Soil-structure interaction affected by artificial water recharge: A data-driven scheme

The case study described herewith was originated late in 2015 by two observed phenomena: a) onset of sub-millimetre fissures in the walls of a corner room on the first floor of a building; b) delivery of water under the building foundations through a well intended solely for the seepage of rain-water, excavated a few metres away from the corner pile. A Programme Management framework is described (Sect. I), which includes all past and undergoing activities, aimed at designing observations, then at collecting, processing and understanding data. The geology, hydro-geology and soil-mechanics of the Site where the building is located, are summarised (Sect. II). The two hydraulic plants at the Site, which cause artificial groundwater recharge, are briefly described (Sect. III). PÉSTEL analysis of the Programme and the derived Projects are presented at different levels of detail (Sect. IV). Methods belong to a data-driven scheme. Only simple-minded models are outlined. The largest data-base results from the "Thermo-hydraulic monitoring Project" (Sect. IV-A), which in turn drove, and still drives, all other Projects. Data from the "Wall fissure monitoring Project" (Sect. IV-B) quantify a slowly worsening structural damage. Products made available by closed Projects find application to data from an accident occurred to a hydraulic plant in the Summer of 2024 (Sect. V). The accident resulted in conspicuous artificial recharge. Hydraulic data show the occurring of "upconing" at a well which is ≃35m away from the recharge well. The record by a fissure-meter describes the accident in terms of inferred load-bearing capacity of soil. Sect. VI provides recently acquired evidence of structure evolution. Sect. VII suggests how understanding process interaction can lead to the understanding of data.