Land development projects are often a complex and expensive undertaking. In recent years, the scarcity of available land has made redevelopment an increasingly feasible option. Many former factory and office sites are now being targeted for higher-end use, including residential developments.
Given the high stakes involved, developers need a high degree of certainty about their proposed site at an early stage, including contamination, lithology, hydraulics and local authority requirements. Because only then can they estimate the extent and cost of any remediation work required before construction can begin.
However, the standard site investigation approach recommended by many local authorities is often inadequate, irrelevant and far more costly in the longer term, because it is based on:
The result is the true size and extend of underground anomalies is not accurately revealed.
The introduction of sensing technology to ground investigations is a game-changer. Delivering high-level site characterisation with an astonishing degree of accuracy, brings important benefits to site developers:
CPT site screening
For every additional €10 the developer spends on sensing technologies in the acquisition phase, they save €100 in remediation costs.
Sensor technologies provide true indicator parameters for contamination, lithology and hydraulics.
For example, in the case of a contamination, the 3D view allows the developer to observe:
3D site model of polluted area
The live on-screen view allows you to quickly see the architecture of a hotspot – this approach facilitates an adaptive, flexible, iterative, cost-effective strategy.
It allows you to focus budgets on remediating areas of heavy contamination first, rather than starting with the outskirts, which may well continue to ‘bleed’.
Lithology is another important factor in determining the most effective remediation strategy – different approaches would be needed to remediate contamination in sand and clay, for example.
Using sensor technologies, any areas requiring further investigation are identified and precisely delineated, including underground structures and potentially weak zones.
Having identified uncertainties, recommendations are made on how to best mitigate risks and prevent catastrophic losses– material, financial and human. For example:
High-resolution 3D site characterisation provides developers with the certainty they need to derive a reliable proceeding strategy with measurable and scalable indicators.
Our comprehensive suite of cutting-edge environmental site investigation and remediation technologies provides cost-effective, accurate subsurface screening, sampling and remediation support for any site condition .