Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) has been widely used for near surface exploration from archaeology to civil engineering. The non-invasive nature and the ease of setup separates GPR from other geophysical methods. In this study, a 500 MHz GPR antenna was used to assess the conditions of two cemetery lots. The survey was set up with two parallel lines running North-South for each row of the cemetery. The processed data were imported to MATLAB for an automated detection of the anomalies. For each anomaly, the peak amplitude, velocity, and location was noted. If the anomalies matched between the two profiles spaced 1m apart, the connecting line was interpreted to indicate a buried coffin and therefore occupied. The matching anomalies were then cross referenced with the existing lot map and burial records. Through the non-invasive method of GPR, cemetery lots could be accurately assessed. Additionally, the use of an algorithm for automated detection of the anomalies greatly reduced overall time for interpretation.@en

A dynamic ^99mTc tracer experiment was performed to investigate the capabilities of combined preclinical single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and X-ray computed tomography (CT) for investigating transport in a heterogeneous porous medium. The experiment was conducted by continuously injecting a ^99mTc solution into a column packed with eight layers (i.e., soil, silica gel, and 0.2-4 mm glass beads). Within the imaging results it was possible to correlate observed features with objects as small as 2 mm for the SPECT and 0.2 mm for the CT. Time-lapse SPECT imaging results illustrated both local and global nonuniform transport phenomena and the high-resolution CT data were found to be useful for interpreting the cause of variations in the ^99mTc concentration associated with structural features within the materials, such as macropores. The results of this study demonstrate SPECT/CT as a novel tool for 4D (i.e., transient three-dimensional) noninvasive imaging of fate and transport processes in porous media. Despite its small scale, an experiment with such high resolution data allows us to better understand the pore scale transport which can then be used to inform larger scale studies.

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