Geophysical Survey

1. Two-dimensional apparent resistivity mapping for subsurface investigation using computational intelligence technique

Electrical methods have been widely used in geophysical surveying to obtain high-resolution information about subsurface conditions. DC electrical resistivity sounding is the commonly used technique to obtain the apparent 2-D resistivity of the region under investigation. The conventional resistivity sounding is carried out on the earth’s surface with a specified array of electrodes in order to obtain apparent resistivity data with respect to the variation of horizontal position and vertical depth. Typically, the apparent resistivity distribution is presented in a pseudosection using computer software, hence an inversion process is essential in order to determine the actual resistivity of the subsurface. In this project, a computational intelligence technique (e.g. neural network, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithm etc.) will be used to solve the 2-D resistivity inverse problem. The model will be trained with synthetic data samples obtained for different homogeneous mediums. The inversion results are compared with the conventional inversion approaches. Implementation will be carried out using MATLAB or using other compatible software (such as Scilab), and GUI programming to illustrate the inversion results.