The design of ‘opportunistic’ or sparse onshore seismic surveys

Abstract

Seismic surveying is the preferred subsurface exploration technique, but data acquisition can be problematic in populated areas and especially in urban areas. In this paper, I describe a method to design “opportunistic” or sparse surveys that utilize existing roads and tracks and whose objective is to allow the acquisition of a data set especially suited to the application of 5D regularization. The method incorporates six stages: theoretical design, identification of possible line locations, geometry creation, geometry evaluation, survey optimization, and the creation of infill points. Unlike conventional designs, this process requires the calculation of specific metrics that indicate the suitability of the design for regularization. The process also requires multiple iterations of the evaluation/optimization/infill stages, some of which can be automated, to generate the optimum design. Given the bespoke nature of the method, a specialized MATLAB package was developed to implement the process, which also incorporates the numerous high-performance algorithms required.