Thinking outside the survey area

Recently I have been asked to do a clearance survey using GPR: small areas to check if there were any kind of potential obstructions for intrusive works.

The areas of interest were quite small and a couple of them were in a car park, so nice surface to scan, no uneven ground, no stress in pushing a cart.

One of them looked messy in the raw data, though, so I decided to collect a longer scan that started before the area of interest and finished after. The long scan highlighted the presence of two clear utilities outside the survey area and gave me a term of comparison. The mess I observed when compared with the rest made sense as just different construction, but no services for sure in that area.

There were other people working in the area familiar to GPR scanning: one of them saw me "wasting time" with a longer scan (it took me 20 seconds) and asked "are you scanning outside for fun?".

Well, I am scanning more because I am a professional and I know what the purpose of my scanning is and it is not related to square meters... and yes for fun because I like the professional sector I chose long time ago.

Is it always possible, applicable or necessary to scan outside what you are supposed to scan? Of course no, there could be costs and time involved depending on the context, it may not be safe, it could be unpractical to do etc.

Can you think outside the box and fit yourself to achieve what you are supposed to achieve?

Yes, always.

#GPR