**10. Summary**

Hydraulic fracturing method is the accepted technique for measurement of in situ stresses in hydroelectric projects and in metalliferous mining projects in India and abroad. But its use in coal mines is limited to a few British and Australian coal mines. This is mainly because of the occurrence of porous rocks in coal mines in India and elsewhere.

Despite the extensive theoretical work on the subject of hydraulic fracturing that had been carried out by the mid-1960s, it is for only restricted for fractured rocks. Extensive studies couldn't provide proper solution for conducting hydraulic stress measurements, where it is difficult to conform on the legitimacy of the results [1–15].

The stress measurements in coal mining areas are determined using overcoring methods. Though porosity of the rock mass does not have influence on the stress measured using this method, due to workable limitations, it can be used for shallow depth only. However, the need for the stress measurements at the deeper levels is essential for proper planning of layouts etc. Therefore, it has been widely accepted that hydraulic fracturing technique will be suitable for porous media also provided the practical limitations are overcome.

To fulfil the objective,


*Hydraulic Fracturing in Porous and Fractured Rocks DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106552*

