The course aims at providing the Student with the basic knowledge required to design and perform geophysical surveys with the main methods commonly employed for near-surface applications (depth approximately ≦100 m) and of interest for the post-graduate activities of a first level graduate in Earth or Environmental Sciences. The course focusses therefore on electrical, ground-penetrating radar (GPR), refraction seismics and surface waves methods to teach the Student how to perform data acquisition, processing and inversion/interpretation also through training on the field and in laboratory.
D1 - Knowledge and understanding: the Student shall know the fundamentals of the geoelectrical, GPR, refraction seismics and surface waves methods and understand the basic principles of data acquisition, processing and inversion/interpretation.
D2 - Applying knowledge and understanding: the Student shall be able to design the survey and perform data acquisition, processing, inversion/interpretation.
D3 - Making judgements: the Student shall be able to select optimum methods and parameters (for data acquisition and processing/inversion) to achieve the survey’s objectives.
D4 - Communication skills: the Student shall be able to illustrate fundamentals of the methods and experimental work with correct technical language.
TO verify objectives D2/3/4, at the end of the course the Student shall write a report on the experimental work done with one of the techniques utilized in field/lab training.
D5 – Learning skills: the Student will gain competence that will enable study and comprehension of more complex problems dealt by advanced courses of the sector.

Mathematics and Physics (1-2)

5 units with labs, oral examination. M1 Geoelectric methods: spontaneous potentials, fundamentals, instruments, data acquisition and interpretation; resistivity, fundamentals, instruments, vertical electrical soundings, profiles, tomography, survey design and implementation, data interpretation: M2 Ground Penetrating Radar, fundamentals, electromagnetic properties of materials, complex dielectric permittivity, velocity, attenuation, dispersion, frequency band for georadar UWB systems, resolution, instruments, single/multi-fold techniques, geometry of radar waves and time-distance plots; data acquisition and interpretation M3 Fundamentals of data processing (basic processing of sequences, cross-correlation, convolution, Fourier and Z-transforms). Laboratory of data acquisition and processing M4 refraction seismics, fundamentals, data acquisition, Gardner and GRM methods. M5 fundamentals of surface waves

Everett M.E. Near-Surface Applied Geophysics Cambridge University Press
Reynolds J.M., An Introduction to Applied and Environmental Geophysics
John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Sharma P.V. - Environmental and Engineering Geophysics Cambridge University Press

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lessons and laboratory of data acquisition through field experiments and processing/interpretation on workstation

didactic material available on moodle2

oral with at least one question for each of the five units + written report about one of the topics/experiments presented in the laboratories