TABLE OF CONTENTS John Fidler
English Heritage, UK
Surface-penetrating radar has been used to locate voids, inconsistencies and buried metalwork in a wide variety of structures: mediaeval cathedrals, castles, Egyptian pyramids and even the Ark. However, certain requirements need to be considered.
Geophysicists and electrical/radar engineers are not architects, structural engineers or building surveyors and their knowledge and understanding of construction systems and faults is understandably limited, which affects their interpretation of the radar images. The building professionals' hopes and expectancies for remote sensing outstrip their perception of the actual capabilities of radar techniques. Only by having both sets of professionals working as a team on site and subsequently in the office can misinterpretation be eliminated. It is not acceptable for one group to survey and interpret the building and for the other to receive and accept the results.
Radar is best employed alongside magnetometers, resistance and radio-detection devices etc., with a thorough-going visual assessment of the building or ground of interest. The best surveys establish a hypothesis of construction and deformation/ decay. They model this hypothesis off the building, by creating freestanding facsimiles in cross-section which can be compared with the radar signals, and vary configurations identified to unique signatures so that data from the actual building can be properly interpreted.
Like all geophysical techniques, GPR must be intelligently applied to the task in hand. For example, the search for the postulated remains of Noah's Ark on Mt Ararat is described in detail on the following website, http://www.noahsarksearch.com/bj98summary.htm.
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