Introduction to the JEEG – NSG Geotechnical Assessment and Geo-environmental Engineering Geophysics Special Issue

Abstract

Experts say that the near-surface geophysics community will witness a rapid growth over the next decade. The recent surge in the development of new technologies and analysis tools lends weight to that theory, and today we have numerous means to solve many of the complex engineering problems associated with the natural and built environments. Assessing the stability and integrity of structures such as buildings, bridges, dams, roads, water ways, foundations, underground excavations, mines, landfills, and sinkholes often requires a multi-disciplinary approach and collaboration between experts in geophysics, hydrology, geotechnical and environmental engineering, and geology. A trend to objectify the information about the condition of a structure is beginning to emerge: the development of tools to appraise and integrate data from sources of similar and dissimilar nature. This Special Joint-Issue of the Journal of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics and Near Surface Geophysics entitled “Geotechnical Assessment and Geo-environmental Engineering” is a selection of original contributions organized under two themes. Near Surface Geophysics presents eight articles on the application of the electrical resistivity techniques to determine the geotechnical properties of the ground, and the integration of geophysical and geotechnical data. The Journal of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics contains seven papers that investigate the stability of structures using seismic techniques. The articles presented in this special joint-issue were selected from a pool of over forty manuscript submissions never published before. The papers are peer-reviewed by a panel of experts from around the world and are at the forefront of the current state-of-knowledge. We hope that both researchers and professionals responsible for site and geomaterials characterization will find the information contained in this collection of practical use. In the paper “ Seismic surface-wave prospecting methods for sinkhole hazard assessment along the Dead Sea shoreline ”, Ezersky et al. present the results of a surface-wave investigation …