Resolution of 3-D Electrical Resistivity Images from Inversions of 2-D Orthogonal Lines

Abstract

Three-D electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) using sets of orthogonal of 2-D survey lines provides an efficient and cost effective tool for site characterization in environmental and engineering investigations. A 3-D survey design using sparse sets of lines reduces the survey time at the expense of the resolution. The effects of line spacing on the resolution of 3-D electrical resistivity images were investigated using numerical modeling with synthetic and field data for two standard configurations, dipole-dipole and Wenner arrays. Synthetic data studies indicate that dipole-dipole configuration produces a more accurate map of the subsurface than the Wenner configuration. A severely under-sampled 3-D survey could result in introducing small-scale shallow spurious artifacts at the surface of the resistivity model caused by the projection of the anomalies located in the deeper parts of the model. Results from inversion of the real and synthetic data showed that lines should be separated by no more than four electrode spacings and, if the shallow subsurface is important, by no more than two electrode spacings. The dipole-dipole array performs better than the Wenner array, but it requires more acquisition effort and is more sensitive to noise. These modeling results provide insight into quantitative survey designs that produce sufficient information to meet survey objective within a given field efforts.