Planning I

SITE ANALYSIS
• The purpose of the preliminary site analysis are to
gather data for preliminary planning, evaluate the
site for compatibility with the proposed project.
• The value of an analysis is in its clear and complete
identification of issues and the character of the site
relating to the proposed project.
Site Characterization
• A more detailed site investigation that is usually
undertaken after some degree of preliminary site
planning.
• It includes a geotechnical analysis of subsurface
conditions such as depth to bedrock, depth to
groundwater, seasonal high water table and soil
make up.
Location
• Location refers to the project’s relationship to the
community.
• Concerned with visibility, site access and traffic.
• Problems to consider
• Street infrastructure adequate for the anticipated
traffic?
• Is the site accessible from the street?
• On-site improvements
• Zoning classification
• Utilities nearby
• How far from other facilities such as school, hospitals,etc
GROUNDFORMS
 Topographic Map
Topography - The art or
practice of graphic or
exact delineation in
minute detail, usually
on maps or charts of
the physical features of
any place or region
specially in relation to
their exact position and
elevation.

Topographic elevations
are indicated along
given contour lines.
Topographic Maps are
printed in 5 colors:
Topographic Map
Black – cultural features
such as roads, railroads,
and civil boundaries

Blue – water bodies

Green – woodlands

Red – developed urban

areas

Brown – contour lines

Contour
Lines
Slope Analysis
• Useful for making decision about the
distribution of land use

• Different angles of slope have different

implications for development

• Bldg. cost (structural)

• Land development cost (earth shifting)
Slope
% Slope = Vertical Distance /
Horizontal Distance

• Example:
4% slope = 4 m. / 100 m.

4% Slope
4 m.

100 m.
Slope
Analysis
Slope Map
This is an example of an
algorithm applied by the
GIS.

The algorithm is
based on the formula:
“slope equals rise over
run”.

(Image source: Center for

Advanced Spatial
Technologies)
3-D Terrain
Geographic
Information
System (GIS)
Model
Slope & Land Use
• <1% - do not drain well
• <4% - usable for all kinds of activities
• 4% - 10% - suitable for movement and informal activity
• >10% - can be actively used only for hill sports or free
play
• 17% - approaches the limit that an ordinary loaded
vehicle can climb, for any sustained period
• 20% -25% - normal limit of climb for pedestrians without
resorting to stairs
• > 50% - may require terracing or cribbing
Laying-out
bldgs.
relative to
contour
Difficult street pattern: a mixture of meandering and
curvilinear could be used
 Fundamentals

The four alternatives to the development of a hill

Fundamentals
The essence of land
planning for any
project:

1. Seek the most suitable

site
2. Let the site suggest
plan forms
3. Extract the full site
potential
1. Clear the land
2. Strip the topsoil
3. Provide a “workable” land
profile (that is, as flat as
possible)
4. Conduct all water to storm
sewers (or else to the edge of
the lot)
5. Build a good wide road –
inexpensive but wide
6. Set the house well back for a
big front yard
7. Keep the fronts even (this
looks neat)
8. Hold to a minimum sideyard
9. Throw on some lawn seed
The American Suburbanite Dream: The boulders are buried, the
natural cover stripped, the brook “contained” in storm sewer or
culvert. The topsoil is redistributed as a 4”-skin over sand, clay, or
rock. There sprouts a new artificial fauna of exotic nursery stock.
A better way is building with nature and in compression, which
provides the human scale and charm we find so appealing in the older
cultures where economy of materials and space dictated a close
relationship of structure and landscape forms.
If we must use earthmovers to create a new landscape, let us use them
to create a landscape of topographical interest and pleasant and useful
forms.
Aesthetic and Utilitarian
Functions
Slope Stabilization Methods
• > 50% slope – cannot be protected from erosion in
a humid climate, except by terracing, cribbing or
other slope stabilization methods
 Level Site
• It offers the planner the best and easiest
solution to site development.
• Advantages:
• Economical in site development
• Adaptable to a great variety of planning
forms (grouping of buildings)
• Adequate to all types of street patterns
 Level Site
• Disadvantages:
• Grouping of buildings should be carefully studied
to create a satisfactory system of drainage
• Surfaces or recreation areas and yards require
some pitch for discharging water to surface inlets
 Sloping Terrain
• Next to a level site, this provides a planner with a variety
of building types and groupings. Different street patterns
could be employed.

