Effects of inaccurate electrode positioning in subsurface resistivity measurements for archeological purposes

Electrical Resistivity Tomography is a geophysical measurement technique used to measure the resistivity of the subsoil. For archeological applications the ability to accurately reconstruct the soil stratigraphy is a fundamental requirement. Obtain a reliable subsoil reconstruction is an important topic in order to improve the design of the archeological excavation and, at the same time, to minimize the excavation cost, managing effectively and efficiently the archeological survey. During a measurement campaign on the Etruscan tumulus located in Poggio Pepe (Italy), the electrode GPS coordinates were acquired with a high error. For this reason, the aim of this work is to investigate the effects of the inaccurate electrode positioning in the subsoil reconstruction. A Monte Carlo simulation-based approach was proposed to simulate a domain of possible electrodes positions. The statistical parameters of the simulated dataset have been studied and compared with the measurement acquisitions in order to highlight the effects of such errors. Finally, the paper presents a comparison between the images of the subsoil reconstruction in case of measured resistivity and simulated dataset.