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Abstract
A procedure for producing a surface heave map using GIS package in clayey alluvial soils is proposed. An active zone
was first defined, and the layers in the active zone were subdivided according to their swelling characteristics. The free
surface heave values for each cell of the digitized map of the study area were calculated by using the available equation in
the literature, and a spatial distribution map was then constructed interpolating the data belonging to each borehole
location. Soils having a high swelling capacity are widely distributed in the study area, and will cause serious heave
problems on light structures. Clayey soils in the study area have generally moderate–very high swelling potentials, and
swell pressures in many locations are much higher (up to 98 kPa) for low-rise structures. Moreover, differential movements
sourced from surface heave are also expected in many locations. It was calculated that the minimum expected heave was
0.00 cm while the maximum was 12.24 cm, indicating ‘‘very severe’’ differential movement. The results obtained in this
paper can be used as basic data to assist surface heave hazard management and land use planning. The information derived
from this study also has a special importance for assessing the probable deformations on intended light construction
applications in Yalova city. The methods used in this study will be valid for generalized planning and assessment purposes;
although they may be less useful on the site-specific scale, where local geology and geographic heterogeneities may prevail.
r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Clay; GIS; Spatial distribution; Swell percent; Swell pressure; Surface heave; Turkey
0098-3004/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cageo.2007.06.008
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conditions, or exposure to water and increase in et al. (2006) developed a spatial analysis procedure
moisture content. Bell and Maud (1995) suggest for assessing and mapping potential hazards to
that low-rise buildings are particularly vulnerable to infrastructure from heave based on soil plasticity
ground movements as they generally do not have index values, swell-shrink potentials, and soluble
sufficient weight or strength to resist such move- sulfate contents in a pilot DFW metroplex area, In
ment. Geotechnical engineers have long recognized order to produce maps showing mineral potential
that swelling of expansive soils caused by moisture distribution, Bonham-Carter et al. (1989), Asadi
variation may result in considerable distress and and Hale (2001) and Zhou et al. (2007) also used
consequently in severe damage to the overlying GIS technology. GIS-based models have also been
structures (Basma, 1991). If the substrata are not used for aspects of environmental science, hydro-
heavily loaded, structures on the surface will be geology, and land use, by many researches such as
affected by heave. As reported by Bell et al. (1993) Muttiah et al. (1996), Robertson and Saad (2003),
depending on the catalog of Burland (1984), the Forte et al. (2006), Wang and Qin (2006) and Sener
annual cost of the problem in the USA and Sudan et al. (2006). Many papers related to hazard and risk
in the mid 1980s was $6–8 billions and $6 millions, assessment have also been published (e.g. Brabb
respectively. et al., 1972; DeGraff and Romesburg, 1980; Carrara
A great deal of structural movement has been et al., 1991; Jade and Sarkar, 1993; Irigaray, 1995;
unduly blamed on expansive soils. Many floor slabs, Chung and Fabbri, 1999; Barredo et al., 2000; Van
constructed in an expansive soil area, crack and Westen et al., 2000; Van Westen and Lulie, 2003;
sometimes heave due to improperly designed con- Fernández et al., 2003; Ercanoglu and Gokceoglu,
crete. It is a well-known fact that the improper 2004; Yilmaz and Yavuzer, 2005; Gomez and
curing of concrete, in addition to the lack of Kavzoglu, 2005; Kolat et al., 2006; Ma et al.,
expansion joints, will cause cracking (Chen, 1975). 2006; Yilmaz and Bagci, 2006; Yilmaz and Yıldırım,
In order to avoid the problems related to the 2006; Yilmaz, 2007).
subsurface and thus save property and money, In recent years, GIS technologies have the
detailed geoscientific data should be collected and potential to address a wide range of problems in
used in urban development plans. The main topic disaster management and hazard mitigation, and
providing the integrated information for urban are increasingly playing an important role in spatial
development is engineering geology. Engineering planning and sustainable development. However,
geological maps contain information mainly on the GIS tools in this area are still largely in the test
physical–mechanical properties of soils, shallow phase and no international standards have been
groundwater levels, potential hazardous processes, issued particularly for engineering geological map-
etc. The systematized information provided by the ping. Another problem with the maps produced is
engineering geological map are used for (a) evalua- their usefulness to geotechnicians, urban planners
tion and planning of urban areas according to the or civil engineers, as the maps are often clear to
engineering conditions; (b) elaboration of project these users. Such maps should be clarified by having
planning documents for construction; (c) selection uncomplicated, standard and realistic hazard-prone
of the optimum range of engineering geological zones.
investigations in particular areas of construction; In this study, swelling potentials for the Yalova
(d) selection of a suitable foundation type and City (Fig. 1) were evaluated, and their spatial
construction design; (e) prognosis of changes of distributions were presented using GIS software.
engineering geological conditions and prediction of The investigation involved three stages: field work,
hazardous geological phenomena. laboratory testing and computational analyses.
