Full Length Research Paper

Correlation between electrical resistivity and soil-water content: Istanbul and Golcuk

Ferhat Ozcep¹*, Okan Tezel¹ and Metin Asci²

¹Istanbul University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Geophysical Engineering

Avcilar, 34850, Istanbul.

²Kocaeli University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Geophysical Engineering, Kocaeli.

*Corresponding author. E mail: ferozcep@istanbul.edu.tr.

Accepted 4 June, 2009.

   Abstract

Soil is a heterogeneous medium which consist of liquid, solid, and gaseous phases. The solid and liquid phases play an essential role in soil spontaneous electrical phenomena and in behavior of electrical fields, artificially created in soil. Soil air can be considered as a dielectric. Soil electrical properties are the parameters of natural and artificially created electrical fields in soils and influenced by distribution of mobile electrical charges, mostly inorganic ions, in soils. Geophysical methods of vertical electrical sounding were used for measuring soil electrical properties and tested in different soil studies. For our aim, study area is selected in Istanbul (Yesilkoy, Florya, Basinkoy) and Golcuk. In this area, the electrical resistivity is measured by VES (Vertical Electrical Sounding) and in many points of this location by McPHAR resistivity equipment. For geotechnical purposes, on the soil samples from borings, it was applied soil mechanics laboratory procedures and the soil water contents are determined from these samples. Relationships between soil water content and electrical parameters were obtained by curvilinear models. The ranges of our samples are changed between 1 - 50 ohm .m (for resistivity) and 20 - 60 %( for water content). For this range, the relation between resistivity (R) and water content (W) of soils is found to be given as W = 49, 21e^-0,017R.

Key words: Soil electrical resistivity, water content, Istanbul and Golcuk (Turkey).