Electrostatic Profiling and Mapping of Electrical Resistivity and Dielectric Permittivity in an Urban Context

Summary Electrostatic profiling and mapping have been carried out in an urban context with two different geometries allowing the prospection of the first 3–4 meters. Despite the larger size of the prospection devices, compared to ground-penetrating radar (GPR), it has been successfully applied at almost all GPR locations in parallel within the same few days’ survey. At an intermediate operating frequency of 15 kHz, the method provides information on both electrical resistivity and “low frequency” effective dielectric permittivity (mainly linked to polarization in clayey materials), and is therefore complementary to the GPR method primarily used in urban prospection.