Reliability-tools in geotechnical design, an approach for river dike analysis

The application of reliability analysis in civil engineering is still an emerging technology, more so in geotechnical engineering and even more so in application to river dikes. However, much experience remains to be gained, recently, especially in European countries (the Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom\u85) as well as in the United States of America. This paper focuses, only, on the general framework of reliability analysis in geotechnical engineering design and an example for river dike reliability analysis is illustrated. Reliability analysis is related to some other terminology such as: risk assessment, probabilistic design\u85etc but they all deal with analyzing the relevant uncertain parameters. Theoretically, the limit state function is defined as: Z = R-S; where: Z is the limit state function; R: strength; S: load. Both R and S combine many uncertainties, for instance, the inherent and epistemic uncertainty. The determination of the probability of function Z