%0 Journal Article %A Christensen, Niels B. %A Christiansen, Anders V. %T Using geophysical survey results in the inference of aquifer vulnerability measures %D 2021 %J Near Surface Geophysics, %V 19 %N 5 %P 505-521 %@ 1873-0604 %R https://doi.org/10.1002/nsg.12171 %K Derived products %K Geophysics %K Aquifer vulnerability %I European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers, %X ABSTRACT The physical parameter derived from the inversion of electromagnetic surveys, the distribution of subsurface conductivity, is interesting in itself only in very few instances. In most cases, the conductivity distribution will have to be interpreted in terms of the target properties of the survey, for example: a geological interpretation of lithology; a hydrogeological interpretation of hydraulic conductivity; a biohazard/geotechnical interpretation of polluted/not‐polluted ground; and/or an archaeological interpretation of manmade/natural finds. The parameters of interest in these categories are often called derived products, indicating that the parameter of interest is not the same as the parameter whose distribution is found in the inversion process of the geophysical data. The interpretation process can be done in a wide variety of ways; from a predominantly cognitive approach based on professional experience, to an application of rigorous quantitative relations found from scientific endeavours. In most practical situations, the number of locations with independently measured information on the derived product is considerably smaller than the number of geophysics locations. It is precisely this sparsity of primary information on the derived product that encourages the use of geophysical inversion results as a sort of qualified interpolator through a formulation of a correlation between a geophysical parameter and the parameter characterising the derived product. In this paper, a general, quantitative approach to deriving the parameter of interest is presented using statistical analytic measures and an advanced use of an interpolation method that takes uncertainties into account. The approach is demonstrated in a field example from Ølgod, Denmark, where the cumulated clay thickness in the upper 30 m is estimated using a combination of borehole drilling records and an airborne transient survey. %U https://www.earthdoc.org/content/journals/10.1002/nsg.12171