Keywords: earthworks, data, costs, benefits.

The ACHILLES research programme is providing improved understanding of earthworks’ deterioration mechanisms, of earthworks’ performance, with and without engineering interventions, and of the associated lifecycle cost implications. It is also developing decision support methods to inform intervention strategies and reduce whole-life costs. One of the novel aspects of ACHILLES is that it looks beyond the direct costs and benefits of the deterioration of assets and their remediation to consider the indirect costs and benefits of the various existing and potential sources of data and information on earthworks condition, on the safety, engineering and wider social implications of earthworks failures, and on the engineering and general social impacts of preventive measures to improve earthworks condition. The aim of this aspect of the work is to maximise the ratio of the benefits (safety, engineering and social) obtained from the data to the costs incurred in its collection and analysis. This aspect of ACHILLES is based upon the review of current and potentially available sources of data on earthworks condition, remediation costs and the impacts and benefits of earthworks failures and reactive/proactive interventions. The costs of obtaining and processing different data sources are compared with their potential accuracy, and their contribution to understanding and overall benefits. The work aims for generality where possible, but also takes account of the situation- and location-specific influences on failure and intervention costs.

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