Applications of Ground Penetrating Radar in civil engineering — COST action TU1208

This paper focuses on the use of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) in civil engineering. Open issues in this field are identified and desirable advances in GPR technology, application procedures, data processing algorithms and analysis tools, are addressed. European associations, institutes and consortia interested in this topic are mentioned, together with the main relevant international events. The new COST (European COoperation in Science and Technology) Action TU1208 “Civil Engineering Applications of Ground Penetrating Radar” is presented, started in April 2013: this interdisciplinary project offers important research opportunities and will strengthen European excellence in all the fields concerning the success of GPR technique, with a main focus on its applications in civil engineering. Four Working Groups (WGs) carry out the research activities: WGI focuses on the design of innovative GPR equipment, on the building of prototypes, as well as on the testing and optimization of new systems; WG2 focuses on the GPR surveying of pavement, bridges, tunnels and buildings, as well as on the sensing of underground utilities and voids; WG3 deals with the development of electromagnetic forward and inverse scattering methods and of advanced data processing algorithms; WG4 explores the use of GPR in fields different from civil engineering and the integration of GPR with other nondestructive testing techniques. The COST Action TU1208 is still open to the participation of new parties: in this paper, information is provided for scientists and scientific institutions willing to join the Action and participate to its activities.