Optimization Of Geophysical Survey Design

We discuss the general problem of geophysical survey design, and present criteria that can be used to evaluate the<br>efficiency of a given survey. The survey design can be adjusted until an objective function defined by the criteria is<br>maximized. This process depends on the ability to compute the forward and inverse solutions. In addition, since the<br>objective function may be topologically complex, it is necessary to use an optimization technique capable of<br>locating the globally optimum solution. In this paper we show that the smallest singular value of the design matrix<br>constitutes a useful objective function, and we suggest that genetic algorithms are well-suited for discovering the<br>optimal solution.