The effects of spatial variability of soil properties on the behaviour of saturated soil deposits subjected to seismic excitation are analysed, and their implications for geotechnical design are discussed. A Monte Carlo simulation methodology, combining digital generation of non-Gaussian stochastic vector ®elds with dynamic, nonlinear ®nite element analyses, is used for that purpose. The proposed procedure is applied to assess the soil liquefaction potential, which is found to be considerably

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... fected by the inherent spatial variability of soil properties. Parametric studies, involving the degree of soil liquefaction and the frequency content of the seismic input, are performed. Finally, a characteristic percentile value of soil strength, which will predict a response equivalent to that provided by the more expensive Monte Carlo simulations, is proposed for use in deterministic design.