Geographic information systems (GIS) are cap- Initially, geological mapping was carried out, and
able of capturing, storing, analyzing and managing 155 disturbed and undisturbed samples were col-
data and associated attributes that are spatially lected from 88 drill holes (Fig. 2). Grain size
referenced to the earth GIS technology can be used distribution, Atterberg limits, swelling percent and
for scientific investigations, resource management, pressures were evaluated by means of laboratory
asset management, environmental impact assess- testing. Swelling characteristics of the study area’s
ment, urban planning, cartography and route soils were reviewed, and parameters obtained from
planning. Many papers have reported on the use laboratory tests were assessed from an engineering
of GIS-based protocols in the earth sciences. Hoyos perspective. In the final stage of the study, maps
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showing the spatial distribution of free surface consisted of grain size distribution, Atterberg limits,
heave and swell pressure were produced using GIS swell pressure and percent.
software (ArcGIS 9.0). The grain size distribution of the soils was
GIS also enable programmable data manipula- determined by both sieve and hydrometer analysis.
tion and selective information extraction for plan- The grain size distribution analyses showed that the
ning and project assessment. The maps produced in fine-grained soils are composed, on average, of 12%
this study will be important layers for future work gravel, 19% sand, 22% silt and 47% clay-size
involving the preparation of land-use maps and an particles (Fig. 4). Results of sampling indicated a
engineering geological map for the study area. The general distribution above the A-line of the plasti-
information derived from this study has a special city chart (Fig. 5). According to this distribution,
importance for assessing the probable deformations 76% of the samples are identified as CH group
of the intended light construction applications in (inorganic clay, high plasticity), 33% are CL group
Yalova City. Low-rise buildings are widespread in (inorganic clay, low plasticity), 21% of samples are
Yalova City because of the active seismic character- MH group (inorganic silt, high plasticity) and 7% of
istic of the region. National laws and codes also samples are ML group (inorganic silt, low plasticity)
limit the number of floors and heights of the soil for the whole area, according to the Unified
buildings. Low-rise buildings are especially vulner- System of Soil Classification (USBR, 1974). In
able to the ground movements since they generally order to predict the potential swelling of clayey
do not have sufficient mass or strength to resist such soils, activity is the most widely used property. The
forces. The surface heave map and swell pressure method developed by Van Der Merwe (1964) is
map produced in this study will inform differential based on plotting the plasticity against percentage
movements and the comparison of swell pressure clay fraction. Distribution of the samples on the
with building surcharge pressure. The paper will swelling potential chart of Van Der Merwe (1964)
help civil and geotechnical engineers, as well as (Fig. 6) indicated that 11% of the samples have low
engineering seismologists, architects and urban swelling potential, 30% have moderate swelling
planners to make rational decisions in the design potential, 43% have high swelling potential and
of new construction projects in Yalova City. 16% have very high swelling potential.
In order to determine the swelling pressure and
2. Hydrological conditions percentage of the soils, undisturbed soil samples
were taken from the boreholes and swelling tests
The main drainage system is dominated by the were carried out in accordance with the appropriate
Safran creek. From the available records of the international standard (ASTM D-4546, 1994). A
boreholes drilled in different locations throughout 7 kPa pre-loading pressure and samples with a
the study area, it is evident that the groundwater radius of 5.0 cm were used in our tests. Whereas
table is generally very shallow. The groundwater the swelling pressure value varied from 0 to 98 kPa
level is closely associated with the amount of with an average value of 12.9 kPa, the swelling
precipitation and may be quite high when the percentage was found to have an average value of
monthly precipitation is high (Yilmaz and Yavuzer, 1.1%, varying from 0% to 6.1% (Table 1).
