Non Invasive Characterization of a Small Mountain Catchment for Hydrological Purposes

The description of catchment response during storms and droughts is a fundamental issue in geosciences. In particular, the subsoil characterization is a crucial step towards understanding hydrological processes in mountain regions and for the calibration of models that can describe and predict water flow patterns. Non-invasive (or minimally invasive) geophysical techniques are helpful to provide spatially extensive data, whereas traditional borehole-based sampling is often limited because of the localized nature of such measurements and the disturbance induced to samples. The aim of this study is the characterization of a small-scale mountain catchment to obtain detailed knowledge about its hydrogeological and hydrological system behavior. The experimental site is located at Carrè near Vicenza (North-Eastern Italy) in the pre-alpine hill region named Bregonze. For this purpose we used several geophysical techniques: Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT), Seismic refraction survey, Seismic surface wave investigation. The former techniques highlight the shallowest subsoil discontinuities (from 0 to 2 m); the latter one provides knowledge about the underlying layers and the associated lateral heterogeneities. The combination of geophysical methods can help characterize a complex hydrogeological system, at least from the structural viewpoint.