The purpose of site exploration is to collect complete details of the site to enable the designer to take following decisions,
(i) To fix the value of the safe bearing capacity of soil.
(ii) To select an economical yet safe type of foundation.
(iii) To fix the depth up to which the foundation must be taken inside the ground.
(iv) To predict the likely settlement of the selected foundation and to make allowance, for the same in the design.
(v) To know the underground water level and if needed, to decide upon the method to be adopted to solve the ground water problem.
(vi) To forecast the difficulties which are likely to be encountered due to nature of the sub-soil during construction and to take advance actions in this regard.