River sedimentation modeling using ground-penetrating radar

In recent years, siltation has become quite a problem. It has been the main cause of flooding and a rapid decline in water quality. It is usually caused by a high river sedimentation rate and/or uncontrolled waste disposal. The increased rate of erosion also means that river sedimentation occurs faster than normal and could lead to environmental hazards, wildlife deaths, and the disruption of food and drinking water supply among other things. The question is how to monitor the sedimentation process of rivers without damaging the river itself. The suitable geophysical method is GPR. GPR is an active, non-intrusive geophysical method in which electromagnetic radiation and the reflected signals in the form of radar pulses are used for subsurface imaging. The objective is to investigate river sedimentation using GPR, we created the synthetic models based on geological models of rivers with different depths to create their 2-D radargrams to predict the actual model. We set up the first model RSM-I as control which consists of a layer of freshwater with ρ = 16 Ωm, k = 81 and μ r = 1 of depth 5 m, two layers of sandstone with ρ = 850 Ωm, k = 2.5 and μ r = 1 of total depth 4 m, and a layer of claystone with ρ = 120 Ωm, k = 11 and μ r = 1 of depth 1 m. RSM-II and III are added with a buildup of saturated sediment with ρ = 30 Ωm, k = 15, and μ r = 1 of depth 2.5 and 4 m, respectively. The radargrams’ reflector for each model shows a two-way travel time of 300-350, 150-200, and 60-90 ns in their respective order. GPR models can differentiate between the saturated sediment and freshwater, it shows good results regarding sediment investigation in rivers.