GIS based Estimation of Soil Bearing Capacity using Borehole and Geophysical Data

One of the most critical parameters of an engineering foundation is the bearing capacity of soil (i.e., soil bearing capacity). Having an accurate estimate of the soil bearing capacity of the ground is necessary for designing civil engineering structures safely and efficiently. Traditional methods of determining the soil bearing capacity of the ground involved performing borehole investigations and laboratory tests. Although these methods are reliable, they take excessive amounts of time to obtain results (i.e., borehole investigations) and are expensive due to the equipment and personnel required. Furthermore, soil bearing capacity values will frequently not be obtainable in many areas of a project's site. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provide an efficient means of storing, manipulating, and analyzing spatially referenced data. By integrating borehole and geotechnical data with GIS software, an approximate value of soil bearing capacity can be estimated at locations that have not been tested for this parameter using techniques for interpolating between spatial data points. This study used QGIS as a GIS tool to develop a GIS-based map showing a distribution of soil bearing capacity in the study area. This was accomplished by collecting soil bearing capacity data, creating spatial datasets, interpolating soil bearing capacity data, and creating visualizations of the results. The final product from this study will be a GIS-generated map of the location of low, medium, and high soil bearing capacities that can be used as a basis for preliminary planning of foundations. Use of this map will minimize the time and cost associated with further soil investigation at the beginning of future projects and will aid civil engineers in making good decisions as they manage their projects.