Study of flow in vadose zone from electrical resistivity surveys

• Autor(a) principal: Morais,Fernando de
• Data de Publicação: 2008
• Outros Autores: Bacellar,Luis de Almeida Prado, Aranha,Paulo Roberto Antunes
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Geofísica (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-261X2008000200001
• topic: electrical resistivity; hydraulic properties; groundwater; tropical soils

Among the indirect methods applied to environmental monitoring, electrical resistivity has played an important role in accessing water flow in the non-saturated zone of the soil and, consequently, aquifer recharge. This work evaluates the influence of some pedo-geomorphologic properties in the infiltration and percolation of water through the superficial soil horizons by means of multitemporal electrical resistivity sections. The experiments were carried out in two areas of distinct pedo-geomorphological characteristics developed on the crystalline basement of southeastern Brazil. The first is situated in a hollow -shaped slope where lixisols predominate; the second, in a nose -shaped slope where well-developed soils (ferralsols ) predominate. The results proved the efficiency of the electrical resistivity method to delimit percolation of tropical soils, even when subtle differences are found in the hydraulic properties of the soil. It was also possible to establish that in the nose slope percolation is faster than in the hollow.