Analyzing and monitoring environmental contaminants based on geophysical exploration techniques have become important and it is now widely applied to delineate spatial distribution geophysical characteristics in wide area. Among the techniques, induced polarization (IP) method, which measures polarization effects on electrical potential distribution, has drawn much attention as an effective tool for environmental monitoring since IP is sensitive to changes in biochemical reactions. However, various reactions stemming from the presence of multiple contaminants have greatly enhanced heterogeneity of polluted sites to result in highly variable electrical characteristics of the site. Those contaminants influence chemical and physical state of soil and groundwater to alter electrical double layer, which in turn influences polarization of the media. Since biochemical reactions between microbes and contaminants result in various IP effects, IP laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate IP responses of the contaminated soil samples under various conditions. Field IP surveys can delineate the spatial distribution of contamination, while providing additional information about electrical properties of a target medium, together with DC resistivity. Reviewing IP effects of contaminants as well as IP surveys can serve as a good starting point for the application of IP survey in site assessment for environmental remediation.

Keywords: Induced polarization, contaminants, NAPL, landfill leachate, heavy metal