Electrical resistivity survey and interpretation considering excavation effects for the detection of loose ground in urban area

Ground subsidence in urban areas due to excessive development and degraded underground facilities is a serious problem. Geophysical surveys have been conducted to estimate the distribution and scale of cavities and subsidence. In this study, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) was performed near an area of road subsidence in an urban area. The subsidence arose due to groundwater leakage that carried soil into a neighboring excavation site. The ERT survey line was located between the main subsidence area and an excavation site. Because ERT data are affected by rapid topographic changes and surrounding structures, the influence of the excavation site on the data was analyzed through field-scale numerical modeling. The effect of an excavation should be considered when interpreting ERT data because it can lead to wrong anomalous results. A method for performing 2D inversion after correcting resistivity data for the effect of the excavation site was proposed. This method was initially tested using a field-scale numerical model that included the excavation site and subsurface anomaly, which was a loosened zone, and was then applied to field data. In addition, ERT data were interpreted using an existing in-house 3D algorithm, which considered the effect of excavation sites. The inversion results demonstrated that conductive anomalies in the loosened zone were greater compared to the inversion that did not consider the effects of excavation.

Automated summary

Ground subsidence in urban areas is a serious problem, and geophysical surveys, such as electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), can be used to estimate the scale of subsidence. In this study, ERT was conducted near a road subsidence area and it was found that the nearby excavation site had an influence on the data interpretation.