The book covers not only practical aspects but also the underlying theoretical approaches. It also covers the fundamentals of rock mechanics. It addresses not only students but also professionals who are interested to understand the underlying principles and methods and – possibly – to further develop them. Emphasis is given to the mechanical approach rather than to hardly tractable empirical statements. The text is concise and as far as possible complete and comprises a large list of citations. Publications of the English and German speaking scientific communities have been taken into account.