The (Near-Surface Geophysics) NSG Cake is Shrinking!
Locally, the near-surface geophysics (NSG) industry is fully in the hands of clients as available projects are shrinking and becoming scarce. As more players enter the industry, they can dictate who they want to award the geophysical projects to. Cost, not track record or quality, is the chief criteria which clients look for. Geophysical contractors willing to go as low as possible will have the greatest chance of winning the bid. This is where the universities have the upper edge as they join the fray. They have equipment, cheap labor (the students) and expensive software at their disposal. They can just quote whatever price which is acceptable to the clients. With Prof., Assoc. Prof., & Dr. in front of their names, they command a strong authority as far as the clients are concerned. Frankly, I have seen some of the geophysical works churned out by the universities which, sadly is nothing to shout about. However, the real question is : should universities be involve in carrying out routine geophysical works and thus shrinking the NSG cake further ?
Someone mentioned to me how in China, researchers in universities are collaborating with the industry to commercialize their findings. The researchers would do the research and development (including instrumentation and software) and share their findings with geophysical companies for commercialization. I have also gathered these facts from students pursuing their advance degrees in China. Well, I believe this is a good model for the local universities to emulate. Aside from their core business to teach, they should carry out R&D which will benefit the industry. They should not compete with the professionals/practitioners.
Perhaps, local researchers are too detach with realities of the NSG industry and are not aware what type of research to be done. Well, I can list a few as follows :
(i) Drone magnetics. I have observed there have been a lot of research going on globally. Locally, I can say that almost nothing have been done.
(ii) Magnetotellurics (AMT in particular) for mineral exploration. A lot of work is going on in China to look at mineralization in the depth range of 500m to 2000m. They termed this as 'mid-level depths'.
(iii) Spread-Spectral Induced Polarization (SSIP) for mineral exploration. Again, a lot of work is taking place in China.
(iv) Shallow rock-head mapping using the gravity method. There should be intense research on this as it is critical for geotechnical investigation, especially in tight urban environment.
(v) Improvement and enhancement of TEM response in hard-rock environment, especially for fracture detection in groundwater exploration.
(vi) Software development for ERT data quality analysis (not inversion) prior to 2D-inversion. I yearn to have some filtering & smoothing functions in ERT data analysis instead of just exterminating & deleting data
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