The penetration and measurement of GPR microwave on reclaimed soil moisture under constrained condition

Abstract

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a geophysical method that incorporates a microwave technique, which can gather a great deal of information about the near-surface in a non-destructive penetration way. The aim of this study is to investigate the application of GPR under the constrained conditions of reclaimed soil. There is a large difference between the result of volumetric moisture content (VMC) detected by GPR and the one measured by the oven drying method (ODM). However, the two methods give similar results when VMC reaches about 40%, beyond this moisture level, the difference in the results obtained using the two methods increases with the increase of moisture content. The VMC of reclaimed soil detected by GPR shows a close correlation with soil electrical conductivity and soil porosity. Consequently, a mathematical model of VMC for reclaimed soil has been developed. This correlation provides a real-time soil moisture data on a field scale, and solves the problem posed by the use of the kernel technique for efficient irrigation management.

Keywords:

• reclaimed soil
• ground penetrating radar
• constrained conditions
• volumetric moisture content

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by High-Tech Program 2006AA06Z355 and Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-04-0484).