displacement modifier questions

Hi… I have a flat plane, and I want to use the displacement modifier on portions of the plane. I’ll be adding some texture map or using one of the procedural textures.

But I need whatever displacement occurs to only happen above the ground plane…not below…(positive z not negative z)

-If I create my own map… how is this best acomplished?

-If I choose to use procedural… how is this best accomplished?

-If I have say the outer edge of faces of a subdivided plane selected, and create a vertex group where I want the displacement
to occur… if you looking at this plane in top view… Is there any way to have the displacement exceed the edges of the faces that are selected in the x and y direction?

But I need whatever displacement occurs to only happen above the ground plane…not below…(positive z not negative z)

By default:
50% grey = no displacement
White = displace up
Black = displace down
You can adjust this with the Midlevel value in the displacement modifier. Midlevel by default is 0.5 (50% grey)