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The Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technology in Geotechnical Engineering

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Civil Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 July 2026 | Viewed by 1359

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR 999077, China
Interests: tunnel; geological uncertainty; machine learning; spatial variability

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Guest Editor
School of civil engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Interests: machine learning; intelligent construction; digital twin for geotechnical and underground engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
College of Civil Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, China
Interests: intelligent sensing for underground infrastructure

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Geotechnical engineering faces unprecedented challenges due to increasing infrastructure complexity, climate change impacts, and urbanization demands. Traditional methods often struggle with inherent uncertainties in soil behavior, heterogeneous subsurface conditions, and risk management in mega-projects. The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Technologies (e.g., IoT, BIM, digital twins, remote sensing) offers transformative potential to revolutionize geotechnical analysis, design, construction, and monitoring.

This Special Issue invites cutting-edge research on AI and digital solutions that enhance the resilience, efficiency, and sustainability of geotechnical systems. We seek contributions that bridge theoretical innovation with real-world applications, addressing critical gaps in:

  • Uncertainty Quantification: AI-driven stochastic modeling of soil properties, spatial variability, and multi-hazard interactions.
  • Intelligent Construction: Autonomous monitoring, real-time decision support, and risk mitigation for tunnels, deep excavations, and foundations.
  • Intelligent Infrastructure: Digital twins for lifecycle management, predictive maintenance, and climate adaptation.
  • Cross-Domain Synergy: Fusion of geotechnical data with geospatial, structural, and environmental informatics.

Topics of Interest Include (but are not limited to):

  • Machine/deep learning for geological reconstruction and 3D subsurface modeling;
  • AI-aided interpretation of geophysical/geotechnical data (e.g., CPT, boreholes, InSAR);
  • Digital twins for geostructural health monitoring and early warning systems;
  • Robotics and computer vision in site investigation and construction automation;
  • Intelligent sensing for geotechnical infrastructure;
  • Natural language processing (NLP) for mining geological databases;
  • Physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) in soil-structure interaction analysis;
  • Big data analytics for urban underground space development;
  • Explainable AI (XAI) in geotechnical risk governance;
  • Low-carbon geotechnics enabled by AI optimization.

Dr. Jinzhang Zhang
Dr. Jiayao Chen
Prof. Dr. Qiujing Pan
Dr. Jingkang Shi
Dr. Zhongkai Huang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • artificial intelligence
  • digital twin
  • machine learning
  • intelligent construction
  • geotechnical engineering

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

26 pages, 5836 KB  
Article
Soil Classification from Cone Penetration Test Profiles Based on XGBoost
by Jinzhang Zhang, Jiaze Ni, Feiyang Wang, Hongwei Huang and Dongming Zhang
Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(1), 280; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16010280 - 26 Dec 2025
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 982
Abstract
This study develops a machine-learning-based framework for multiclass soil classification using Cone Penetration Test (CPT) data, aiming to overcome the limitations of traditional empirical Soil Behavior Type (SBT) charts and improve the automation, continuity, robustness, and reliability of stratigraphic interpretation. A dataset of [...] Read more.
This study develops a machine-learning-based framework for multiclass soil classification using Cone Penetration Test (CPT) data, aiming to overcome the limitations of traditional empirical Soil Behavior Type (SBT) charts and improve the automation, continuity, robustness, and reliability of stratigraphic interpretation. A dataset of 340 CPT soundings from 26 sites in Shanghai is compiled, and a sliding-window feature engineering strategy is introduced to transform point measurements into local pattern descriptors. An XGBoost-based multiclass classifier is then constructed using fifteen engineered features, integrating second-order optimization, regularized tree structures, and probability-based decision functions. Results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves strong classification performance across nine soil categories, with an overall classification accuracy of approximately 92.6%, an average F1-score exceeding 0.905, and a mean Average Precision (mAP) of 0.954. The confusion matrix, P–R curves, and prediction probabilities show that soil types with distinctive CPT signatures are classified with near-perfect confidence, whereas transitional clay–silt facies exhibit moderate but geologically consistent misclassification. To evaluate depth-wise prediction reliability, an Accuracy Coverage Rate (ACR) metric is proposed. Analysis of all CPTs reveals a mean ACR of 0.924, and the ACR follows a Weibull distribution. Feature importance analysis indicates that depth-dependent variables and smoothed ps statistics are the dominant predictors governing soil behavior differentiation. The proposed XGBoost-based framework effectively captures nonlinear CPT–soil relationships, offering a practical and interpretable tool for high-resolution soil classification in subsurface investigations. Full article
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