Hydrogeophysical Methods for Water Resources Protection and Management

In this chapter we present a brief description of hydrogeophysical methods and their history over the past twenty years, with specific reference to their application for water resources protection and management. This generally requires that geophysical methods, and electrical/electromagnetic methods in particular, are used in time-lapse mode, thus allowing us to monitor hydrological changes in the subsurface. These data, in turn, can be used for calibration of hydrological models or for a better conceptualization of the subsurface hydrological processes. This can be done at a large variety of scales, even though here we present cases relevant to the small to intermediate scale. Examples concerning soil, vadose zone, hillslope and hydrogeological processes are shown and discussed.