Geokalkyl – GIS-Assessment of Building Foundation Reinforcement Costs and Carbon Footprints

Abstract

Geokalkyl is a GIS-based tool used for calculating and visualizing foundation reinforcement costs in municipal development areas. It is used in early stages of planning to assess cost differences between alternative locations (or layouts within the same location). Accordingly, Geokalkyl helps to identify the most favorable terrain and geotechnical ground conditions for housing and infrastructure development. Geokalkyl features not only geotechnical cost estimates but also evaluates carbon footprint, as well as general climate adaption- and remediation costs. The tool requires national level soil- and elevation data and can be combined with additional geotechnical borehole data for better results. Results are visualized both as 2D maps and 3D scenes as well as in tabular spread sheet format. Geokalkyl is a product of SGI and is subject to constant development improving upon features and user friendliness. At present, Geokalkyl consists of a set of toolboxes for Esri’s ArcGIS Desktop 10.5, 10.7 and 10.8 and we recommend a combination of both geotechnical and GIS competence to run the toolbox.