Application of Satellite-Aerial-Terrestrial-Underground Approach in Site Investigation with Complex Geological Characteristics

Site investigation under complex geological conditions is often affected by factors such as undulating topography, complex faults, drastic changes in hydrogeological conditions, and human activity disturbances, it is a challenge. There is a lack of science in the scope of the investigation, and it is difficult to synergistically balance the scale and accuracy of the investigations, resulting in a high overall workload deployment and relatively insufficient accuracy in characterizing high-risk areas. To address these challenges, an integrated survey approach is proposed that includes satellite, aerial, terrestrial, and underground methods, which break through the scattered detection of various technical means and emphasise on integration of the Space-Air-Ground technology. This integrated approach had been effectively applied in the investigation of groundwater pollution in a typical landfill site in Hubei, demonstrating its technological advantages on global perspective cognition, self-organized and efficient diagnosis and identification, risk screening at large spatial and temporal scales, and fine characterization of site-scale stratification. In addition, the approach had also been applied in the investigation of water supply from groundwater in a remote mountainous area in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province. The results demonstrated its technological advantages in overcoming the uncertainty of the traditional single-method approach, scientifically and effectively improving the success rate and work efficiency of water searching in bedrock mountainous areas in the hydrogeological investigations. Satellite and terrestrial surveys were applied to delineate target areas and their locations; underground detection technologies were implemented to drill groundwater, and well yield of the water-supply well reached 120 m³/d, which effectively solved the seasonal water shortage problem in the studied areas in south Jiangxi. As a key technology, the integrated Satellite-Aerial-Terrestrial-Underground approach has broad application prospects in multiple fields such as ecological environment, natural resources, water resources, and emergency management. In the future, there is room for further prospect of the integration of multiple technological methods and diversified heterogeneous information Moreover, new technological synergy in the aerial surveying of the sky by unmanned aerial vehicles and underground surveying of multilevel stratigraphic characterization still need to be strengthened.