Assessing the contribution of electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and self-potential (SP) methods for a water well drilling program in fractured/karstified limestones

ERT and SP investigations were conducted in carbonate rocks of the Dinant Synclinorium (Walloon Region of Belgium) to find suitable locations for new water wells in zones with little hydrogeological data. Since boreholes information needed to be representative of the area, large fractured zones were searched for the drillings. Large ERT profiles (320 to 640 m) allowed us to image the resistivity distribution of the first 60 m of the subsurface and to detect and characterize (in terms of direction, width and depth) fractured zones expected to be less resistive. Data errors, depth of investigation (DOI) indexes and sensitivity models were analyzed in order to avoid a misinterpretation of the resulting images. Self-potential measurements were performed along electrical profiles to complement our electrical results. Some negative anomalies possibly related to preferential flow pathways were detected. A drilling campaign was conducted according to geophysical results. 'Ground truth' geological data as well as pumping tests information gave us a way to assess the contribution of geophysics to a drilling program. We noticed that all the wells placed in low resistivity zones associated with SP anomalies provide very high yields and inversely, wells drilled in resistive zones or outside SP anomalies are limited in terms of capacity. An apparent coupling coefficient between SP signals and differences in hydraulic heads was also estimated in order to image the water table. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.