High‐resolution studies of hydrological problems of the near‐surface zone can be better accomplished by applying ground‐probing radar (GPR) and geoelectrical techniques. We report on GPR measurements (500 and 900 MHz antennae) which were carried out on a sorted, clean sand, both in the laboratory and at outdoor experimental sites. The outdoor sites include a full‐scale model measuring 5 × 3 × 2.4 m3 and a salinity site measuring 7.0 × 1.0 × 0.9 m3 with three buried sand bodies saturated with water of various salinities. Our studies investigate the capability of GPR to determine the pore water content and to estimate the salinity. These parameters are important for quantifying and evaluating the water quality of vadose zones and aquifers. The radar technique is increasingly applied in quantifying soil moisture but is still rarely used in studying the problems of water salinity and quality. The reflection coefficient at interfaces is obtained from the amplitude spectrum in the frequency and time domains and is confirmed by 1D wavelet modelling. In addition, the GPR velocity to a target at a known depth is determined using techniques of two‐way traveltime, CMP semblance analysis and fitting an asymptotic diffraction curve. The results demonstrate that the reflection coefficient increases with increasing salinity of the moisture. These results may open up a new approach for applications in environmental problems and groundwater prospecting, e.g. mapping and monitoring of contamination and evaluating of aquifer salinity, especially in coastal areas with a time‐varying fresh‐water lens. In addition, the relationship between GPR velocity and water content is established for the sand. Using this relationship, a subsurface velocity distribution for a full‐scale model of this sand is deduced and applied for migrated radargrams. Well‐focused diffractions separate single small targets (diameter of 2–3 cm, at a depth of 20–180 cm and a vertical interval of 20 cm). The results underscore the high potential of GPR for determining moisture content and its variation, flow processes and water quality, and even very small bodies inside the sand or soil.

The performance of electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) in boreholes is studied numerically regarding changes induced by CO 2 sequestration in deep saline reservoirs. The new optimization approach is applied to generate an optimized data set of only 4% of the comprehensive set but of almost similar best possible resolution. Diverse electrode configurations (mainly tripotential α and β) are investigated with current flows and potential measurements in different directions. An extensive 2.5D modeling (>100,000 models) is conducted systematically as a function of multiparameters related to hydrogeology, CO 2 plume, data acquisition and methodology. ERT techniques generally are capable to resolve storage targets (CO 2 plume, saline host reservoir, and impermeable cap rock), however with the common smearing effects and artefacts. Reconstructed tomograms show that the optimized and multiply oriented configurations have a better-spatial resolution than the lateral arrays with splitting of potential and current electrode pairs between boreholes. The later arrays are also more susceptible to telluric noise but have a lower level of measurement errors. The resolution advance of optimized and multiply oriented configurations is confirmed by lower values for ROI (region of index) and residual (relative model difference). The technique acceptably resolves targets with an aspect ratio down to 0.5.