Abstract
The Su-Xi-Chang area is located in the Yangtze River Delta in southeastern Jiangsu Province, China. More than 2 m cumulative land subsidence has occurred since 1980s. A range of monitoring programs, geological investigations, and numerical modeling has been implemented in order to establish a regional rehabilitation plan. In this paper, the column element settlement model (CESM) has been established to investigate the coupling effect of soil self-weight, upper loads, and groundwater withdrawal on land subsidence. The model has been verified by comparing with the land subsidence records in Changzhou and further applied to the investigation area. The results show that extensive groundwater withdrawal is the main cause of the land subsidence. Settlement caused by soil self-weight increases with the depth and decreases with upper loads, while settlement caused by upper loads increases with the intensity of upper loads and decreases with depth. The proportion of ground settlement caused by soil self-weight, upper loads, and groundwater withdrawal is also investigated.
Highlights
Land subsidence is an environmental geological phenomenon which may cause significant damage and heavy economic losses
The numerical model was calibrated against the monitored data in the study area and further applied to investigate the percentage of land subsidence induced by soil self-weight, upper loading, and groundwater withdrawal
Land subsidence caused by soil self-weight increases with time and groundwater depth
Summary
Land subsidence is an environmental geological phenomenon which may cause significant damage and heavy economic losses. Ground water exploration and high-rise building construction are the main anthropogenic activities that induce notable land subsidence [1,2,3]. All these human activities increase both the dynamic and static loading in soils which result in the compression of soil layers [4,5,6]. Significant land subsidence is induced by the superimposition effect of groundwater withdrawal, soil self-weight, and upper loads [7]. Groundwater drawdown is the main culprit that could significantly induce ground settlement by increasing the effective stress of soils [8]. The impact of sedimentation on ground settlement increases with upper loads, soil compressibility, and soil thickness [20,21,22]
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