DETECTION STRATEGIES BY INTEGRATED GEOLOGICAL AND GEOPHYSICAL METHODS FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF LANDFILL AREAS

Abstract

This article reports two geophysical case studies which aim was show the large geophysical methods application areas characteristics of a solid waste landfill. The presence of landfills, in which biogas and leachate are often associated with the waste body, determine important variations in some physico-chemical parameters, identifiable through the use of non-invasive geophysical techniques. In this paper we analyzed the potential and limits of different geophysical methods (electrical resistivity tomography, induced polarization, magnetic method and georadar). In the first case study, key novelty elements of this approach for the characterization and monitoring of the landfill area are the combination and integration of different methodological approaches (geophysical and otherwise), such as the parallel and combined use of collected data from satellite, airborne and in situ, which have been validated through geophysical investigations (geoelectric methods) and which have revealed the effectiveness of this strategy. The second part of this work aimed to verify the efficiency of GPR (Ground Penetration Radar) antennas at different frequencies (100 MHz - 270 MHz) and gradiometric magnetometric investigations in pyroclastic soils where objects of various kinds have been buried at different depths.