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A magnetic and Ground Penetrating Radar joint survey was carried out in the framework of the R.I.M.E.M. project that has the aim of supporting the archaeological prospections and drive the selection of the excavation areas related to the Late Roman Period and Early Middle Ages in the Central and Southern Italy. In particular, this papers deals with the magnetic surveys acquired near "Madonna della Valle" and GPR and magnetic joint surveys carried out in "Monastero" site. Most of magnetic maps carried out in "Madonna della Valle" site shown the absence of structured magnetic anomalies, despite of the presence of archaeological signs. Several hypothesis were given to explain this evidence. Joint interpretation performed in "Monastero" site shown more intense magnetic anomalies related with shallower reflections due to probably to buried pipes. Other reflections are related with magnetic anomalies compatible with archaeological targets, but some significant reflections do not correspond to any magnetic anomaly, indicating magnetic method could be "blind" respect the archaeological target. New field surveys including the electrical resistivity tomography could be carried out in order to overcome these acquisition and interpretation difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In this study, the feasibility of the resistivity method for the study of the spatial and temporal soil moisture variations in the Vallaccia catchment (central Italy), covering an area of about 56km2, was investigated. Correlation and regression analyses were performed over a 1year data set of simultaneous soil electrical resistivity and soil moisture measurements, acquired in eight different sites with a Resistivimeter Syscal Junior and a portable Time Domain Reflectometer (TDR), respectively. Measurements acquired in-time by continuous Frequency Domain Reflectometer (FDR) sensors were also used and compared with simultaneous resistivity measurements. The statistical analyses were conducted not only for the whole data set, but also separately for each sampling day, for each sampling site and considering spatially averaged data. Results showed a good correlation between resistivity and soil moisture measurements, revealing the capability of resistivity measurements to infer soil moisture spatial and temporal variability with a root mean square error equal, on average, to 4.4% vol/vol. In comparison with TDR, the resistivity method gives information integrated on a greater volume of soil and the measurements are easier and quicker to be carried out. Therefore, this method can be considered as an alternative tool to be employed for qualitative and quantitative soil moisture monitoring in small to medium catchments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]