riyadh 11421; Saudi Arabia 
KEY WORDS: Expert systems, A.I., Remote Sensing, Soils, Expansive, Photogrammetry 
ABSTRACT 
Civil engineering structures should be constructed on stable soils. Therefore, it is essential to study 
the soil and to classify it according to its suitability for the intended civil engineering projects. In 
many cases small samples are taken from the sites and are tested in the laboratories. However, 
these samples are not faithful representatives for the whole area, particularly in case of large areas 
and for linear structures such as, roads. 
The main objective of this research is to integrate data from aerial photographs, satellite imagery, 
and soil laboratories to develop an Intelligent Interactive Soil Data Base (SDB). The PSDB system 
is intended for consultation purposes by civil engineers in primary investigations of engineering 
sites. The I'SDB is specialized data base that has the ability to classify major types of soil. The 
system was tested and found to be practical and accurate. Conclusions obtained indicated proper 
behavior of the system and its competitiveness with similar results obtained by human experts. 
tools that require professional experts to process 
1. INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION advanced image interpretation. Experts, 
however, are rare and expensive and cannot 
In many parts of the world, civil engineering participate in the planning stage of every giant 
projects undergo collapsing, serious fractures, ^ civil engineering project. 
or similar unstable conditions. The reason for 
that is the type of soils that support the The logical replacement of un-available 
foundation of a structure. There are certain ^ expertise is to code the knowledge of the 
types of soil that can liftup or settle-down experts in a system that can be used by 
structures. These soils are known as expansive engineers for consultation purposes. Using 
or shrinkage soils. Artificial Intelligent (A.I.) tools makes this 
coding possible. ^ Expert systems are the 
Most large civil engineering sites are suitable A.I. tool that can be used to efficiently 
investigated using laboratory tests. However, program the expertise. 
laboratory samples are not representative of the 
whole site, specially in long linear projects The main objective of this paper is to integrate 
such as roads. Therefore, less expensive and remotely sensed data, field data, and aerial 
more representative tools for site investigation — photographs to develop an Intelligent Interactive 
should be developed. Aerial photographs and ^ Soil Data Base (I’SDB) that can participate in 
remote sensing images are candidate tools for the planning stage of civil engineering projects. 
site investigation. These two tools should be — The PSDB is intended for identifying expansive 
supported by laboratory tests. Aerial soils and give suitable recommendations for 
photographs and remote sensing, however, are civil engineers. 
49 
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B4. Vienna 1996