The use of GPR attributes to map a weak zone in a river dike
Henryk Marcak 1 3 Tomislaw Golebiowski 21 AGH University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Geology, Geophysics and Environmental Protection, Department of Geophysics, Mickiewicza Av. 30, 30-059 Cracow, Poland.
2 Cracow University of Technology, Faculty of Environmental Engineering, Institute of Geotechnics, Warszawska 24, 31-155 Cracow, Poland.
3 Corresponding author. Email: marcak@agh.edu.pl
Exploration Geophysics 45(2) 125-133 https://doi.org/10.1071/EG13084
Submitted: 14 October 2013 Accepted: 24 December 2013 Published: 17 February 2014
Abstract
Dike leakage can be the result of a rupture and the formation of loose zones which are not able to stand the water pressure during flooding. Loose zones are significantly more saturated when it rains and floods than the undamaged portion of the dike. Due to the increased water in loose zones, their electrical properties are changed, particularly dielectric permittivity. As a result, these zones have a different ground-penetrating radar (GPR) wave reflection coefficient and are a source of wave diffraction. The interpretation of GPR measurements carried out on a leaking dike during a flood event in Poland is presented in this paper. The GPR attributes, such as an instantaneous phase, envelope, instantaneous frequency averaged over time and traces, have been analysed in the paper the interpretative tools. Also, the averaged spectrum (spectrum calculated from averaged traces) and moving spectrum (averaged spectrum calculated in windows moving along the traces), as well as the phase spectrum, of recorded GPR data were analysed as indicators of the existence of the deterioration of parts of the dike. As shown in the paper, the use of GPR signals attributes and spectra in the interpretation of field measurements can increase the available information about the structure of the dike by highlighting some of the physical properties of its construction.
Key words: dual permeability model, GPR, instantaneous attributes, river dike, signals spectra.
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