ABSTRACT
Subsidence is an issue that requires ever more attention, both from a technical and a socio-political point of view. Subsidence is not only the result of compaction of soil or rock materials (as is the case for dewatering clay or peat and depressurzing gas-bearing porous rocks), but also of the active mining of solid material from the underground. Active removal of material results in an elastic response of the surrounding rocks and soils, but usually also in a visco-plastic response of the loaded environment, either in a nondestructive or destructive way.