2005). Groundwater levels are especially shallow in As noted, many plastic clayey soils swell con-
the locations near the Marmara Sea. The ground- siderably when water is added to them and then
water level generally fluctuates between 0.5 and shrink with loss of water. Constructions on these
3.0 m below the surface as seen in the static types of clays are subjected to large uplifting forces
groundwater depth map (Fig. 3). These high caused by swelling. These uplift forces will cause
groundwater levels may contribute to the creation heaving, cracking and break up of them. Differences
of conditions favorable to the occurrence of swelling in the distribution and amount of precipitation and
of clays. evapo-transpiration are the principal factors influ-
encing the swell–shrink response of clayey soils
3. Swelling characteristics of clayey soils beneath a building. Therefore seasonal moisture
content changes are very important, and should be
In order to determine the swelling parameters of taken into consideration. The depth in a soil to
the soils, experimental tests were first carried out on which periodic changes of moisture occur is usually
disturbed and undisturbed soil samples. These tests referred to as the active zone. The active zone depth
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is defined as the depth within which seasonal versus plasticity index (Eq. (1)):
changes in moisture content can occur. The depth
Heave ¼ F expð0:377DÞðexp½0:377T 1Þ, (1)
of the active zone varies, depending on location
(Das, 1995). Observations and measurements of the where D is the thickness of an overlying non-
seasonal changes of groundwater table depth had expansive layer, T is the thickness of the expansive
also showed that the highest groundwater table layer and F is a factor that depends on the degree of
depth was 4 m. The active zone depth in the study expansion.
area was approximately determined as 4 m (Fig. 7) Unfortunately, Van Der Merwe’s method did not
due to the reasons mentioned above. take into account the initial moisture content or
Activity is the property most widely used to void ratio of the soil, two important parameters
predict the swell potential of clays. Van der Merwe influencing soil heave. Vijayvergiya and Ghazzaly
(1964) developed a method for obtaining the (1974) analyzed various soil test results and
amount of heave based on a plot of clay fraction proposed a correlation chart of the free swell, liquid
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Table 1 Table 2
Statistical results of clayey soils in study area Classification of differential ground movement (Anonymous,
1981)
Minimum Maximum X Sx Sx1
Differential movement (mm) Classification
Liquid limit (%) 28 87 61 2.8 2.5
Plastic limit (%) 20 42 26 3.2 2.9 0–5 Very good
Plasticity index (%) 9 59 33 5.6 5.3 5–10 Good
Swell percent (%S) 0 6.1 1.1 11.8 11.7 10–25 Moderate
Swell pressure (Psf), kPa 0 98 12.9 17.4 17.3 25–50 Severe
450 Very severe
X ¼ Arithmetic mean value, Sx ¼ Standard deviation, Sx1 ¼
Standard error.
Poormoayed, 1980):
X
n
DS u ¼ ½SPp %ðH i Þð1=100%Þ, (2)
i¼1
and pressure values of the subdivided layers for 88 heave, Eq. (1)) of each cell using the computer
borehole locations. program written in Q-Basic, and the surface heave
Thickness of the layers shows variations in each map was then produced converting them into the
locations of the study area as seen in Fig. 9. In order grid file in ArcGIS (Fig. 11).
to obtain a realistic and representative underground
condition and soil distribution, 88 borehole logs 5. Results and discussions
were used. Soils in the active zone depth (first 4 m)
beneath each borehole were first subdivided accord- This paper presents a GIS approach for mapping
ing to their type such as clayey–silty sand, clayey silt the surface heave distribution in a given region. The
and clay, and then then types of soils were obtained. results were found to be valuable for planning
They were digitized as three layers, and each layer future urban development schemes.
was interpolated (Fig. 9). Grid files of the swell Soils having a high swelling capacity are widely
percent distribution in each layer were produced by distributed in the study area, and will be a serious
interpolation (Fig. 10). Grid files of the swell cause of heave problems on light structures. Clayey
percent and subdivided layer thickness maps were soils in the study area have generally moderate–very
then converted into data files (ASCII format). As a high swelling potential, and swell pressures in many
last stage of analyses, the final output file (out- locations are very high (up to 98 kPa) for low-rise
put.dat) was created by calculation of DSu (surface structures. Relatively more stable regions in the
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Fig. 11. Map of free surface heave. Fig. 12. Swell pressure distribution map of study area.
study area are distributed along the Marmara Sea frequently observed (Fig. 12). Moreover, differential
coast. A derivative swell pressure distribution map movements due to surface heave are also expected in
prepared from swelling pressure tests showed that many locations. The resultant damage estimates
locations with swell pressures higher than 40 kPa are demand the use of more flexible materials to reduce
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