Buried Landfill Delineation with Induced Polarization: Progress and Problems

In recent years, the use of induced polarization (IP) data for delineating buried landfills has increased significantly, due to technological advances that have made this method faster and less expensive, and therefore more applicable to the environmental industry. As the database of IP information grows to include information over waste of differing composition and in differing environments, interpretation has improved significantly. Problems and limitations still exist, of course, but the IP method has become an efficient and economic tool in evaluating waste sites. We discuss here progress in interpretation, including methods to process large amounts of data rapidly in order to decrease costs, and we discuss problems that still exist, such as electrode stability, which still limit the field survey speed.