The Value of Long-Term Hydrogeophysical Monitoring for Characterizing Near-Surface Hydrological Processes
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26TH, 2013 - 2:00PM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO- LOCATION DC 1302
Abstract:
An important attribute of hydrogeophysical techniques is their capacity to perform non-invasive, time-lapse monitoring of complex near-surface hydrological processes. Most studies using time-lapse hydrogeophysical monitoring have been done for relatively short durations ranging from a day to several months. However, the nature of these processes can significantly vary over the annual cycle of near-surface conditions. Hence, time-lapse hydrogeophysical monitoring for periods of one or more annual cycles are critical for characterizing these longer term effects.
The hydrogeophysics group at the University of Waterloo has undertaken a number of field studies using high-resolution geoelectrical techniques (i.e., electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), ground conductivity meters (GCM) and high-frequency (i.e., 225-900 MHz) ground penetrating radar (GPR)) to intensely monitor near-surface hydrological processes over several annual cycles. These multi-year data sets clearly demonstrate the capacity of these hydrogeophysical methods to characterize the evolution of these processes over the annual cycle, as well as their response to variation in hydrological processes between contrasting annual cycles (e.g., wet versus dry summer conditions). These data sets also allow us to observe the