3-D Soil Stratification Methodology for Geoelectrical Prospection

The purpose of this paper is to present an innovative methodology for 3-D soil stratification based on geoelectrical prospection. This methodology is useful in optimal substation grounding system designs by providing an accurate 3-D soil resistivity model. In the present methodology, the area being studied is subdivided into squared subareas and a recently developed geoelectrical prospection method based on the Wenner´s method and on a genetic algorithm is applied to each subarea´s edge. For each subarea, the soil stratification result consists of the number of layers and of its electrical resistivities and thicknesses. A global 3-D soil stratification solution is then obtained from these data. Results obtained with this new method are presented and discussed.