Estimating soil strength using GIS-based maps

Locating roads to areas with high soil strength reduce both build and maintenance costs. Locating logging trails to high strength areas minimise soil disturbances, e.g., rutting and compaction of forest soils. GIS-based maps of soil type and soil moisture can be valuable tools to estimate soil strength.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of soil moisture map, i.e., depth-to-water (DTW), maps and soil type maps, to estimate soil strength expressed as California bearing ratio (CBR). CBR, volumetric water content, and ground penetration depth were measured in 120 sample points, separated on three soil classes (clay-silt sediments, sand sediments, glacial till) and two soil moisture classes (wet, dry). In each point, soil samples were collected for validation of the soil type maps.

There was a high conformance between soil moisture predicted by DTW maps and field measurements, but conformance of the soil type between maps and field estimates varied between soil types. For sediment soils, dry soils were consistently stronger than wet soils. Soil strength of glacial till soils was more complicated with a binary CBR distribution depending on soil stoniness. Glacial till soils possible to penetrate to 20 cm depth with the dynamic cone penetrometer had CBR values close to those for sand sediments. There is a potential to estimate soil strength from DTW and soil type maps, but these variables should preferably be complemented with other data.