A survey of current trends in near-surface electrical and electromagnetic methods

Electrical and electromagnetic (E&EM) methods for near-surface investigations have undergone rapid improvements over the past few decades. Besides the traditional applications in groundwater investigations, natural-resource exploration, and geological mapping, a number of new applications have appeared. These include hazardous-waste characterization studies, precision-agriculture applications, archeological surveys, and geotechnical investigations. The inclusion of microprocessors in survey instruments, development of new interpretation algorithms, and easy access to powerful computers have supported innovation throughout the geophysical community and the E&EM community is no exception. Most notable are development of continuous-measurement systems that generate large, dense data sets efficiently. These have contributed significantly to the usefulness of E&EM methods by allowing measurements over wide areas without sacrificing lateral resolution. The availability of these luxuriant data sets in turn spurred development of interpretation algorithms, including: Laterally constrained ID inversion as well as innovative 2D- and 3D-inversion methods. Taken together, these developments can be expected to improve the resolution and usefulness of E&EM methods and permit them to be applied economically. The trend is clearly toward dense surveying over larger areas, followed by highly automated, post-acquisition processing and interpretation to provide improved resolution of the shallow subsurface in a cost-effective manner.