Mapping An Industrial Landfill Area From Penetration Of Gpr Data

The investigation target is a landfill situated in Italy. The area covers a surface of about 7.000<br>m2. At the beginning the area was used for production of inert material. Later the area was used to<br>dispose the industrial waste of a company operating in the iron and steel field. In the eighties, the landfill<br>became exhausted and the activity for the rehabilitation of the site started. Within these activities an<br>electrical survey was performed. In this work, the GPR survey carried out in July 2003 is described. 250<br>MHz and 50 MHz antennas were used: the analysis of the profiles shows a strong difference in the<br>penetration between the landfill and the surrounding fields. Due to the high conductivity of the industrial<br>waste, the penetration in the landfill is very low while the penetration outside the landfill can reach a<br>depth of several meters. As a result, GPR is a successful method and was extensively applied for<br>accurate mapping the lateral extension of the landfill and for estimating possible variations of the<br>contamination level. Instead, the DC method is the most appropriate technique for an approximate<br>estimate of the landfill depth.