• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.217-231
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• 2017

The subsidence of ground in urban area can be caused by the occurrence of the cavity and the change in ground volumetric water content. The objective of this study is the detection of abnormal area of ground in urban area where the cavity or the change in ground volumetric water content is occurred by the ground penetrating radar signal. GPR survey is carried out on the test bed with a circular buried object. From the GPR survey, the signals filtered by the bandpass filtering are measured, and the methods consisting of gain function, time zero, background removal, deconvolution and display gain are applied to the filtered signals. As a result of application of the signal processing methods, the polarity of signal corresponds with the relation of electrical impedance of the cavity and the ground in test bed. In addition, the relative permittivity calculated by GPR signal is compared with that of predicted by volumetric water content of the test bed. The relative permittivities obtained from two different methods show similar values. Therefore, the abnormal area where the change in ground volumetric water content is occurred can be detected from the results of the GPR survey in case the depth of underground utilities is known. Signal processing methods and estimation of relative permittivity performed in this study may be effectively used to detect the abnormal area of ground in urban area.