ground penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography for locating buried building foundations: a case study in the city centre of Thessaloniki, Greece

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) surveys have been carried out in the city centre of Thessaloniki (N. Greece), for investigating possible locations of buried building foundations. Geophysical survey has been chosen as a non-destructive investigation method since the area is currently used as a car parking and it is covered by asphalt. The geoelectrical sections derived from ERT data in combination with the GPR profiles provided a broad view of the subsurface. Regarding ERT, high resistivity values can be related to buried building remains, while lower resistivity values are more related to the surrounding geological materials. GPR surveying can also indicate man-made structures buried in the ground. Even though the two geophysical methods are affected in different ways by the subsurface conditions, the processed underground images from both techniques revealed great similarity. High resistivity anomalies and distinct GPR signals were observed in certain locations of the area under investigation, which are attributed to buried building foundations as well as the geological structure of the area.