Imaging and characterizing shallow heterogeneity with scattered seismic surface waves

In recent years, characterization and imaging of the shallow subsurface has become increasingly important. When building on or below the ground, heterogeneity, voids, old tunnels and mineshafts etc, can present potential hazards for buildings, infrastructure and people. For this reason, one is interested in the development of non-intrusive, cheap and reliable methods to detect such localized heterogeneity. Scattered surface waves provide essential information to locate and characterize shallow mechanical contrasts. Over the past decade, our colleagues and us have worked on methods that use scattered surface waves to locate near-surface heterogeneity. We present an overview of the surface-wave imaging methods and some new developments.