Ground modelling and earthwork volume estimation: a lesson in achieving appropriate accuracies

Establishing a good estimate of earthwork volume is essential at an early stage as significant cost is involved in this operation. This paper investigates the ability of the GIS software ARC/Info for preliminary road design and earthwork estimation and compares the process and results achieved with those using a more specialist software package. The lesson, referred to in the title, from this study is that even though some operations are possible, many interpolation stages are required. If inappropriate parameters are used in these interpolations, then the reliability of the results must be questionable.