Innovative mapping for soil consolidation settlement for various loading cases using GIS tools for Wasit province

Soil consolidation settlement is a critical consideration in geotechnical engineering, influencing the design and performance of infrastructure projects. Traditional methods for predicting settlement often fail to account for spatial variability and complex loading conditions, leading to inaccuracies in design and potential risks. This study proposes an innovative framework for mapping soil consolidation settlement using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools tailored to various loading cases. The framework integrates geotechnical data, spatial variability, and loading conditions into a unified GIS-based model, enabling more accurate and efficient settlement predictions. The methodology involves data collection, preprocessing, and the application of GIS algorithms to model settlement under diverse loading cases. In the initial three loading cases, the settlement amount is rather minuscule and varies. However, once the external load reaches around four to ten times the effective initial stress of the soil, the settlement starts increasing. This maximum amount of settlement is primarily reported in the furthest west regions, along with the central west areas of Wasit province, with values ranging between 6.7 mm to 46.5 mm for loading cases ranging from one to ten times the initial effective stress. These regions are situated on the alluvial plains of the Tigris River, which, alongside soft silty clay, also has low over-consolidation pressure and low compression or recompression indexes. On the other hand, the areas with the lowest settlements are reported in the northeastern Wasit region, next to the mountains, as well as in the central western Al-Aziziyah sub-district.