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ABSTRACT
An increase in construction and material use in tropical environments has made way for engineering knowledge of related basic properties of soils within those areas. One such soil found abundantly are the laterite soils. This project examines the application of GIS in geotechnical properties of laterite soils in a flood prone area, which are observed to occur in Ubth road of Okhunmwum community, Benin city, Edo state. Experimental analysis of earlier research as well as related journals on the same subject were reviewed. Three point of interest where chosen throughout Ubth road of Okhunmwum community, Benin city, Edo state from which disturbed and undisturbed soil samples at a depth of 1.5 were collected by hand auger and GPS were used to collect the coordinate of each point the sample were collected. All tests were carried out in the Civil Engineering Laboratory, University of Benin, these test include natural moisture content, specific gravity test, sieve analysis, compaction test, atterberg limit. All the tests and the analysis of results were carried out in order to ascertain the performance of the soil as a subgrade/base material for highways constructed in this region. The results obtained from the different tests were tabulated and represented as graphs were possible. Based on the results obtained and comparison with some standards, the following conclusions were made. The sample plastic index ranges from 22%-32%. The result confirms the standard of BELL research which classified silty clay ranges from 20-35 as high plasticity, which indicate the sample has a high plasticity. According to proctor test method, for silty clay the maximum dry density is between 1.6Mg/m3 and 1.845Mg/m3 and optimum moisture content ranges between 15-25%, and the soil sample varies between 1.60mg/m3 and 1.63mg/m3 , while that of optimum moisture content ranged between 16.8% to 20.1%, this deduced that they fall within the range of silty clays. This shows that the samples are poor option for building a foundation due to its ability to retain water prolong time. This quality causes the sample to shift and expand, which does not provide the structure any support and puts it under repeated, long term stress. this will cause structural damage and failure. An attribute data base was created with the help of the result using an arcGis.
