Engineering geology is highly affected by uncertainty related to geology, geotechnical parameters, models and methods. While the technical aspects of ground-related uncertainty are increasingly well investigated, the terminology to communicate uncertainty - e.g., “It is likely that X will happen.” - has not yet been unified and experts use it however they see fit. Due to varying experience, personal biases and societal backgrounds, people may understand uncertainty statements very differently, which is misleading and can even result in legal disputes. This contribution investigates the usage of uncertainty communicating terminology in ground-related disciplines and finds that there is a pronounced prevalence of uncertainty terminology in them. Furthermore, there is a special need to express uncertainty related to quantities (e.g. “most of the project area consists of…”). In response, we propose a framework to consistently communicate ground-related uncertainty encompassing three steps: 1. When you are certain about a statement, do not use uncertainty communicating language. 2. Assess and state the degree of confidence in a statement based on the quantity and quality of the available evidence vs. the agreement of the evidence. 3. If you have high or very high confidence in the statement, communicate the uncertainty in a consistent manner, otherwise elaborate how higher confidence can be achieved. The proposed approach feeds into new uncertainty-aware standards, such as Eurocode 7, and goes beyond them by addressing uncertainty in text and speech. This paper provides the premises for increased awareness of uncertainty communication and encourages further works on the topic.

中文翻译：

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用于传达地面相关不确定性的一致术语


工程地质学受地质学、岩土工程参数、模型和方法相关不确定性的高度影响。虽然与地面相关的不确定性的技术方面得到了越来越多的深入研究，但传达不确定性的术语（例如，“X 可能会发生”）尚未统一，专家们可以按照他们认为合适的方式使用它。由于不同的经验、个人偏见和社会背景，人们对不确定性陈述的理解可能非常不同，这具有误导性，甚至可能导致法律纠纷。本贡献调查了不确定性通信术语在地面相关学科中的使用，发现其中不确定性术语的普遍性非常普遍。此外，特别需要表达与数量相关的不确定性（例如，“大部分项目区域由......”组成）。作为回应，我们提出了一个框架来一致地传达与地面相关的不确定性，包括三个步骤：1. 当您确定某个陈述时，不要使用不确定流语言。2. 根据可用证据的数量和质量与证据的一致性来评估和陈述陈述陈述的可信度。3. 如果你对陈述有高或非常高的信心，请以一致的方式传达不确定性，否则详细说明如何获得更高的信心。所提出的方法融入了新的不确定性感知标准，例如 Eurocode 7，并通过解决文本和语音中的不确定性来超越这些标准。本文为提高对不确定性沟通的认识提供了前提，并鼓励对该主题进行进一步研究。