With the rapid development of electronic information technology

scientific research and engineering practice

a wide range and a large quantity of data have been produced continuously. The big data phenomenon has emerged. It is attracting more and more attention and application in scientific data analysis

electronic commerce and banking industry

and taking a profound impact on human life

work and thinking. Traditional data storage methods

relational databases

data processing and data analysis methods can’t meet the current needs on big data gradually. The paper introduces the definitions

characteristics

methods involved

changes brought about and simple application examples of big data. A review on history

state of art and problems of geotechnical engineering monitoring is presented. The concepts of big data naturally agree well with the geotechnical engineering monitoring. Large-scale

comprehensive

multidirectional and multifield geotechnical monitoring will become a reality in the future. The in-depth analysis capabilities such as correlation analysis

cause analysis and decision support will become the core works for the monitoring projects in the era of big data. Furthermore

the site monitoring will be promoted to the same or even more important role as the experiment

theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. Thus

the geotechnical engineering workers should pay highly attention to big data research

enhancing the use of research results of big data from other disciplines. With the opportunities brought about by big data

a rapid development of geotechnical engineering monitoring will arise in the future.