• Advantages:
• Variety of bldg. types and bldg. groupings
• Drainage problems are simpler. Water flows to lowest level
• Adaptable to a great variety of street patterns
 Rolling Terrain
• More difficult to manage but creates a far more interesting
land development.
• Advantages:
• More interesting land development could attract high-end buyers
• Economies of first cost in sewer and drainage lines
• The practice of bldg. parallel to contours will reduce costly
construction, grading and filling
• On very steep sites, the bldg. itself could serve as the retaining
wall
Rolling Terrain
• Disadvantages:
• Very steep sites could cost excessive development cost
• Adaptability to terrain is imperative
• Drainage problems though posing difficulties may
require a workable system of channeling from one area
to another
• Less variety of street pattern
• Less variety of bldg. type
Soil Classification
• Series – each one has an identifying place name
and further divided according to texture of the
surface soil, i.e., Marikina clay loam
• Texture of surface soil – refers to relative % of sand, silt,
and clay on the surface layers
• Series Name – groups soils of similar history,
constituents, depth, and structure, therefore, exhibits
similar characteristics as to:
• Bearing capacity
• Drainage
• Agricultural value
Geological Problems
2 Main ways in which geology influences site
planning decision-making process:

1. The soil bearing capacity limiting what can be

built on the site
2. The presence of geological features which restrict
the options of development because of varying
degrees of hazard to life
For Engineering Purposes

• Engineering characteristics – soil stability,

drainage, bearing capacity

• Determine the exact composition of a

particular soil body through laboratory tests
on field specimens
Landscaping
• Topsoil – critical medium for plants
• Features:
• Drainage
• Content of humus
• Relative acidity (pH)
• Presence of available nutrients, particularly
potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen
Geophysical Investigations
• Made to determine the geologic conditions
that affect the design, safety, effectiveness
and cost of a proposed project

• Maps – topographic maps, geologic maps,

mineral resources maps, soil maps
Geophysical Methods
• Geophysical exploration methods –
seismic, electrical resistivity, sonic,
electrical logging, magnetic and
gravity methods
• Subsurface borings – probings, wash
borings, core drilling, calyx drilling,
borehole photography, churn drilling,
jack and hammer drilling
• Test pits, trenches, tunnels
Soil Surveys
• Soil samples – taken from small pits or by
earth augers or boring tubes at many points
where construction is to occur.

• Systematic borings must be taken for heavy

construction, and the soil and rock samples
must be tested in specialized laboratories
Soil Surveys
• Borings:
• 15 m. (50ft.) interval to depths at least 6 m.
(20ft.) below the bottom of the proposed
foundation, or to bedrock.

• Others:
• Aerial photographs, geological reports, studying
old reports, examining previous structures and
excavations, etc.
Soil Bearing Load Test
Test should be made and interpreted so as to
take into account all significant factors, such
as:

• The presence of soft underlying strata

• Variations in size of footings
• Compressibility of the soil encountered
Groundwater Observations
• Springs
• Existing wells
• Boreholes
• Observation wells
• Aquifers – are underground “reservoir” of water. The water
is not usually held in ponds of water but in the pores
between individual particles which make up the rock, or in
the fissures of the rock.
Water Table
• Low water table – problem for water supply and for
vegetation

• Fluctuating water table – will cause heavy clay soil

alternatively to shrink and swell

• High water table – difficulties in excavation, cause

flooding in basements, flood utilities and unstable
foundations

• Underground water course – no structure should

be sited over them
Water Table
• Underground water course – critical and no
structure should be sited over them
• Floodplains – soil is likely to be deep and
uniform perhaps with alternating layers of
fine and coarse material
• 10-year floodplain
• 50-year floodplain
• 100-year