Geo-Electrical Method of Assessment of Coefficient of Permeability and Porosity of Soil of a Poultry Farmland

Abstract Leachate collected at the bottom of dead bird’s disposal pits may leak and migrate to pollute groundwater when soils and rocks present are porous. This study assessed the coefficient of permeability (K) and porosity (Ф) of soils and rocks in poultry farmland using 2 Dimensional (2D) electrical resistivity method and soil analysis. Geo-electrical data collection was achieved by using the dipole-dipole array. The field resistivity measurement was carried out along three traverse lines (three Profiles) of 100 m long which were oriented along with East-West directions. These measurements were taken in the order of increasing in offset distance interval of 5 m. The acquired apparent resistivity data were inverted using DIPPROWIN modeling software to perform 2D data inversion. Five soil samples from different locations at depths of 0 – 15 cm and 15 – 30 cm, on the poultry farmland, were collected, transported, and tested in the laboratory. K and Ф were determined using falling head and density methods respectively. The results obtained from the processed field resistivity data from the three profiles were presented as field data pseudo-sections, theoretical pseudo-section, and 2D resistivity structures. The 2D resistivity structure revealed three structures viz; highly conductive, slightly conductive, and resistive. The resistivity values of these structures ranged from 14.1-99.0 Ω m, 100-848 Ω m, and 1350-90330 Ω m respectively. The highly conductive structures were found in profiles 1 and 3 due to the downward migration of the contaminants from the dead bird disposal pit 1 and the feces disposal site through clayey sand soil. This occurs at the depth range of few meters from the surface to greater than 20 m. The presence of the slightly conductive structure is a result of filtration of the contaminants by the soil materials which increased the resistivity of the soil. The movement of the contaminant through the soil is an indication of the porous and permeable nature of the farmland. The resistive structure is only noticeable in profiles 1 and 2 but very prominent at the depth range of 5 m to more than 20 m and 5 m to 35 m along the profile length. The results of the analysis of the five soil samples from the poultry farmland showed a high value of 0.552 and 3.554 x 10−2cm/s of porosity (Ф) and coefficient of permeability (K) respectively. A strong correlation of R2 = 0.9878 existed between Ф and K. With these results geo-electrical method had successfully assessed Ф and K of the soil of the poultry farmland.