With the term “Forensic Geophysics” means “the application of non—invasive
geophysical methods to study, locating and mapping invisible objects that often are
buried and hidden both in the subsoil, under the water, in the walls, etc.” (Larson
et al. 2011; Dick et al. 2015; Pringle et al. 2016; Barone 2017; Khaldaoui et al.
2017).
The potentials of geophysical methods are manifold; for example, they aid the
location and recovery of human remains and clandestine burial, as they can,
non-invasively, very rapidly survey extensive areas.
The law agencies around the world have, in the last ten years, successfully used
geophysical methods to help the forensics searches in the civil and criminal
investigation.
In the criminal investigation, the search for hidden weapons, explosives, drugs,
human remains can be made using several geophysical methods, as also several
geophysical methods can be used for the search of water leaks (cause of damage to
buildings and roads), the analysis of the conservation state of the large infrastructures
(bridges, viaducts, highways, tunnels) which can cause major damage to
men such as the Genoa bridge. However, at present, geophysics is underutilised,
and common techniques may not be optimal for some specific targets or sites.
Therefore, more controlled research is needed to understand the applicability
of these methodologies better when searching for forensic applications in various
environments, materials, and soil types.