Kirsten H.A.D., Heath G.J., Venter I.S., Oosthuizen A.C.
PO Box 17, Fontainebleau, Johannesburg, South Africa; Private Bag X5, Westonaria, South Africa; PO Box 36114, Menlo Park, Pretoria, South Africa; Private Bag X112, Pretoria, South Africa
Kirsten, H.A.D., PO Box 17, Fontainebleau, Johannesburg, South Africa; Heath, G.J., Private Bag X5, Westonaria, South Africa; Venter, I.S., PO Box 36114, Menlo Park, Pretoria, South Africa; Oosthuizen, A.C., Private Bag X112, Pretoria, South Africa
Sinkholes may be treated as a chance phenomenon of which the likelihood of occurrence is a key parameter in determining their effect on public safety in the development of dolomite land. However, determining the likelihood of the occurrence of sinkholes remains a complex if not evasive problem in view of the sparsely populated datasets available at present. Three approaches to determining the likelihood of sinkhole occurrence that were developed over a period of time are reviewed and comparatively evaluated. The geological time-based return periods postulated for a residential infiltration regime in the third approach is applied to determine the maximum allowable population densities for a single-storey residential house development as an update of a previous paper on the problem. The maximum population densities based on this updated approach were found to be one and a half to three times larger than those previously considered to be allowable for Inherent Hazard Classes 1, 2 and 3. This relaxation on the historically established empirical rules on population density is considered by the authors to better represent observations in recent years. © 2014, South African Institute of Civil Engineers. All rights reserved.