9. Shallow/Near-Surface Structural Applications -Invited-
Quantitative Multi-tool Data Fusion in Near-surface Geophysics: New Directions
Ranajit Ghose
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
Abstract
Geophysical methods have been more successful in imaging the structures in the shallow subsoil; the uncertainty is relatively large in the geophysical estimates of in-situ soil parameters, e.g., porosity, stress, saturation, etc. To meet this challenge, we have focused our research on exploring the possibility of quantitative multi-tool integration. Qualitative and empirical correlation of various geophysical and geotechnical datasets have been done for many years. Our research shows that a whole new direction of integration can emerge if we understand the underlying physics of the field-observed relation between two different physical measurements. By addressing the underlying physics of seismic, in-situ geotechnical, and electromagnetic (GPR) properties, we show that if the nature of influence of a common controlling parameter differs between two kinds of field measurements, then the underlying physics can help unifying those two physically very different field measurements in a quantitative way, and can provide a reliable estimate of the soil parameter common to them. The merits and difficulties with this physics-based integration approach will be discussed.
Last modified: Tue May 23 19:15:23 2006