Site- specific soil microzonation for efficient and hazard resistant site and land use planning

Abstract

Over the years, most of the urban complexes in India have undergone a phenomenal growth for various reasons and so have their vulnerability towards different hazards. Micro zonation is thus a principal component of pre disaster mitigation effort. Unless a detailed plot level micro zonation is carried out for the city, it is not possible to prescribe detailed development guidelines and planning norms that will take into consideration the vulnerability of that land. The methodology adopted here is to analyze the results of field reconnaissance survey and soil borehole details and soil topography surveys report in the very preliminary stages of planning of town/township/institutional campuses and compare it against the priority index of various types of building that these sites constitutes in order to have the following: 1. To provide the most appropriate soil conditions to the lifeline structures. 2. from preventing the project to decelerate in doing the above.3. Reduce the negative effects of defunct urban planning in India because of outdated and ineffective development control regulations. 4. To facilitate the process of micro zonation of the cities as a whole.5. Felicitates strategic long term planning and to add to the pre-disaster mitigation efforts. 6. Help reduce the effects of construction on soil to a minimum. Urban planning framework in India has disappointingly not kept pace with the growth of cities and neither with the various changes that have come about in the way is planning understood. The Procedural that the research is trying to accomplish shall help to facilitate the process, which is indeed an urgent call in context to the disaster mitigation efforts. The process involves more of analytical work of the reports which is on general conditions available for all major projects. The ides is to put a little bit more effort and analyze them to have strategic long term plans for the towns/ townships/ institutional campuses. Therefore there shall not be much to a fiscal issue in doing so. Instead it will help to scrutinize and prevent deceleration which might occur later in the project execution. The paper shall describe in detail the relationship of soil lab tests, geotechnical test and architectural planning to achieve the above mentioned aim. Procedural will be explained giving a prototype implementation in a township development project proposed in the city of Ahmadabad, Gujarat, India (seismic zone 3, micro zone D). The information and test results for the same were obtained from Indian Seismological Institute, Gandhinagar and an Ahmadabad based soil testing company. The project falls under AUDA jurisdiction and hence the Priority index values shall be followed from its guidelines. The ultimate goal of the research is to define the principles of site specific microzonation and account the role of an Architect/ Planner in contributing towards hazard mitigation efforts and strategies.