Electrical resistivity tomography for spatiotemporal variations of soil moisture in a precision irrigation experiment

Abstract

Soil moisture temporal variations play a key role in the hydrological processes occurring in the unsaturated zone, which are critical for annual crop yields. The electrical resistivity tomography technique was applied in a field cultivated with cotton in northern Greece, thereby investigating its potential to serve as a reliable soil moisture-monitoring tool for precision irrigation in highly heterogeneous, clay-rich soils. Repeated surface resistivity measurements were made along two plant lines combined with soil water content measurements conducted with a reference gravimetric method and an electromagnetic sensor. Resistivity pseudo-sections were inverted to produce 2D resistivity models, and time-lapse inversion algorithms were also used, to better calculate the temporal changes in subsurface soil resistivity. The results showed clear spatial and temporal changes in resistivity transects in accordance with rainfall/irrigation and dry periods. The soil resistivity data exhibited a power model relationship with gravimetric soil moisture point measurements and a fair correlation with electromagnetic sensor profiles. K e y w o r d s: electrical resistivity tomography, non-intrusive soil measurements, soil moisture determination; heterogeneous clay-rich soils, water-saving technology

Monitoring critically saturated conditions for shallow landslide occurrence using electrical resistivity tomography

“…Here, we attributed this mainly to the depth variation of soil properties (i.e., an increase of clay content and bulk density with increasing depth as confirmed by the soil samples analysis). Such a depth variation of soil properties is to be expected from a naturally developed soil with different soil horizons and layers (Phillips & Lorz, 2008), and resulting depth variation of Archie parameters was reported from other studies too (e.g., Hübner et al, 2015;Mertzanides et al, 2020;Yamakawa et al, 2012). The fitted n parameter values for the uppermost layers (n = 0.96 at the horizontal profile, n = 0.46 at the vertical profile) were considerably lower than…”

“…3. Apparent resistivity measurements were corrected using an approach by Keller and Frischknecht (1966), which is commonly applied in temperature correction of ERT datasets (e.g., Brunet et al., 2010; Fan et al., 2015; Jodry et al., 2019; Mertzanides et al., 2020).…”

Seismic Vulnerability Evaluation in Western Bandar Lampung's Quarter Formation using the ERT Technique

“…The authentic resistivity value, however, is procured via model inversion, which offers a 2D cross-sectional representation of the subsurface, marked by material-specific resistivity metrics. Owing to its precision and versatility, the ERT approach finds extensive applications in delineating areas of intricate geological structures and evaluating soil vulnerability in geotechnical arenas [19][20][21].…”