Clay Thickness Mapping For Irrigation Canals Using Airborne Electromagnetics

The farmland in Arkansas near the Mississippi River is famous as the principal rice growing region of the United States. This form of agriculture requires considerable amounts of water to flood the fields for long periods of time. Irrigation canals have been built to provide fresh water from nearby rivers as a supplement to ground water wells. An expansion of the irrigation system is planned, and an airborne electromagnetic investigation was undertaken by Aerodat under contract to the US Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experimental Station to support this expansion.