Developments in surface wave testing for seismic site characterization

The paper provides an overview of surface wave methods for seismic site characterization. Advantages and disadvantages of the technique are highlighted with respect to other geophysical methods and specific aspects of different implementations are presented. The influence of higher propagation modes is discussed in the light of recently proposed inversion approaches. A crucial aspect is related to solution non-uniqueness: its consequences are considered together with possible mitigation strategies. With respect to the latter, as in any inverse method, the possibility of using a-priori information or additional experimental data increases the reliability of the solution.