Niveles permeables en el contexto geotécnico del subsuelo de Oviedo

Abstract

This paper gathers the hydrogeological properties of Oviedo city underground, where can be differentiated several permeable geological units. These include surface deposits and lithostratigraphic formations, both with greater presence in the northeastern urban subsoil. In this review is proved the existence of phreatic aquifers related to artificial landfills and alluvial deposits. Confined systems are represented by multilayer aquifers of sandy sediments and fissure-karstic systems in cretaceous limestones and paleogenic gypsum. Occasionally they can lie even superposed and interconnected. These units, with potentially water-bearing capacities, have no interest to be exploited for water supply, however from the engineering point of view, they have caused frequent complications for construction on the ground over the last years. This is usually motivated because many geotechnical studies have ignored groundwater flow, or its influence on the environment has been underestimated owing to inappropriate techniques used at wrong prospecting campaigns. In order to improve the knowledge of these saturated layers, it is undertaken in each case a brief characterization of their behaviour, providing some recommendations which will allow having successful geotechnical explorations.