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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbus, Ohio » Soil Drainage Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #170695
Title: GOLF COURSE APPLICATIONS OF GROUND PENETRATING RADAR

Author
item Allred, Barry
item REDMAN, DAVE - SENSORS & SOFTWARE, INC
item MCCOY, EDWARD - THE OHIO STATE UNIV.

Submitted to: ASAE Annual International Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/23/2003
Publication Date: 8/3/2004
Citation: Allred, B.J., Redman, D., Mccoy, E.L. 2004. Golf course applications of ground penetrating radar [abstract]. ASAE Annual International Meeting.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: As of the year 2000, there were over 15,000 golf course facilities in the U.S.A. alone. The upkeep of these facilities requires continual maintenance and occasional remodeling. The superintendents and architects responsible for the maintenance and remodeling efforts need non-destructive tools for obtaining information on shallow subsurface features within parts of the golf course, particularly tees and greens. The subsurface features of importance include, but are not limited to, constructed soil layer characteristics and drainage system infrastructure. Ground penetrating radar can potentially provide a non-destructive means for golf course superintendents and architects to obtain the shallow subsurface information required to address their maintenance and remodeling concerns. Two GPR systems were tested including the evaluation of antenna center frequencies ranging from 250 to 1000 MHz. The study incorporated three separate sites. GPR measurements were collected on a tee and a green at the Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, U.S.A., on a practice green at the Golf Club of Dublin in Dublin, Ohio, U.S.A., and on a golf course green at the Guelph Turfgrass Institute & Environmental Research Centre in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. GPR proved quite capable of obtaining useful information on the golf course tee and greens that were studied, at least in regard to constructed soil layer thicknesses/depths or their aerial extent and in locating the subsurface drainage pipe systems present. For the GPR center antenna frequencies evaluated, ranging from 250 to 1000 MHz, all seemed to work relatively well for mapping tee and green constructed soil layer aerial extent and drainage pipe locations. The higher frequency 900 and 1000 MHz antennas appeared to work best for resolving thicknesses/depths of constructed soil layers within the tee and greens investigated. In addition, computer modeling of synthetic GPR profiles provide valuable insight and help considerably with data interpretation.