Load-bearing capacity bottom

This map was drawn up by Deltares for the Atlas Natural Capital (2015). Load capacity is defined as the degree to which a soil is insensitive to setting (pocket ground level) due to overload due to e.g. heightening during construction ripening, shallow-based buildings, sand tracks for roads and dike bodies. Top load leads to compaction of the clay/peat package, which compresses the ground and decreases the ground level. Setting is actually a factor in soil subsidence. The term setting is used here in relation to capacity. Thus, the less sensitive an area for setting is due to overload, the more powerful the subsurface is there, and therefore relatively suitable for the construction of buildings and structures. The good building lands are stable sandy soils with a lot of carrying capacity for constructions. Weak soils with a low load capacity, which are sensitive to setting and in which (not well-founded) constructions can sink, contain a lot of clay and peat. The Settlement Card: Setting by upper load When an upper load is applied to the ground level, the underlying ground will be compressed. Upper loads include, for example, elevations when building land, sand tracks for roads, dike bodies, but also shallow-based buildings. Starting point is the assumption that the entire surface of the Netherlands is raised with a 1 meter thick layer of high sand with a volumic mass of 16 kN/m². So it is a uniform load, edge effects are ignored. In each column of a 3D voxel (“volume pixel”) model of the shallow surface (up to 20 m below ground level), a 1-dimensional settlement calculation is performed according to the compression formula of Koppejan. This model, consisting of voxels of 100 *100 * 0.5 m (l*b*h) is a geostatistic interpretation of all drillings present in the Data and Information Dutch Underground (DINO). A simplified lithology is used: distinguished are sand, clay and peat. These lithologies are attributed to compression properties, taken from Table 1 of the standard NEN 6740. The calculated setting after 40 years (theoretical end of the setting) has been used to create a map image of the setting sensitivity. The results of the calculations are shown as a change in altitude from the current level of ground level.