Measurement of soil water content profiles in unsaturated soils using ground-penetrating radar

The potential of a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) for the soil water content and water table determination in sandy soils was evaluated. It is shown from field experiments that the GPR measurements performed satisfactorily. An artificial sandy soil embankment model was used in the field experiments. The horizontal time domain reflectometry (TDR) probes and observation wells were used to measure soil water content and water table for comparison with the GPR data. A similar trend of water table behaviour and values of water contents were measured by TDR, observation wells and GPR methods. GPR system offers a fast and non-destructive way for estimating the soil dielectric constant and may be a useful tool for low-cost mapping of soil water content and tracing the transient behaviour of the water table in sandy soils.