Consolidation settlement of coastal areas of the Emilia-Romagna region from cone penetration tests

This paper describes an attempt to develop and calibrate a simple tool to forecast the natural subsidence of coastal Holocene deposits. An empirical correlation has been calibrated between the penetration resistance measured by a static cone penetrometric tests and i) the normal compression line NCL of fine grained, coastal deposits ii) the current void ratio and iii) the void ratio on the NCL at the site effective stress. The comparison between the site void ratio and the normally consolidated void ratio can be used to roughly estimate if the soil is overconsolidated, normally consolidated or under-consolidated/structured and, in the latter case, if the fine layer is in the condition of further developing consolidation settlement to reach the self-weight equilibrium.