Self potential tomographic technique to detect soil water movements in the vadose zone: laboratory measurements
by
Domenico Marchese
Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Fisica per l'Ambiente
Coauthors: Di Bello G., Greco M., Lapenna V., Pannone M., Rizzo E., Telesca V.

Self-potential have been recently employed as a tool for water fluxes detection in the vadose zone. In this work we present the preliminary results of an on-going research being carried out at the Basilicata University. The aim of the research is to improve the detection of water fluxes in the vadose zone by using a self-potential tomographic technique which gives a 4D (3D + time) high resolution image of water movements within the soil subsurface. Several water infiltration experiments were performed in both field and lab conditions. In this case, particularly, the experiments were performed by using a sand box (6.0 x 4.0 x 2.0 meters) which allow to reproduce a medium-large scale natural environment. SP signals were recorded continuously by using an array of 32 unpolarizable electrodes connected to a multiplexed high impedance and resolution multimeter. Better results came out from laboratory experiments where most of the so called cultural noise was reduced at a negligible amount. The results of such experiments have proved that SP tomographic images can represent a good tool for monitoring the changes of water fluxes under the boundary conditions which are discussed in the work.

Date received: July 19, 2004

Copyright © 2004 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # caon-18.