Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2011NJ278B

Advancing the characterization of sandstone and fractured limestone aquifers using surface electrical geophysical methods: application to water resources evaluation at two sites in New Jersey

Institute: New Jersey
Year Established: 2011 Start Date: 2011-03-01 End Date: 2012-02-29
Total Federal Funds: $5,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $9,893

Principal Investigators: Mehrez Elwaseif, Lee Slater

Project Summary: This project aims to advance surface Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Electrical Resistivity (ER) processing techniques for the characterization of subsurface aquifers at two sites in New Jersey, where the problem is to characterize sandstone and fractured limestone aquifers. Previous GPR studies show a strong relationship between GPR signal parameters and Volumetric Water Content (VWC). I propose to apply a time-frequency analysis technique called ‘S-Transform’ to surface GPR data sets, coupled with empirical relationship to better predict the VWC. Synthetic studies to estimate VWC in a sandstone aquifer show promising results. In addition, I propose to invert the hydrogephysical resistivity data using the level-set method, rather than the widely used smoothness constraint inversion. The program of research includes both laboratory and field studies. The main outcomes of this project will be [1] developing reliable GPR and resistivity processing strategies for predicting the VWC and for improving the resolution of the hydrogeophysical resistivity images, [2] The proposed approach for estimating the VWC from GPR data sets will be specifically appropriate at any field sites in New Jersey characterized either by sandstone or fractured limestone aquifers, and [3] Improving the effectiveness of surface electrical geophysical methods, rather than using cross-borehole geophysics, in the hydrogeologic characterization of sandstone and fractured limestone aquifers.