The first comprehensive treatment of the subject of design methodology in rock engineering, this book emphasizes that a good designer needs not only knowledge for designing (technical knowledge) but also must have knowledge about designing (an appropriate process to follow). Design methodology is today recognized in most fields as crucial to the success of a new product, process, or construction project.


This unique book starts with an appraisal of current trends concerning global design activities and competitiveness and gives an insight into how designers design. The state of the art in engineering design is given with a detailed exposé of all significant design theories and methodologies. It then presents a design methodology specifically for rock engineering and demonstrates its practical use on the basis of important case histories. To preserve the momentum of the design message, design education is also discussed. A separate chapter is devoted to skills development, presenting the designer with an extensive repertoire of widely available tools and concepts. The Appendix lists a compendium of useful design charts for rock engineering, traced after a thorough literature search. A Bibliography concludes the book with an up-to-date list of references.