Comparison of different ERT Planning, Acquisition, and Inversion strategies for different targets and environments

This thesis looks at how ERT (Electrical Resistivity Tomography) can be used in different geological and environmental contexts and provides a comprehensive and definitive exploration of its adaptability. Here will be compared and proposed different planning, acquisition, and inversion strategies for specific targets and looks at the unique challenges and opportunities presented by different geological site such as river paleochannels, lagoons, landslides, and rock glaciers environments. Each of these sites requires a different approach to implementation of ERT (Electrical Resistivity Tomography) because each environment has different geological formation and different behavior to the current passing through it such as in lagoons, it's really important to make sure you've got the right electrode configuration in place because of the high salinity, changing water conditions and complex geology. On the other hand, river paleochannels, which are the remaining traces of old river courses, can demonstrate a lot about hydrological processes and potential groundwater resources. The thesis looks at the difficulties of imaging these buried channels, which are often made up of lots of different shapes and materials. It looks at how we can use ERT to map out the edges of paleochannel and to have a good result after processing the collected data. This will help us manage water resources more sustainably and protect the environment. In case of landslides, it's really important to understand the subsurface geometry and potential failure planes. This will help to assess the risks better and come up with better ways to deal with them. The research looks at the challenges of using ERT in these tricky terrain types. It suggests doing detailed, high-resolution surveys along potential failure zones. It is needed to collect data regularly and use robust three-dimensional models to capture the details of what's going on underground. In the stark landscapes of permafrost regions, the challenge is to map the extent of frozen ground and to understand how it's changing as it thaws. This detailed comparison shows how well different ERT strategies work in a range of different geological and environmental situations. This thesis looks at how different electrode configurations, including Wenner arrays, Schlumberger, and Dipole-Dipole, can be used to identify differences in resistivity of different targets and their impact on the data quality and as well as how different inversion techniques can be used to account for the significant resistivity differences in these target environments. It will contribute to make ERT surveys more precise and applicable by improving how they are planned, acquired and inverted which will help move the wider field of geophysical investigations forward and make it easier to make informed choices about managing resources, protecting the environment and reducing risks.