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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbus, Ohio » Soil Drainage Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #375927
Research Project: Agricultural Water Management in Poorly Drained Midwestern Agroecosystems

Location: Soil Drainage Research

Title: Assessment of a stepped-frequency GPR for subsurface drainage mapping for different survey configurations and site conditions

Author
item KOGANTI, TRIVEN - Aarhus University
item VAN DE VIJVER, ELLEN - Ghent University
item Allred, Barry
item GREVE, MOGENS - Aarhus University
item RINGGAARD, JORGEN - Ramboll
item IVERSEN, BO - Aarhus University

Submitted to: Meeting Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/15/2019
Publication Date: 9/15/2019
Citation: Koganti, T., Van De Vijver, E., Allred, B.J., Greve, M.H., Ringgaard, J., Iversen, B.V. 2019. Assessment of a stepped-frequency GPR for subsurface drainage mapping for different survey configurations and site conditions. Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Advanced Ground Penetrating Radar. 29-34.https://www.earthdoc.org/content/papers/10.3997/2214-4609.201902566.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Subsurface drainage systems (popularly known as “tile drains”) are installed in poorly drained agricultural fields to remove excess water and enhance crop yields. Knowledge of the precise location of drainage pipes is important for both economic and environmental reasons. Conventional methods of locating drainage pipes involve the use of tile probes and trenching equipment, which are not only laborious in use, but also entail a high risk of damaging the drainage pipes. In this study, we evaluate the alternative of a stepped-frequency continuous wave (SFCW) ground penetrating radar (GPR) system mounted in two survey configurations and employed in wet and dry field conditions for subsurface drainage mapping. Three different combinations were tested on an organic soil of an intensively tile-drained lowland area. The evaluated test combinations include a ground- and air-coupled antenna array on a dry soil and a ground-coupled antenna array on a relatively wet soil with a snow cover and possible frozen topsoil layer. Although wet soil conditions provided more strongly contrasting anomalies for deep drain lines, our results suggested that dry soil conditions are more generally suitable for drainage mapping, i.e. for a variation of soil textures and drain line depths. Complementarily, average electrical conductivity (EC) estimates obtained from a spatially constrained inversion of apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) measurements from a multi-receiver electromagnetic induction (EMI) instrument were used to provide insight in soil variability and to evaluate the suitability of soil conditions for drain line mapping with GPR.