The parameters of the soil constitutive model to be employed for numerical simulations are evaluated at each spatial location (finite element centroid) over the analysis domain, based on simulated in-situ test values (Fig. 1b). An automated procedure was implemented to estimate the parameters of a multi-yield plasticity model (Prevost (1985)) from cone penetration or standard penetration test results. The user is prompted to select from a large number of empirical correlation formulas reported in the literature (e.g. Prevost and Popescu (1996)) those correlations which best suit the specific soil materials used in the application.