Open Access

ARTICLE

Identification of Air Cavities Using GPR under Different Soil Compaction Conditions Related to Sinkhole Formation

Harith Iman Othman Kalam¹, Ainon Nisa Othman^1,*, Mohamad Hezri Razali^1,*, Pauziyah Mohammad Salim¹, Akhbaaruddin Abd Hamid²

1 Centre of Studies for Surveying Science and Geomatics, Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, 40450, Malaysia
2 Department of Survey and Mapping Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kuala Lumpur, 50578, Malaysia

* Corresponding Authors: Ainon Nisa Othman. Email: ; Mohamad Hezri Razali. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Advancements in Geospatial Methods and Technologies for Sustainable Built Environment and Engineering)

Revue Internationale de Géomatique 2025, 34, 973-985. https://doi.org/10.32604/RIG.2025.071917

Received 15 August 2025; Accepted 28 November 2025; Issue published 24 December 2025

Abstract

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a widely used method that is non-destructive for underground or subsurface detection. It is used in various fields and has proved to be reliable and effective. This research focuses on detecting the presence of air cavities using GPR and analyzing the radargram output based on the compactness of soil and different frequencies. The compactness is used to illustrate the presence of cavities underground artificially. The research examines how variations in the compactness of soil affect the radargram response in showing the presence of cavities using different frequencies. Experimental results demonstrate that lower permittivity materials enhance signal penetration but reduce reflection contrast, whereas higher permittivity materials result in stronger reflections, improving cavity detection. The findings highlight the importance of frequency selection and material properties in optimizing GPR surveys for subsurface anomaly detection, and by having artificially created cavities, the results can be studied to see the changes.

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Keywords

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