An environmental investigation scheme used in Lithuanian urban areas

Many questions arise when trying to estimate the interaction between the geological environment and the infrastructure of urban areas. This interaction is very complicated in terms of the various interrelations and complexities. On the other hand, other specialists, whose fields of interest are quite distant, need this kind of information. Consequently, the estimation of the engineering geological conditions of urban areas by traditional components of the geological environment: geological structure, relief, hydrogeological conditions, geotechnical parameters of soil as well as geological phenomena and processes, would be incomplete. It is also necessary to present information about an area's historical development, chemical and physical pollution peculiarities, technological load intensity, groundwater protection and stability of soils. Our experience in the research of urban areas in Lithuania has enabled us to build up a complex geological and infrastructure based environmental investigation scheme. The composite parts of the investigations are presented in the scheme. A database was compiled and several special maps reflecting geotechnical system peculiarities were made from the available datasets. Finally, the division of areas (based not only on the geological information but also on the infrastructure load influence) was used to evaluate the urban areas and to forecast a dynamic area development.