2919
Technical Committee 214 /
Comité technique 214
the local aquifer cannot be suspended. Studies and analyses are
thus necessary to rethink criteria and strategies to mitigate
future effects
The authors describe the efforts of their research group to
monitor the subsidence phenomenon of the lacustrine zone of
Mexico City, as well as of others aspects of the problem, like
soil fracturing. A Geographic Information System was
developed to this end, using as a support a similar system
developed previously by the authors. Up to now, 868 fracturing
sites have been documented. About 45 sites where cracks had
been reported were discarded when, during the field visits, it
became evident that no fracturing could be detected and that
defects in the soil surface could be attributed to other factors
(mainly scour).
Figure 4. A dramatic example of soil fracturing in a site near Mexico
City
Engineers and practitioners as well as local and federal
authorities will surely profit for the crack and fissure maps
produced by the authors, not only for assessing the feasibility of
specific projects but also in the planning of urban development
schemes or land usage regulations.
7 CONCLUSIONS
The papers in the session cover almost comprehensively the
main topics related to soft soil engineering. The 15 papers that
were submitted came from countries located in at least four
continents, thus demonstrating that soft soils are widely spread
and that research into their properties and characteristics is still
of paramount importance for an increasing large number of
geotechnical engineers worldwide. Sharing experiences with
problems associated to soft soils is also very important. The
papers submitted to the session will provide readers an
opportunity to learn many aspects of soil engineering from the
experiences shared by other colleagues around the world.
In almost all of the papers the importance of characterizing
soft soils properly is highlighted. It is also evident that thorough
soil exploration as well as field and laboratory testing are
necessary to achieve this purpose. The papers also show the
extensive and extended use of exploration techniques that were
rare only a few decades ago.
It is also notable that most contributions refer to case
histories in which basic soil mechanics concepts have been
successfully applied and in which instrumentation was used
judiciously to monitor and interpret soil behavior. Also,
improved field instrumentation systems have had a positive
influence on the development of many projects. In this respect,
the submitted papers, especially those presented in the case
histories, show different manners in which the observational
method can be applied successfully, under a wide range of
geotechnical conditions and within the context of a variety of
problems.
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