Possibilities for multidisciplinary, integrated approaches in near-surface geophysics

We show that it is possible, under certain boundary conditions, to integrate different methods or disciplines based on the underlying physics to address near-surface characterization challenges. The benefits are improved efficiency and marked enhancements in accuracy and reliability. Very divergent disciplines (e.g. small-strain seismic VS and large-strain geotechnical CPT qc) can be integrated provided there is a convexity in the property domain. It is important to reduce different observations to comparable scales. The integration approaches based on poroelastcity theories show promising results on field data even at low frequencies and appear to be robust against noise and uncertainties in data and physical models.