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Introduction |
EIGG Chairman, School of Earth Sciences and Geography, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK (e-mail: n.j.cassidy@esci.keele.ac.uk)
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Whether we like it or not, change is one of the few things in life that can be considered certain. We are forever under pressure to adapt to changes in technology, working practices or market forces. This is certainly true in the field of practical geophysics where, in the past decade or so, the dominance of petroleum exploration and deep Earth geophysics has been challenged by the re-emergence of engineering, environmental and geotechnical applications. There are many reasons for this: technological innovation, improving equipment design, more efficient data collection/processing methodologies and, most importantly, the inexorable increase in the power and flexibility of personal computing facilities that has allowed us to visualize, interpret and communicate our data in ways unimagined ten years ago. These advances have led to the establishment of new working practices, improved investigation strategies and a significant expansion in the range of application areas for geophysics. In-fact, it can be argued that certain techniques have now become the preferred tool for specific application areas (e.g. microgravity for void location) and that the whole process of site investigation is moving towards a multidisciplinary approach with geophysics now playing a major, rather than supporting, role.
Inevitably, the publicity and broad exposure associated with successful, near-surface applications has had a significant influence on both practitioners and clients alike, with the acceptance of geophysics by many of the more sceptical geotechnical engineers and site managers. In addition, it is now common to find geophysical topics incorporated into the mainstream of many geotechnical
